The New York Daily News is reporting that Amsterdam-Schipol International Airport will start putting full body image scanners in place in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. On top of that, the Dutch are pushing for the full body scanners to be deployed in airports across the 27 countries that make up the European Union.
While the average traveler sees these machines as a necessity to prevent terrorism, and yes, in this case they may have worked, I see them as a nuisance. Even more annoying than the machines are the people who want them in place but do not want profiling of any kind to be used at airports. So, it’s alright to look at someone nude on a computer screen but picking people out of a line because they fit a profile is horrible?
Where do we stop though? If a terrorist is able to carry out an attack after passing through the machines, what’s the next step? Does everyone have to have every article of luggage and every part of their body searched before the get on a plane? What about airport workers? At some point, the searches and nuisances will get so bad that people will just stop flying… Then what?
Ugh, so not looking forward to this. At all.
It is going to make travel a lot less pleasant. There are even more changes coming, the TSA has announced a new security directive going into effect in a few days.
Good article on why we should look to Israel as a model for security at airports.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199—israelification-high-security-little-bother
I think Israel is the perfect model for security. They have it down to an art.
When I was in the Amsterdam airport our gate was across from the El Al gate and their security process was quick, seamless, and thorough. Going through ours was a laborious waste of time.
Thanks for the link!
I commend the article for mentioning that body scanners are an international affair, but the article contains logic flaws. the the logical fallacy of using a slippery slope. How does the profiling connect with the screening? I must say, this doesn’t sound like a reliable source.
Except it’s not a logical fallacy to claim the slippery slope when there has been an actual slip. In this case the slip has been the degradation of the security protocols ever since 9/11.
And the scanners are related to profiling because both violate civil liberties.