Costco Connection - March 2010

INFORMEDdebate
YES

from members:

Should air travelers
be required to
undergo
Robert Cassidy
Westminster, CO

whole-body
security
scanning?

SCANNING DEVICES that produce an image of a person’s naked body are being tested in airports with the hope of catching passengers carrying explosives and other prohibited items beneath their clothing. Where the devices are being used, passengers typically have the choice to opt out and instead go through a metal detector and physical pat down, but this might change.

Proponents of the scanners would like them to be a primary method for screening that is mandatory for everyone. They say the devices are quick and safe and would have prevented the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner last December.

Critics say the scanners are unnecessarily invasive and abuse privacy rights. The money being spent on new security equipment, they add, would be better invested in investigation and intelligence work to detect bombers before they arrive at the airport.

What do you think?

Rhonda Peterson Galena, OH

Privacy rights are
respected through
modification of the
image. This, along with
profiling those whose
actions are suspect, can speed
security while keeping us safer.

Denver Perkins St. Louis, MO

We are dealing with a
new type of enemy. I
think we need to use
every means possible
to protect our citizens.

We are a nation at war.

NO

from members: Carol L. Mitzelfeldt Arlington, WA

Jennifer Warren Brooklyn, NY

[It’s] going beyond the call of privacy. They should do something else to detect dangerous things.

BrAnD x PIc Tures/juPITer IMAges

18 The Costco Connection MARCH 2010

Find out more about this topic on the Web:

•;www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm
•;www.luggagepros.com/blog/2009/02/airport-security-body-scanners-
vs-metal-detectors/
•;www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/18/airport.security.body.scans/index.html
•;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_body_imaging