Infinite Unknown

The TSA’s “no fly” terrorism watch list contains between 400,000 and 1,000,000 names. If you’re on the list by mistake, good luck getting off of it.

After having begun a series of investigative stories criticizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in May 2008, CNN reporter Drew Griffin reports being placed with more than a million other names on TSA’s swollen terrorism watch list.

Although TSA insists Griffin’s name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin’s negative reporting, the reporter has been hassled by various airlines on 11 flights since May. The airlines insist that Griffin’s name is on the list.

Congress has asked TSA to look into the tribulations of this prominent passenger.

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Tags: 9/11, CNN, Congress, Constitution, Fourth Amendment, Government, terrorism, terrorists, TSA, U.S.

Airports in New York and Los Angeles have become the latest equipped with body scanners that allow security screeners to peer beneath a passenger’s clothing to detect concealed weapons.

The machines, which are about the size of a revolving door, use low-energy electromagnetic waves to produce a computerized image of a traveler’s entire body.

Passengers step in and lift their arms. The scans only take a minute, and Transportation Security Administration officials say the procedure is less invasive than a physical frisk for knives, bombs or guns.

Someday, the “millimeter wave” scans might replace metal detectors, but for now they are being used selectively.

Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York saw their first scanners installed Thursday, each at a single checkpoint. Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport got one of the machines in October.

Modest travelers may have concerns about the images.

The black and white, three-dimensional scans aren’t as vivid as a photograph, but they do reveal some of the more intimate curves of the human form, maybe with as much clarity as an impressionist sculpture by Auguste Rodin. Continue reading »

Tags: ACLU, Airport, American Civil Liberties Union, Body Scanners, bombs, concealed, detect, guns, John F. Kennedy, knives, Los Angeles, New York, passengers, Phoenix Sky-Harbor, Privacy, protections, security, security screeners, TSA, weapons