Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to restrict TSA from conducting what have become known as “virtual strip-searches.”  House Restricts “Strip-Search Machines” [WashingtonWatch.com].  The bill provides, among other things, that:

Whole-body imaging technology may not be used as the sole or primary method of screening a passenger under this section. Whole-body imaging technology may not be used to screen a passenger under this section unless another method of screening, such as metal detection, demonstrates cause for preventing such passenger from boarding an aircraft.

Virtual Strip Search "Privacy Filter"

Although promoted as less intrusive than x-rays, explosive sniffers and the like, this new technology presents a significant threat to personal privacy.  As the sponsor (Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah) said, “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”  My colleague Chris Calabrese of the ACLU makes it graphically clear:

these machines produce strikingly graphic images of passengers’ bodies when they are utilized as part of the airport screening process. Those images reveal not just graphic images of “naughty parts,” but also intimate medical details like colostomy bags.

Privacy advocacy groups are, for obvious reasons, alarmed.  It is very much like the “Tunnel of Truth” hypothesized in the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall. That was scary indeed! Not unsurprisingly, on May 31, a coalition of advocacy groups including the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Gun Owners of America, and the Consumer Federation of America sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking her to “suspend the program until the privacy and security risks are fully evaluated.”

That will never happen. It its zeal to “protect” Americans traveling by air, TSA has turned the check-in experience into the U.S. equivalent of the Star Chamber, where ordinary citizens are presumed to be dangerous just by, for instance, wearing shoes — now routinely x-rayed separately at every U.S. airport — or putting liquids into carry-on luggage.  The millimeter wave and related strip-search technologies ratchet this up yet another level.  Use of a “privacy screen” to cover intimate areas is hardly an answer.

Tunnel of Truth (1990)

In my view, TSA is out of control.  Yes, there were security lapses leading to 9/11, but they did not arise from business or vacation travelers and, with a bit more diligence (like following up on middle eastern males taking flying lessons but rejecting landing practice) the government could target those likeliest to have real terrorist connections.  Just as TSA’s “no fly list” was overreaching, so is virtual body searching.  We do not need this and we do not need TSA.  I say abolish the agency, something with which Jim Harper of the Cato Institute, the premiere libertarian think tank, agrees.

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One of the best scenes in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film Total Recall is when he goes through a security checkpoint that has invisible, futuristic x-ray scanners which can see weapons and other things beneath one’s clothing. That movie dates from 1990, but now it turns out that the technology is real. New Body Scans at Airport Security See Through Clothes [Switched.com]. The concept is called millimeter wave scanning and it is described by TSA as producing images that “are friendly enough to post in a preschool. Heck, it could even make the cover of Reader’s Digest and not offend anybody.” I think I like the movie version better anyway!

If things have gone wrong, I’m talking to myself, and you’ve probably got a wet towel wrapped around your head. So whatever your name is, get ready for a big surprise: YOU are not YOU, You are ME.

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The 20-year old college student who planted box cutters in several airlines — and emailed the federal government to warn of TSA’s lack of preparedness — has been charged with a felony. The federal prosecutor says it was a ”very serious and foolish action.” But what is serious is that TSA hasn’t made an inch of real progress in securing American airspace since 9-11 and that the authorities had Nate Heatwole’s email for six weeks and did nothing about it.

As Neal Cavuto observes for FoxNews:

TSA Deputy Administrator Steve McHale sniffed that “amateur testing of the system like this does not in any way assist us where there are flaws.” Hey, Steve-o, wake up, will ya? A kid exposed you for what you are: pumped up, but hardly living up to your edict. Rather than condemning the kid, buy him a drink. In fact, buy him an outfit and hire him! He knows your weaknesses. And he knows how terrorists can know your weaknesses. And don’t be so damn defensive. You botched it. Now get over it and please, deal with it.

Seems that the old political game of blame-shifting continues. Nothing new in Washington, despite the high-profile Bush Administration “War on Terrorism.” Nate, you are a scapegoat!

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The “War on Terror” has already disrupted life for years, but now MSNBC reports that Al Qaeda is fashioning pillows and stuffed animals into explosives to use on airplanes. So now teenagers bringing pillows and toddlers clutching teddy bears are all going to have the stuffing beat out of them — or at least their plush carry-ons — literally by TSA when boarding airlines. This stuff is just out of control.

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EPIC has released documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that the government has established a “No Fly List” of suspected terrorists.

Threat Levels

Problem is, TSA doesn’t compile very accurate information, so as BusinessWeek Online reports, once you’re on the list it’s impossible to get off. BusinessWeek – The System That Doesn’t Safeguard Travel.

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• House Restricts Air Travel “Virtual Strip-Search” Technologies
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