Thaindian News

Mar 5 (THAINDIAN NEWS) According to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the federal government is beginning to send out full body imaging machines to eleven more airports in the United States. This announcement came today (Friday).

Forty of these full body scanners have already been placed and are in use at nineteen airports across the nation. This is all a part of a field test, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Plans of the Transportation Security Administration are to send out another 450 of these imaging machines by the end of 2010.

These units are being installed at Logan International Airport in Boston, and others are set to be installed by the end of the summer at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Mineta San José International, Los Angeles International, Port Columbus International, Oakland International, San Diego International, Kansas City International and Charlotte Douglas International.

As the rules stand now, it is still optional to have the full body scan, and passengers can instead choose to have a pat down, which can even include swabbing to check for minute traces of explosive substances. Most passengers prefer the scan to the pat down, but others say that the scanners are akin to an electronic strip search. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the passenger’s privacy is protected during the scan by causing the image to be blurred, placing the imaging devices in remote locations, and deleting the images as soon as they are viewed. The Administrator of TSA, Gale Rossides testified in front of Congress that these scanners will not slow down the passenger screening process very much because they will be done at the same time that the passenger’s luggage is being screened.