O’Hare to get body scanners
MARY WISNIEWSKI
Chicago Sun Times
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Privacy advocates worry that new body-scanning security equipment
due to come to O’Hare Airport next year will interfere with
passengers’ rights to keep their body images to themselves.
But the former head of security for the Federal Aviation
Administration believes the scanners, which see through clothing, are
long overdue.
“We should have had them in already,” said Billie
Vincent, now CEO and president of Aerospace Services International
Inc., an electronics security company. He said the technology should be
used for secondary screening of passengers selected for extra
inspection. “It’s a very necessary part of the system.
O’Hare needs it.”
Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said Tuesday that
the Transportation Security Agency plans to bring full-body scanners to
the airport in the first half of the year — possibly by April.
She did not give details on how the scanners would be deployed.
Ed Yohnka, director of communications for the American Civil
Liberties Union of Illinois, said it’s puzzling that full-body
scanners are being seen as a solution, when officials had knowledge
about Abdulmutallab that they didn’t use.
“Because that intelligence was not acted upon, the best we can
do is subject thousands and perhaps millions of Americans to a virtual
strip search simply for getting on an airline flight?” said
Yohnka. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
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