The fight against full-body scanners at airports

David G. Savage
L.A. Times
Wednesday, January 13, 2009

from Washington – The government has promised more and better
security at airports following the near-disaster on Christmas Day, but
privacy advocates are not prepared to accept the use of full-body
scanners as the routine screening system.

“We don’t need to look at naked 8-year-olds and
grandmothers to secure airplanes,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
said last week. “I think it’s a false argument to say we
have to give up all of our personal privacy in order to have
security.”

After each major terrorism incident, the balance between privacy and
security tilts in favor of greater security. But in the last decade,
privacy advocates have been surprisingly successful in blocking or
stalling government plans to search in more ways and in more places.

A conservative freshman in the House, Chaffetz won a large
bipartisan majority last year for an amendment to oppose the
government’s use of body-image scanners as the primary screening
system for air travelers. He was joined by the American Civil Liberties
Union, which said the scanners were the equivalent of a “virtual
strip search.”

The pro-privacy stand does not follow the traditional ideological
lines; Republicans and Democrats have joined together on the issue now
and in the past.

Advocates of increased security are frustrated.

Full story here.