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.

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