Ex-DHS Official: Body Scanner Image Won't Make 13 Year Old Boy Excited

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Former Department of Homeland Security official Stewart Verdery said the full body scanners do not produce "the type of image that is going to make a thirteen year old boy very excited" during a debate on the privacy issues associated with increased airport security on "Washington Unplugged" Tuesday.

"I think that T.S.A has reasonable guidelines in place that these screeners are detached from the people they are screening," he told CBS News' Nancy Cordes.

Verdery admitted that no technology is "fool proof" in detecting terrorist threats but that the TSA must use all of the tools at their disposal – regardless of privacy groups claims that machines such as the full body scan are invasive, expensive and not effective.

"The body scanner machine is not the best technology to get the current threat and it has this huge privacy set back," Michael German, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union told Cordes in response.

"Our liberty was hard won and we should not sacrifice it on the promise of better security," he said.

Watch the full debate above.

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"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

[engineerintern]

Everyone can say that it will not be revealing and doesn't excite a 13 year old. But where is the actual scan image? Why won't they post it? This is because it is pornography. You can see every genital area.

They say the image is not stored, but if once you scan it is stored in the PC memory otherwise TSA won't be able to see it. The scanner scans once not constantly, unless the TSA can see everything in less than 1 second.

[Wimpie9]

This is a strip-search, period. It makes no difference that the technology allows it to be done on an industrial scale, it's a violation of privacy that ultimately has, at best, no effect on safety. At worst, it exposes frequent fliers to elevated doses of x-ray radiation which may cause more deaths by cancer than the terrorists could ever kill with an airplane.

Body-cavities are not revealed, thus making this simply an exercise in power-mongering voyeurism.

You MUST opt-out of these intrusive searches, and maybe be wanded/patted by a same-sex guard. I Opt'ed Out a few months ago, which gave me the opportunity to officially express my displeasure - the smurf wrote down the reason for my opting-out for their official records (it's a strip-search, I said). I suggest more people do this.

Plus - do you want your kids showing up to Beavis & Butthead in the back room looking like this:

http://www.rupture.co.uk/Terminal%204.html

ACTUAL IMAGE!

[FauxNews]

So, will the scanner images get a 13 year old girl excited? Obviously, this is all vital information.

[licht1]

Full-Body Scanners are so "old technology."

See:

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/full-body-scanners-old-technology/

[patriot2011]

These scanners would not detect items (explosives, matches,etc) that someone had ingested. That person could simply take laxatives once onboard to 'retrieve' the material. This is how convicts sneak contraband into prisons.

Since people under the age of 18 are not required to go through the body scanners, what's stopping the terrorists from using kids to bring bomb making materials onboard?

It seems like the more incompetent/irresponsible government workers, the fewer rights we are allowed to keep. Law enforcement received intelligence that Al Qaeda operatives were planning on using commercial airliners to attack the US. The government did nothing, thousands of people died and now the rest of us have to go through more stringent security screening. The same thing happened with the Nigerian bomber. His own father reported him to the US embassy, the government did nothing, no one died (luckily) and now we are all forced to go through virtual strip searches.

How many government workers have been fired over the Nigerian bomber incident? Zero

How many law abiding citizens are being forced to comply with virtual strip searches? Millions

[FHMullane]

Get a life. These people are gonna see sooo many scans that they will not give a damn... They are looking for bad stuff not the bodies. It is like saying an OB GYN gets excited... nooooo... Same thing here. The person seeing the scans won't even be able to put a face with the scan.

Privacy is important... so is your life... isn't it?

If we don't start being realistic this stuff will continue.

[theRealTortion]

Ya, right! You notice how they have never actually shown us what the image will look like. Let's see an actual scan of a young woman published, and then look at the comments grown men leave, and see if it's really something that wouldn't excite a 13 year old boy!

And these stories are always full of comments from people carrying on about how they don't care who sees their scan, anyway. I'm sure those are a bunch of flabby, out of shape people that no one especially wants to see naked. Personally, I don't want a scan of my body circulated on the internet for my co-workers, neighbors, etc., to see. And anyone who thinks these images won't get out is completely delusional!

[book_of_wally]

Its not a 13 year old boy getting excited that we are worried about, its those 40 year old kid fiddling freaks.