Yes

by Jude Coyle

Created on: November 20, 2010

I am convinced that in the pursuit of safety after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, big business and politicians have cornered the market on fear. It suits them that we stayed scared. After all, someone manufactured, sold and installed full body scanners in our airports. Where I am not convinced that they will ensure our safety, I am convinced that they are meant to provide us with an illusion of safety. What we have instead are procedures that further scare and humiliate the American public. Scanners and pat downs have compromised our privacy, and our civil and Fourth Amendment rights. We should never have to submit to unwarranted searches.  

On September 11, 2001, we were successfully attacked by foreign terrorists, and it came by air. Granted it was the single deadliest terrorist attack in world history. Still, that doesn't make the United States anymore of a target than we were on September 10th. In case most of us have missed it, we haven't been successfully attacked since, and I don't honestly believe that that was because of measures taken by a certain Presidential Administration who lied to us about why we needed to attack Iraq, but because of measures we've taken against known Al Qaeda camps and agents. We've taken out their top leadership and have drained them of resources. Their best efforts of late have been half assed.

Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is the single largest airport in Israel, and so far, the safest in the world. It is also one of the most heavily targeted for terrorist attack by organizations like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Israel doesn't use full body scanners nor pat downs on every passenger flying out of their airports, nor do they force Islamic women to remove their head scarves like American TSA  (Transportation Security Administration) agents do. Instead specially trained officers interview each passenger. They use the answers, body language, etc., to decide who should be interrogated further or searched. The entire process takes place as passengers approach ticket counters, and can be completed within seconds. The Israelis claim that only a small percentage of people are actually pulled aside. 

I honestly think the TSA asked too much of us when they insisted we remove our shoes before entering the security gates. The fact that we are forced to throw out health and beauty aids prior to entering an aircraft because the bottles are too big is ridiculous. Full body scans are almost bordering on obscene, whereas the new pat down requirements have completely crossed the line. 

When full body scanners were initially installed in airports, the TSA guaranteed us that our naked pictures would be erased as soon as they were examined by airport security. After one hundred cloudy images were released online, one scanner was discovered to have stored about 38,000 images. 

The pilot unions are filing lawsuits against the Transportation Security Administration because pilots are concerned that constant exposure to the low radiation emitted by the scanners will eventually lead to health problems. Pilots also claim that after humiliating pat downs, they feel so violated they are unfit to fly. The steward unions are following suit. It was reported on several news networks how a stewardess who survived breast cancer was forced to remove her prosthesis during a search. Passengers have had to expose medical devises like insulin pumps. Others complain that they have been groped unnecessarily in the breast and groin. A teacher went so far as to say a TSA agent explored her vagina through her clothing. Parents say their children are terrified and can't understand the difference between TSA agents and pedophiles. I can only imagine how victims of sexual abuse must feel while this is going on in the open. 

Critics against the scans and pat downs say that there is no way to find explosives stuffed into body cavities, and someone willing to commit suicide for a cause isn't too worried about a little discomfort. Critics on the other side of this argument say that four out of five Americans are more concerned about their safety. My question here is this: Have all five individuals queried stepped through a scanner or been patted down? Another criticism is that American airports are too big and too crowded to initiate interviews. I question that logic. If we have enough time to force passengers remove their shoes, and endure either body scans or pat downs, why can't we use that time to ask a few short questions?

I don't honestly think that we are completely safe from terrorist attacks. After all, we have to get lucky each and every time an attack is launched, whereas terrorists only have to be lucky once. The very act of violating our Constitutional rights in the name of safety won't make us more safe. Instead it will instill a false sense of security. That leaves one question: If or when something happens in the future, what else will we submit ourselves to in the name of safety or security? 

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