New Jersey – Newark Liberty Airport is getting full-body scanners that reveal all – and could keep terrorists like the undie bomber from boarding planes.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The gizmos, which cost about $170,000 apiece, are destined for Terminal B, which handles all international arrivals and domestic airlines like Delta and Northwest, according to the Port Authority.
Suspected Al Qaeda terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab tried to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day as it was landing in Detroit by detonating a bomb stashed in his skivvies.
“We designed our new passenger screening spaces in Terminal B to accommodate future TSA equipment deployments,” said John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Kelly said the Transportation Security Administration will determine how many devices the airport will get and when they will be installed.
Newark Liberty was chosen because it is one of the country’s busiest airports and because one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers left from there, officials told the Star-Ledger.
The ACLU has raised objections to the scanners, saying the virtual strip searches are a violation of passenger privacy.
But fliers at Newark last night said they’re willing to trade some privacy for protection.
Whenever they come out with a technology, the terrorists will come up with something smarter, this is a typical arms race
flying out of newark to tel aviv on thursday,a nd quite frankly, I am thrilled that they are doing this. willing to trade “privacy” for staying alive.
Will that be for EL AL flyers too?
what about tznius and pregnant women? aproblem
El al doesn’t need it so important nor do they believe technology can be 100 percent successful the only solution is to profile
I don’t get it, all they need is ONE airport that doesn have this and then fly from there, until there is a uniform standard its a joke.
“Im hashem lo yishmor ir shuv shukad shomer” but hishtadlus still needs to be done.
As privacy concerns, a good idea would maybe be if they have seperate lines for men and women with tha TSA guards being male for men and female for women ? What about having these scanners have a cloth in front to cover the person from the outside ? these issues can be worked on without jeopordizing safety
In my opinion, there should be separate planes for men and women and everyone should fly in their underwear. This would eliminate the problem. Shoen!
This whole idea is really wrong. All they need is competent people being trained by the Israelis and use the same method as El Al does. They really don’t use profiling in the way people think they do – it doesn’t matter what race or color of the person – they use behavioral profiling (psychology of a sort). These people are very well trained and educated and that is what is needed! Sometimes the simple and least complicated is the smartest way, as with most things.