• GAO raises questions about effectiveness of full-body scanners

    The Obama administration is aggressively pushing for deployment of full-body scanners: 450 of the scanners will be installed at U.S. airports by the end of 2010; 950 installed by the end of 2011; and 1,800 by the end of 2014; the cost of installing and maintaining the scanners: about $3 billion over eight years; concerns have been expressed about privacy (some of the technologies used - for example, active millimeter-wave radiation — generate anatomically accurate images of passengers’ bodies) and health (some technologies, for example, backscatter X-ray, inundate passengers with large amounts or radiation (although many physicians say the amount of radiation is not health-threatening); now questions are being raised about the effectiveness of these scanners; GAO: “While [TSA] officials said [the scanners] performed as well as physical pat downs in operational tests, it remains unclear whether the AIT [advanced imaging technology] would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident”

  • TSA adds AS&E's X-ray inspection systems to qualified air cargo screening list

    Screening cargo on air planes is promising to be big business, and companies rush to have their screening cargo machines certified by TSA; AS&E has its Gemini 6040, Gemini 7555, and Gemini 100100 X-ray inspection systems added to TSA’s certified cargo screener list

  • Religious leaders discuss body scanners with DHS

    Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders met with DHS officials to discuss the privacy aspects of whole-body scanning; Muslim religious organizations, the Pope, and Orthodox Jewish authorities declared body scanners to be in violation of their respective religions’ modesty strictures, especially for women, and urged their followers to opt for pat-downs instead

  • Smiths Detection's mid-sized X-ray system added to TSA's Air Cargo Screening Qualified List

    By August 2010, all cargo carried on passenger planes will have to be screened; Smiths Detection’s latest addition to its list of cargo screening machines — a pallet-sized scanner — is the company’s sixth technology approved to help shippers meet TSA August 2010 100 percent air cargo screening deadline

  • TSA: Alleged child molester did not train or use new full-body scanners at Logan

    A Boston man charged with multiple child sex crimes was a certified luggage and passengers screener at Logan Airport; TSA says the man was already missing from work for several days when full-body scanners were deployed at Logan on 1 March, and thus had no access to the machines; the man’s arrest adds fuel to the opposition to body scanners

  • Passive millimeter-wave technology promoted as solving privacy, health concerns

    There are three leading technologies in whole-body scanning: backscatter X-ray, active millimeter wave, and passive millimeter wave; the first raises privacy issue; the second raises health concerns; Florida-based Brijot, a champion of passive millimeter wave, says its technology addresses both sets of concerns

  • Airport security by the numbers

    In its 2011 budget request, DHS has asked for $214.7 million to buy and install 500 whole-body scanners; 75 percent of high-risk airports and 60 percent of second-tier airports will have body scanners deployed by the end of 2011

  • Nigeria ordering Rapiscan backscatter imaging systems for the country's international airports

    The government of Nigeria is deploying Rapiscan’s Secure 1000 Single Pose backscatter whole-body scanners at the country’s four international airports; the systems will be used to screen passengers traveling to the United States as well other countries

  • DHS awards L-3 Communication $164.7 million for millimeter wave scanners

    The drive toward deploying whole-body scanners at U.S. airports accelerates; L-3 receives a $164.7 million order from TSA for the company’s ProVision millimeter wave (MMW) advanced imaging technology; more than 200 ProVision systems are deployed worldwide at airports and other facilities

  • Paris airport starts deploys full-body scanner

    France follows the U.K. in deploying whole-body scanners for U.S.-bound passengers; the scanners are currently deployed at the Charles de Gaulle airport, but will be rolled out to other airports during the next few months

  • TSA bolsters airport scanning

    The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now swabbing the hands of some passengers for traces of explosives; also, explosive detection machines are put on carts and rolled down the concourses to boarding areas, randomly rescreening passengers who are already in the “sterile area” of the airport

  • IDenta Corp.’s detection kit prove a success in India

    Israeli detection-kit maker Identa sees success in India; last year the company has shipped 20,000 different kinds of kits to India; tests by India’s National Investigative Agency showed Identa’s kits to be more effective than sprays and other means of explosive detection

  • Art world worried about new rule on air cargo

    As of 1 August, all items shipped as cargo on commercial passenger airplanes will have to go through airline security screening; as much as 20 percent of art shipped around the world travels this way, and museums, galleries, and collectors are worried: even the faint possibility of an airline inspector with a screwdriver uncrating a Calder sculpture or an early Renaissance tempera painting is enough to keep many in the art world awake at night

  • Muslim religious group: Airport body scanners violate Islamic law

    A leading Muslim organization in the United States issues a ruling saying that whole-body scanners violates Islamic laws on modesty; the organizations urges all Muslims to choose pat-downs instead; TSA says that the pat-down option is available to all passengers

  • Whole-body scanners may lengthen airport security lines

    Scanners that look through passengers’ clothing to find hidden weapons are significantly larger than the metal detectors they will replace, and they take at least five times longer to scan a single passenger; TSA plans to install 950 whole-body scanners at U.S. airports in the next two years,