Stop the Hysteria Over Body Scans

To some, the implementation of full body scanning at airports is evidence that al-Qaeda is winning, or has won, the current war on terror.

This oddly generous assumption assumes that al-Qaeda’s goal is to inconvenience us, rather than to kill us as infidels. Wrong, but an acceptable alternative if murder fails.

Some feel body scanning is an unnecessary, useless and offensive invasion of privacy whose only purpose will be to titillate those who view the screens.

Hysteria and hype are busily at work.

CBC Radio’s Cross Country Check-up, heard various opinions on the subject, which added little to the advancement of public knowledge.

There is really only one question that needs to be answered about full body scanning of airline passengers: Will it work? Will it make flying safer, or is it cosmetics (to use the word loosely) simply to make us “feel safer” while flying?
A surprising number of people think the latter.

But most of us don’t know. We just “hope” it adds to our flying safety.  As for the “privacy” factor, we are now assured that the body-scanning screens will be viewed in another room, where the individual whose doing the scanning doesn’t physically see the person being scanned. Supposedly, those doing the scanning, will be of the same sex as the scannee, so to speak.

What a lot of nonsense. Who cares?

The hysteria being generated – all because of that Nigerian who hid explosives in his underwear which didn’t ignite properly but burned him badly – is sort of mindful of the swine flu immunization panic last fall.

Not many paid attention to immunization plans until a young athlete in Toronto apparently died from the affliction. Then fear took over and hours-long line ups of the sort one expects for the Beatles or Avatar, began forming outside clinics.

As it turned out, the pandemic didn’t happen.

Apparently the British feel the scanners violate child porn laws by focusing on the naughty bits, so for the time being anyone under 18 doesn’t have to go through them. More nonsense.

Amsterdam, among other cities, is keen on the scanner. As is the U.S. Transportation Security Administration which apparently is buying scanners by the hundreds. So it’s clear what our flying future will entail.

The Israelis, who run the word’s safest airlines and airports, are not big on scanners and have balanced technology with human appraisal – which countries like Canada are uneasy about because it might give rise to accusations of racial profiling.

As Israelis point out, terrorist profiling – or “reasonable suspicion” profiling  - is coordinated with sophisticated baggage checks and is effective at ensuring safety.

With training, security people can be reassuringly astute and competent without being officious at sizing up people who might be dangerous. Of course, it involves specical attention to travelers from certain countries, but that’s already happening.

More than body scanners, it should be mandatory that any person (except a CIA or Delta Force undercover agent) known to ever have attended an al-Qaeda training camp, be forbidden to book passage on any North American airline.

Again, the human factor.

Meanwhile we are stuck with the fantasy of teenage boys’ who dream about X-ray technology that penetrates clothes to give a glimpse of naked bodies beneath.

Welcome to the future.