GAO: Whole Body Scanners Raise Questions About Effectiveness
U.S. could spend $3 billion to place whole body scanners in airports around the world. A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report states that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says each whole body image machine would cost $170,000 and requires 3 people to operate. The cost of covering 60 percent of all security checkpoints at the busiest commercial airports is about $300 million with an addition 3,550 TSA personnel. Privacy groups have raised questions about passenger privacy and challenged the agency's assertions regarding safeguards against abuse or misuse of nude images of passengers. The GAO report also raised questions regarding the effectiveness of whole body imaging technology in detecting low density materials such as powder or gel explosives as well as items that may be designed to allude detection. Former Administration Department of Homeland Security senior officials have gone to work of companies selling the whole body scanners to TSA.
Scanners may not have detected alleged explosive in Detroit jet case, GAO reports, By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, March 18, 2010
