Why Full-Body Scanners Must Be Stopped:
Full-body scanners are NOT EFFECTIVE at stopping terrorism
- They do not detect explosive material.
- Security experts and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) say that a scanner would not have found, or stopped, the “underwear bomber” or the “shoe bomber”; meanwhile, most checked luggage goes unscreened.
- A top Israeli security expert has said that he could get enough explosives through a body scanner to “take down a 747”; Israel’s airports do not use body scanners because they are ineffective.
Full-body scanners pose a RISK to PUBLIC HEALTH
- No amount of ionizing radiation is safe, and these kinds of “soft x-rays” are particularly dangerous.
- Other types of scanners use “millimeter wave” technology. Los Alamos National Laboratory reports this non-ionizing radiation has the potential to unzip DNA.
- Multiple scientific studies establish probable risk for mutagenic disease (cancer/autoimmune disorders) from backscatter radiation that can be passed on to offspring.
- The risk is especially great for children, pregnant women, the elderly, AIDS patients… the very people who are least likely to be terrorists.
Full-body scanners are UN-CONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL
- The Fourth Amendment protects us against unreasonable searches.
- By any legal definition, a strip search (virtual or real) without suspicion of a crime is un-Constitutional.
- The scanners create, store, and transmit naked photos of children, which can be considered child pornography.
- The enhanced pat-down procedure, also a gross violation of our rights, could be prosecuted as sexual assault if conducted by a private citizen. TSA agents are not deputized and they have not taken an oath to the Constitution. The enhanced pat-down comes with the body scanners, as the TSA has publicly admitted to using the pat-down to coerce / humiliate “opt-outs” into choosing the scanner instead.
All airports in Texas — and throughout the United States — should stay free of these blatant violations of our liberty, dignity, and safety.
