At US airports, intrusive "pat-downs" and revealing full-body scans of travellers has provoked an uproar ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the biggest travel occasion of the year. US officials have said security procedures will "evolve" with travellers' input, but stopped short of promising any changes in the near term. Here is a round-up of reaction from top US news sources and blogs.
The Washington Post reports on one scientist's idea to render the machines more palatable. The proposal: distort the images as in a fun-house mirror. Government researcher Willard Wattenburg told the paper:
"Why not just distort the image into something grotesque so that there isn't anything titillating or exciting about it?"
USA Today reports that one of the companies selling the clothing-penetrating full-body scanning machines - dubbed "porno-scanners" by some irate wags - has doubled its lobbying effort since 2005:
L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Last year, the company spent $5.5 million on lobbying.
In a blog post entitled A Massive Terrorist Target, Atlantic Monthly writer Jeffrey Goldberg says the long queues that result from the strict screening process create another "dire problem": large, unprotected herds of travellers grouped together in unsecured areas of the airport. He also writes the TSA has declared war on "creamy dips and spinach", linking to a list of Thanksgiving food items the agency has barred from passengers' carry-on luggage.
At liberal blog Daily Kos, Jed Lewison writes that conservatives have latched on to public criticism of the TSA because it presents another opportunity to attack President Barack Obama, even though the agency was established by President George W Bush.
So while it's good that TSA is opening itself up to making changes in its system, it's going to be important to make sure that the changes it makes are in response to legitimate concerns that its procedures are too invasive, not the trumped out right-wing storyline that the solution is to put in place a system of racial and ethnic profiling. And as TSA explains the thinking behind its policy changes, it needs to be aware that in addition to real concerns of the traveling public, it's also being attacked by conservatives who are more interested in destroying President Obama than they are in protecting our security.
Transportation Security Administration officials who worked under Mr Bush applaud the newly intrusive "pat-down" procedure, Politico reports. But some acknowledge the agency seems unable to determine at which point Americans will no longer tolerate stricter measures in the name of security.
“If lawmaker X says, ‘Hey, this is too invasive, the American people won’t put up with this,’ then I would say, ‘Well, what’s the alternative?’” Chad Wolf, who ran the TSA’s security policy office in 2005, told POLITICO. “If they say profiling, then that’s the debate that needs to be had.”
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