Wanted: Discreet Scanners

Please edit the title: "Discreet" would be better in this context.

--Editor Crankshaft

I heard by email that the TSA is trying to improve their image with a calendar.

Buy yours today.

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No scanner on the planet now or in the future that does not violate a person's fourth amendment will make a bit of difference if someone wanted to bring down an airliner. the only workable solution is to start separating the wheat from the chaff early on in the process and only focus on those individuals who fit a specific profile. issue "get out of scanner free" cards (similar to TWIC cards for offshore workers.) to those people who have voluntarily gone through a thorough background check. those people pass through the magnetometer with minimal screening.

airline tickets already require a DL and a major credit card to purchase anyway, so there is already a wealth of information that the TSA can glean from those databases available to them. and most are purchased weeks or months in advance, giving the TSA LOTS of time to run a background check on them. these people get somewhat more scrutiny. odd behavior during check-in or out of character/unusual financial transaction history or email/telephone history, or association with known or suspected terrorist organizations might be a sign. third, those who buy at the last minute. Most of these will still be legit, but they will also get the most attention because the TSA will not have had time to check them out ahead of time.

the simple fact of the matter is that if someone wanted to blow up an airliner and had no compunction about dying in the process, they could take a page from the drug smugglers and have the guy swallow a kilo of C4 wrapped in condoms with a simple mechanical detonator made from plastics, or even better, give the guy a nearly complete bowel resection and a colostomy and fill the guy's abdominal cavity with SEMTEX, and make sure he showers really well before going to the airport. none of it would show up on ANY of the current scanners.

the solution is not technology, it is profiling.