Travelers' choice: Shed shyness for security?

Jazzy · Post by **Jazzy** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:37 am

SAN FRANCISCO – As Ronak Ray hunted for his flight gate, he prepared for the prospect of a security guard peering through his clothes with a full body scanner. But Ray doesn't mind: what he gives up in privacy he gets back in security.

"I think it's necessary," said Ray, a 23-year-old graduate student who was at San Francisco International Airport to fly to India. "Our lives are far more important than how we're being searched."

Despite controversy surrounding the scans, Ray's position was typical of several travelers interviewed at various airports Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Airports in five other U.S. cities are also using full body scanners at specific checkpoints instead of metal detectors. In addition, the scanners are used at 13 other airports for random checks and so-called secondary screenings of passengers who set off detectors.

But many more air travelers may have to get used to the idea soon. The Transportation Security Administration has ordered 150 more full body scanners to be installed in airports throughout the country in early 2010, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said.

Story Link: Travelers' choice: Shed shyness for security? - Yahoo! News

Post by **LarsMac** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:52 am

I'm good with it.

I just wanna get on the plane and get where I am going in one piece.

Jazzy · Post by **Jazzy** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:09 am

I agree with a quote I took from the article: "Our lives are far more important than how we're being searched."

FUBAR · Post by **FUBAR** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:43 pm

I don't think it is the searching that is the problem, the problem is that everyone is being treated as a terrorist. Lucky the police don't act the same way or every time there is a crime we would all be arrested as suspects. What ever happened to targeting suspects rather than us all? The guy in the latest attempt was already on a watch list so why when he was getting on the plane wasn't he strip searched? It may not be very PC but we are not all equal in terror attacks so shouldn't all be treated the same when we fly. It is a fact that not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists are Muslims so why not search them more than say an old non Muslim couple. As I say not very PC but a lot more effective than treating us all as suspects..

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:51 pm

I wonder if voyeurs will attempt to get those airport jobs and exhibitionists will travel more just for the hell of it?:)

Rapunzel · Post by **Rapunzel** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:48 pm

FUBAR;1277763 wrote: I don't think it is the searching that is the problem, the problem is that everyone is being treated as a terrorist. Lucky the police don't act the same way or every time there is a crime we would all be arrested as suspects. What ever happened to targeting suspects rather than us all? The guy in the latest attempt was already on a watch list so why when he was getting on the plane wasn't he strip searched? It may not be very PC but we are not all equal in terror attacks so shouldn't all be treated the same when we fly. It is a fact that not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists are Muslims so why not search them more than say an old non Muslim couple. As I say not very PC but a lot more effective than treating us all as suspects..

I do agree with what you say and agree that most terrorists are Muslims. However, there was a British guy involved in the 7/7 bombings in London allegedly. He went to live in the Middle East and followed their teachings and changed his name to an Islamic name. But what if he hadn't changed his name? What if a British guy on a British passport could get through customs more easily with a bomb? It only takes one radical, of any nationality, to blow up a plane and all souls on board.

Also, people have been known to be forced into drug smuggling to protect their families. Why not with bomb carrying also?

I think if the Muslim terrorist population realised that non-Muslims were getting through body searches more easily then they would soon find a way of converting non-Muslims to their cause.

Whilst I do agree with you FUBAR and I don't agree with the idea of whole body scans, I think at the same time it is something we are just going to have to accept, in the interests of security, if we wish to travel abroad.