• TSA testing a scanner that does not show a person's body

    TSA is testing a new Automatic Target Recognition machine that does not show a person’s body but, rather, a genderless avatar — sort of a cartoon of a generic human figure; the machine scans the traveler without anyone seeing an image; if the traveler gets a green light, he or she proceeds; if the machine sees something, it will light up the area on this genderless figure and it will be that area that is examined; the pat down will be limited to the area the machine flagged

  • TSA fired an agent for being a witch

    TSA fires a security screener at New York’s Albany International Airport for being a witch; the screener, who practices Wicca, was accused by a fellow worker of casting a spell on her (the fellow worker’s) car’s heater so it would not work; when the screener refused to participate in mediation to dispel myths about Wicca, she was terminated

  • TSA looking for shoe scanning devices

    DHS is seeking companies to which it will award a contract for shoe scanners; according to the Office of Federal Business Opportunities, the Shoe Scanning Device (SSD) system currently sought by the TSA and DHS “will be capable of detecting threat objects concealed in footwear without requiring passengers to remove their footwear as they pass through a security checkpoint. These threat objects include a wide variety of military, commercial, and homemade explosives or explosives devices”

  • The color of truth is always gray

    Those who object to thorough security checks at airports have every right to hold on to their belief that TSA employs methods are too intrusive, but the majority of travelers prefer greater safety even if achieving it may compromise some people’s notions of privacy. We should recall the era when smoking was permitted on planes: you could choose to sit in either the “smoking” or “non-smoking” seats; trouble was, a plane is a closed tube, so within minutes of take-off, everybody on board was engulfed in cigarette smoke, whether or not he or she was a smoker. By the late 1980s the airlines, with government encouragement, banned smoking on planes. The reason: smokers have rights, but they have no right to turn non-smokers into second-hand smokers and thus heighten non-smokers’ risk of dying of lung cancer. There is a lesson here for the debate over privacy and security at airports: we should assume that some people feel strongly that their privacy and dignity are being compromised by full-body scanning. We should respect their views. But they have no right to ask the rest of us to take greater risks with our lives because of their strongly held views with regard to privacy.

  • TSA retests body scanners amidst radiation exposure concerns

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced that it was retesting all of its full-body scanners over concerns that they were emitting high levels of radiation; maintenance records have shown that some scanners emitted radiation levels ten times higher than expected; TSA says that these increased levels were simply the result of a math mistake and that the machines do not pose a health risk; one type of body scanner in use relies on backscatter X-rays which produce very low levels of ionizing radiation; experts worry about the long-term effects of repeated exposure at low levels

  • Battle over private airport security screeners rages on

    Republican lawmakers launched a fresh set of attacks against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the continuing dispute over the private security screener program; Representative John Mica accused the TSA of inflating cost estimates of the private security screener program in an attempt to end it; the charges come after a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was released that found private security screeners would cost just 3 percent more; in 2007 TSA published a study that found using private screeners would cost 17 percent more

  • Trusted Traveler program may come back

    A report, commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association and released Wednesday, calls on airlines to allow passengers to check one bag free of charge and urges the creation of a voluntary “trusted traveler” program that partially resembles a mandatory one previously proposed by President George W. Bush — and canceled by Congress; Napolitano touts the “airport checkpoint of tomorrow”

  • The health effects of airport security scanners

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun to use whole-body imaging scanners as a primary screening measure on travelers passing through airport security checkpoints; one type of scanner employs millimeter wave technology, which delivers no ionizing radiation; the second type of scanner currently deployed at airports, however, uses backscatter X-rays that expose the individual being screened to very low levels of ionizing radiation; what are the health implications of these scanners? Two prominent radiologists offer answers

  • Alaska Airlines sorry for detaining passengers over tefillin

    Alaska Airlines flight attendants, concerned by the prayers of three Orthodox Jews being said aloud in Hebrew and the unfamiliar tefillin — the boxes with leather straps hanging from them, which orthodox Jews wear when praying — locked down the cockpit and radioed a security alert ahead to Los Angeles International Airport

  • Dignity preserving undies under development

    New undergarments aim to protect air travelers’ privacy and dignity; the underwear is covered with a special paint made from a mixture of barium sulphate, aluminum, ground glass, and other materials that work to reflect and scatter X-rays; the undergarments block out passengers’ privates, while still allowing operators to see dangerous objects such as guns, knives, and explosives

  • Another ATF program in Mexico comes under fire

    The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has launched several program aimed at slowing down the flow of American weapons into Mexico; some of these programs are more successful than others; the latest program to come under fire is Operation Fast and Furious; Mexican lawmakers charge that under the program, American weapons were allowed into Mexico, where the ATF lost track of them; some of these lost weapons are responsible for 150 killings

  • New technology allows detection of nuclear materials from a mile away

    New detection technology would allow illicit nuclear material to be detected from up to a mile away; the technology, developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, will help protect the United States against the smuggling of nuclear materials into the country; field tests will begin this summer

  • On bangs and whimpers

    Yesterday was the first day of the congressional hearings on Islamic radicalization in America; it is already clear that the hearings will not become important and memorable like the Army-McCarthy Hearings of the early 1950s, the Fulbright hearings of the late 1960s, or the Church Hearings of the mid-1970s; in today’s political climate, nothing can bring a conversation to an end more quickly than accusing a public figure of engaging in stereotyping ethnic or religious minorities, of ethnic profiling and scapegoating — whether or not such accusations have any merit; the Democrats on the committee went on the offensive, painting the hearings as illegitimate and making the hearings themselves the focus of attention and debate; the tone and body language of many of the Republicans on the committee showed that they grasped that this was a no-winner for them; yes, they denied charges by Democrats that this was a case of witch hunting and stereotyping, but they acted as if they were simply hoping to ride out the hearings without doing anything too disastrous

  • Arrest of Saudi student prompts questions on visa security

    The FBI’s arrest of Saudi national Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari for allegedly trying to purchase bomb-making chemicals, plotting to smuggle a bomb into a nightclub, and planning to plant explosives in toy dolls; the case of Aldawsari, a student of chemical engineering at Texas Tech on a student visa, has ignited a debate among House lawmakers over whether further steps need to be taken to screen or monitor people in the United States on visas

  • Attack in German airport reveals airport security gaps

    The second terrorist attack at an international airport in two months has further revealed gaps in airport security; a gunman boarded a U.S Air Force bus at Germany’s busy Frankfurt International airport and killed two airmen and injured two others; following 9/11, governments have primarily focused their efforts on screening passengers and bags, and largely left baggage claim areas, ticketing booths, and parking lots unprotected; in the aftermath of the suicide bombing in Russia last month, the United States has begun to deploy “unpredictable” security measures throughout its airports; some security analysts are skeptical of these additional security measures believing that they are impractical and advocate for increased cooperation between TSA and local law enforcement