Scanners Make Profiling Unnecessary?

On boarding an airplane, all a passenger wants to know is that there is no bomb on boaard, either in baggage or concealed on another passenger. Mental detectors and thorough luggage searching has made a gun in the aircraft cabin a practically zero probability. That had been the main concern until the fear of a bomb became an emerging reality. Bomb fear replaced hijacking fear. The placing or carrying on of a bomb became a form of terrorist activity of organized Islamic fundamentalists who declared war on Israel and the West.
The Lockerbie crash by a luggage bomb changed international policy for package and luggage security. The exposure of Al Qaeda actions to blow up multiple transatlantic flights together with the famous shoe bomber, Richard Reid, tightened airport security around the world by more thorough scrutiny of each passenger and a new limit on the amount of "liquids" allowed. The emergence of Islamic martyrs willing to die for the cause, heightens the extent to which security efforts need to be improved to attain an absolute level of security. The 23 year-old Nigerian Christmas bomber, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, represents the resourcefulness of the enemy in researching the chemistry of bomb technology, and the status of security in the air, particularly on international flights entering the United States.
Fortunately, countering the threat is the develoopment of whole body scanners. Whole-body scanners use different systems, but there are two main competing technologies: Backscatter x-ray and millimeter-wave. Both of these use radiation that penetrates clothing. Backscatter technology (Z Backscatter X-ray system) can detect objects that regular X-ray scanners and metal detectors can't pick up very well, like ceramic knives, drugs and liquid explosives. They produce a near life-like image, which is causing all the uproar over privacy, charging prurient intent on the part of the TSA and engaging the ACLU. The images can be blurred by computer altering techniques, but the more distortion, the less the value; for example detecting an explosive tapped to the body. The other concern has nothing to do with privacy, but with the amount of radiation absorbed by the backscatter technology. Without going into details, the fact is that it would take 5000 scans a year to reach the limit of safety.
The alternate system is the millimeter-wave or MMW system. This system, pioneered by the defense and security firm Qintiq, uses millimeter wave (MMW) technology that was first developed to enable helicpoter pilots to see through the smoke of a battlefield. The system uses a cylindrical holographic imaging technology to conduct a 360-degree whole-body scan in 1.5 seconds. It bounces low-powered, non-ionizing millimeter waves off a person, penetrating clothing and reflecting off the body. Reflected signals are collected by the arry/transceiver and sent to a high-speed image processing computer, which forms a high-resolution three-dimensional image of the body and any hidden objects. The system provides a safe, fast and effrective alternative to metal detectors, X-ray machines and pat-down searches at security checkpoints.
As a member of the traveling public, I say get whatever scanner as fast as possible into every airport in the world. I do not want to depend upon the "dot connectors" or the sixteen intelligence agencies in the federal government, however hard working and well intentioned they may be in sorting out their "no fly llist". I will not exempt Congress either as they have not yet implemented the necessary recommendations of the 911 Commissioin. Let's get to the next level of security as quickly and efficiently as possible.
But does this mean we should do away with profiling? The answer is no! The enemy will continue to try to subvert the system. We must use whatever means we can to attempt ot identify the enemhy, the unstable or otherwise suspicious security risk in the travelers' space. As for the traveler who does not wish to participaate in the new security option, take the boaat--or train--or drive to your destination with your ACLU lawyer.