Latest TSA Disaster

"Complaints and questions are becoming regular issues for the Transportation Security Administration’s plan to install 1,000 x-ray screening machines that are sometimes known as virtual strip searches.

"The system takes three to five times as long as walking through a metal detector," said Phil Bush of Atlanta, one of many fliers on USA TODAY's Road Warriors panel who oppose the machines.

"This looks to be yet another disaster waiting to happen."

Many frequent fliers complain they're time-consuming or invade their privacy. The world's airlines say they shouldn't be used for primary security screening. And questions are being raised about possible effects on passengers' health.

The machines were installed at many airports in March after a Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has spent more than $80 million for about 500 machines, including 133 now at airports. It plans to install about 1,000 by the end of next year.

The machines are running into complaints and questions both here and overseas:

---The International Air Transport Association says the TSA lacks a strategy and a vision of how the machines fit into a comprehensive checkpoint security plan. "The TSA is putting the cart before the horse," association spokesman Steve Lott s

---Security officials in Dubai said this month they wouldn't use the machines because they violate "personal privacy," and information about their "side effects" on health isn't known.

---The European Commission said in a report that "a rigorous scientific assessment" of potential health risks is needed before machines are deployed there. It also said screening methods besides the new machines should be used on pregnant women, babies, children and people with disabilities.

---The U.S. Government Accountability Office said that the TSA was deploying the machines without fully testing them and assessing whether they could detect "threat items" concealed on various parts of the body.

TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee says the agency completed testing at the end of last year and is "highly confident" in the machines' detection capability. She also says their use hasn't slowed screening at airports and that the agency has taken steps to ensure privacy and safety.

The TSA is deploying two types of machines that can see underneath clothing. One uses a high-speed X-ray beam, and the other bounces electromagnetic waves off a passenger's body.

Passengers can refuse screening by the machines and receive a pat-down search by a security officer, screening by a metal detector, or both, the TSA says.

Would the machines even have detected the explosives that a suspect tried to detonate on the jet bound for Detroit last Christmas?

Officials admitted the answer to that question is unclear.

By David Wilkening"

source: Travel Mole Aug 26, 2010