'Civil liberities' groups blocking effective scans for underwear bombers

NY Times:

The technology exists to reveal objects hidden under clothes at airport checkpoints, and many experts say it would have detected the explosive packet carried onboard the Detroit-bound flight last week. But it has been fought by privacy advocates who say it is too intrusive, leading to a newly intensified debate over the limits of security.

Screening technologies with names like millimeter-wave and backscatter x-ray can show the contours of the body and reveal foreign objects. Such machines, properly used, are a leap ahead of the metal detectors used in most airports, and supporters say they are necessary to keep up with the plans of potential terrorists.

“If they’d been deployed, this would pick up this kind of device,” said Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security secretary, in an interview, referring to the packet of chemicals hidden in the underwear of the Nigerian man who federal officials say tried to blow up the Northwest flight.

But others say the technology is no security panacea, and that its use should be carefully controlled because of the risks to privacy -- including the potential for its ghostly naked images to show up on the Internet.

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I could care less if one these scans showed up on the internet. It certainly would not titillate any prurient interest on my part and I can't imagine anyone getting excited about seeing a scan of me. I think laws could be put in place to block the distribution of these scans in the first place if that is a great concern.

Scanning to catch al Qaeda human bombs makes more sense than taking chances on whether one is on the plane. The opposition to the scans seems downright irrational to me.

This sounds a lot like the silly arguments that were put forward against intercepting enemy communications because of "privacy" concerns. People who are receiving calls from the enemy should have no expectation of privacy.