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UN Official warns against “ineffective” body scanners

UN Our government won't listen, of course, as they're determined to have body scanners whatever the science and whatever the consequences – but I note that Martin Scheinin, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism, has said the scanners are more of a political response to terrorist attacks than a carefully designed security measure. Interestingly, he also said that technologies that intrude into privacy tend to be ineffective in preventing terrorism. Finally, Scheinin said this:

Full body scanners are ineffective in detecting a genuine terrorist threat if they do not reveal dangerous substances in body cavities, body folds or hand luggage. They may also give a false feeling of security and allow the real terrorists to adapt their tactics to the technology in use.

Quite.

By Alex Deane

Hat tip: Democracy Now

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Alex Deane Posted in Body Scanners
  • Redacted

    It may be worse than ineffective.
    It is often said that an objective of terrorism is exactly to provoke their enemies to employ measures such as this. It can be expected to annoy some innocent people and turn them against their own government. It will trouble religious people, people who are ashamed of their bodies, people who are shy, people with medical conditions they would rather keep private, and anyone who had imagined that they lived in a free country where human dignity and personal integrity are respected.
    It will also help to demonstrate to people of other cultures that our civilisation is indeed degenerate and has no respect for modesty or morality, thus strengthening the arguments of terrorists against us, and aiding recruitment.

  • LeChiffre

    The government has handed the terrorists yet another victory.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/grahamkida GrahamkidA

    Profiling!
    If there is something we could guess that Israel is adept at it’s identifying suicide bombers. There amazing success in protecting civilian flights is based on using profiling. That is – security operatives are trained and alert to unusual or suspicious behaviour & target passenger profiles that could be suspicious.
    Maybe this is what the the army of operatives currently removing shoes, rummaging through mum’s bags to check that she’s not feeding baby nitroglycerine and oogling at barry’s man boobs on the “X-Ray Specs” machine should be doing!