On Wednesday, the Netherlands announced that they would be added more full body scanners to examine passengers en route to the U.S. What is most significant is why the Dutch had not implemented further scanning earlier. The report is, that the U.S. told them not to.
The interest in full body scanners has spiked since the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 incident on Christmas Day. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian national, attempted to set off a PETN device on the flight, traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit. He was stopped by passengers and crew, but also by a device malfunction.
Since then, curiousity over full body scanners, not just in The Netherlands but globally and in the U.S., have intensified. The Dutch now claim that they had been trying to install the machines for flights to the U.S. since 2008. However, because the focus would have been on U.S. destinations, U.S. officials blocked the move, saying it would single out the U.S. and that the Dutch should scan passengers to all destinations.
In the wake of the near-tragedy on Dec. 25th, the Dutch have discussed full body scanners with the U.S. and have announced that all passengers traveling from The Netherlands to America will be scanned. Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst said the millimeter-wave full body scanners that can see beneath the clothes of passengers will be in place at Schiphol airport within three weeks.
Although the U.S. may have blocked full body scanners in Amsterdam, other nations and other groups have blocked them over privacy issues. Ian Dowty, a lawyer with Action on Rights of the Child in the U.K., said allowing minors to pass through the scanners violates child pornography laws. He said, "It shows genitalia. As far as English law is concerned ... it's unlawful if it's indecent."
British authorities have thus exempted those under-18 from trials of full body scanners at sites which include Paddington Station in London as well as Heathrow and Manchester airports.
New technology may make that objection moot, however. Rather than an actual picture of the subject, new full body scanner software projects a stylized image, highlighting the area of the body where objects are concealed in pockets or under clothing.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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