First there was a fatwa from Muslim clerics about them. Now the Pope for Catholics. Any other religion’s leaders want to object? Atheists will have to object individually. All of which means no one uses the machines, everyone gets a pat down, slowing the checkpoints to a crawl.
BTW, I flew home out of Green Bay, WI on Saturday where I got the explosives hand swab. For some reason, the machine was across the room so he had to carry the pad there to test it and I had to wait. Even if the machine is right next to them, it still takes 10 seconds to report. Green Bay is small airport, so short lines, but if this was Vegas with hundreds in line at a time?
Can anyone seriously debate that on one level at least, the terrorists have won? And those who would use terrorism as an excuse to tighten control on us?
Airport security chiefs may have thought they had enough to worry about with shoe bombers, underpants bombers and people who forget to put their toothpaste into those little plastic bags. But, if so, they were reckoning without Benedict XVI.
At a meeting in the Vatican at the weekend, the pope made an authoritative – if entirely unexpected – incursion into the raging debate over the planned use of airport body scanners. He told an audience from the aerospace industry that, notwithstanding the threat from terrorism, “the primary asset to be safeguarded and treasured is the person, in his or her integrity”.
[...]
He warned: “It is essential never to lose sight of respect for the primacy of the person.”The pope’s words will delight civil liberties campaigners opposed to a device that strips passengers virtually naked. But those involved in airport security will no doubt point out that, when he himself travels — on Alitalia – the pope and his entourage are simply waved through security controls. An exception was in 1984 when a permanently installed detection mechanism in Luxembourg alerted security officials to the fact that John Paul II and his aides were packing significant quantities of metal. It had been activated by their crosses.
Security Theater. There may be some questions about who’s winning but there can be no question that free citizens are losing.
#17 — I agree that if the security of aircraft is going to include screeners then they should be well trained and paid people.
I will add that all these new and extensions to the security of aircraft are add-ons to a system that was geared torward moving lots of people through quickly. Now there is two objectives at the airports. First, make sure people get on the planes quickly. Second, make sure no one has harmful devices on their persons. Obviously, the second objective slows the first down. After eight years, it might be time to analyze the whole process to find a better compromise.
The current system will more likely buckle under the weight of more terrorist attempts. How many hours is a person suppose to endure before a one hour flight? What items do people have to leave behind or ship by other means because they are not allowed on aircraft? How many low paid workers and high tech machines can we add just because of the last attempt?
There should be a way to provide reasonable amount of security in a reasonable amount of time.
Ol’ Pape feels he has to weigh in on the subject ’cause he figures Jebus wouldn’t approve of scanning machines that show outlines of genitalia. Jebus has been gone for 2,000 years but we still have to vet everything against what He would want. I’m frackin’ sick of Jebus & his (projected) viewpoints.
#17: I’ve had it done on my luggage in the past. Inside, too! The guy who did my hands did hustle over to the machine and said it would take 10 seconds, but still… Why wasn’t the machine right next to where he was working?
I was the only one going through at the time (small airport) so I didn’t see if this was being done to everyone or just certain crazy blog editors.
The OP asked: “Have the terrorist won?” and the answer unfortunately is yes: by their very low cost actions, they have “changed America” and the West in very deleterious ways.
Sadly, “we” have to be smarter in our responses. Hard to do with 45% of the voting public championing the likes of Cheney and Palin.
We have to educate the “moderate” (sic–highly debateable except for Muslims who have left their homeland in disgust) Muslims to see their own best interests in controlling those within their own ranks who wish a more conservative approach to more complicated issues.
When we can’t do it in our own more secular society, hard to see how it will happen in a religious one.
I say let the pope go through without the body scan.
-aside from T-waves having the ability to really fubar your DNA…
I have a way way, waaay out there in left field thought on the popes “dislike” of scanners..
if you dig into the some of the “banned books” books of the bible (like Enoch) and of course, ancient Sumerian texts, it becomes quite obvious that ET’s manufactured us via some handy gene manipulation…ie -making an ET/human hybrid etc..
I imagine, some of the pope’s more “etheric tall hat buddies” might be lose coherence (shape) when exposed to T-Waves.
Since sound/vibration (slowed down) is how physical matter is manifested.. a [higher energy] being who has mastered control of its energy field [or matrix], should be able to make itself appear as a solid humanoid figure with relative ease..
However since the vibratory rate of such an entity in it’s more “natural” form of pure energy is around 22trillion cycles per second, -a terahertz wave scan may have the potential to produce higher order harmonics which may disrupt said entities ability [perhaps concentration?] to maintain a solid shape..
I have been thinking for quite some time now, that the real reason for the body scanners is to spot ET’s
or ET hybrids which are expected to make a major [re]-appearance over the next two years or so..if not this summer..
–yeah yeah, i know, put me in a straight jacket, i’ve finally flipped big time.
-however, anyone who doesn’t have their head up their arse knows all of what we are taught about our origins is completely manufactured BS..and practically every other country except ours has not only acknowledged ET/UFO existence for at least half a century, but have even released 1000′s of declassified “X-Files”
-while we sill maintain the whole UFO thing is nothing but swamp gas, weather balloons or ice crystals..
-anyway..that’s my take on the body scanner BS.
-s
#19
Again, Glenn, I appreciate your article but as I’ve said, say the same thing to the victims that have NOT had their justice even in the face of “facts.”
I can read all there is to read about what the Pope has said and is doing. But until I actually read that victims have had their justice then it’s a moot point. How hard is it to remove a priest? Apparently only God can.
NPR did a report on this whole Catholic/Irish this earlier this week. Seriously, look it up! /sarcasm on last sentence.