Have they gone too far? (TSA), from a policy blog for IATA

[nadinbrzezinski]

Though the harm to privacy is certain, the benefit to public safety is not. The federal Government Accountability Office has said it "remains unclear" if the scanners would have detected the explosives carried by the would-be Christmas Day bomber.

They would also be useless against a terrorist who inserts a bomb in his rectum—like the al-Qaida operative who blew himself up last year in an attempt to kill a Saudi prince. Full-body scanning will sorely chafe many innocent travelers, while creating only a minor inconvenience to bloodthirsty fanatics.

The good news is that last year, the House of Representatives voted to bar the use of whole-body scanners for routine screening. But only a sustained public outcry will force a change.

We will soon find out if there is a limit to the sacrifices of personal freedom that Americans will endure in the name of fighting terrorism. If we don't say no when they want to inspect and handle our private parts, when will we?

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM

http://reason.org/news/show/get-the-government-out-of-our-pants

[Suich]

1. There were people that said it was ok to tap phones

because they "didn't have anything to hide." This reminds me a bit of that...if you don't want to get "scanned" or "groped" take a bus, train or drive.

I don't even know what to think anymore.

))))))sigh((((((

[LisaL]

2. What exactly is to stop TSA from implementing the same

procedures for buses and trains?

[avaistheone1]

4. I believe I read that are plans to extend this kind of draconian screening

to buses and trains.

Our government has gone insane.

[HereSince1628]

6. I would say that the government is literally terrified--transformed by terror

The word insanity is too ambiguous to provide much real understanding of the problem.

The impact of terror on government works like this...Faced with the responsibility of keeping Americans safe, the security apparatus of the government pushes for tools that they believe will help them. To keep Americans absolutely safe the security agencies must absolutely have all knowledge and all access to everything. But it's also absolutely clear that absolute safety is absolutely impossible. It's not a new problem. It emerges in one form or another during every crisis. As the statement attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes...he who sacrifices liberty for security will have neither.

It is unfortunate we had Dick Cheney as a national leader and not a Franklin Roosevelt as this crisis swept upon us. To not understand that the 'enemy' targets our FEAR more than our buildings is to leave our way of life vulnerable to attack.

[ThomCat]

5. They already do, if your bus will be crossing the border.

I took a Greyhound bus once once a route that would be later continuing across the Canadian border.

Everyone who boarded that bus had to go through Airport level security because that bus was eventually going to cross into Canada.

So the implementation has already begun for some buses. I'm sure it has also begun for some trains somewhere. They just don't make a big deal about it so you don't get to hear about it. You, as the general public, don't know of everyplace were this is being done. And that is probably the way they want it to be.

The less you know about it, the less you can complain. The less you complain, the more they can and will say that their implementation went though without any incident or public outcry, so of course they can and should expand this into more modes of travel and more routes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. They do, called Operation Viper

[avaistheone1]

3. They have gone way too far.

This is probably the most personal and intrusive invasion of privacy I can imagine experiencing.

It is neither effective, reasonable, necessary, ethical or legal imo.


It recent years we keep seeing the freedoms we have enjoyed as Americans be incrementally eroded. Enough is enough.
Treating everyone who goes to the airport as a criminal is completely unacceptable.