The U.S. House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to limit the use of x-ray devices at airports that peeked under the clothing of travelers looking for the tools of terrorism.

In a vote of 310-118, the House passed legislation that will limit the use of the equipment, which was backed by the Transportation Security Agency, and which delivered an x-ray image that allows “a highly realistic image to be reconstructed… of the traveler’s nude form that’s detailed enough to show genitalia.” The vote in the House attached an amendment drafted by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, to a broader TSA bill.

Chaffetz’s TSA bill amendment says that whole body imaging “may not be used” as the primary method of passenger screening, that passengers have the right to refuse it and “shall be offered a pat-down search” as an alternative. The amendment also prohibits the storage or transmission of the whole-body images after they’re no longer necessary for screening.

The Utah representative first introduced the measure as a standalone House bill in April. His original bill made it a federal crime for a TSA screener to share or copy a passenger image; that penalty has vanished in the final passed version of the amendment. Chaffetz said, “Whole-body imaging is exactly what it says; it allows TSA employees to conduct the equivalent of a strip search. Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”

The TSA said that it had made improvements to its scanning technology, and had added privacy algorithm that will provided the x-ray operator with only vague outlines of body parts, according to a CNET story. Apparently, House members vastly preferred that the TSA be unable to provide any images at all of passenger naughty bits, regardless of how “vague” they may be.

The images which were produced by the equipment were very explicit and detailed. They were given an airing on many television news shows and on the Web, where many people found them to be objectionable at the very least. The House vote clearly shows that the legislators were unimpressed by the the TSA’s arguments. Perhaps another wildly intrusive, and not very helpful, government “security” measure is about to die a well-deserved death.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 3:29 pm under Crime, High Definition Formats, Legal, Politics, Technology.

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
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