SALT LAKE CITY, UT — There’s not a lot of sex-positive news that emerges from Utah these days, but Rep. Jason Chaffetz’ opposition to what he calls “TSA porn” may be a step in the right direction, as counter-intuitively as that may seem upon first glance.At issue for Chaffetz is not pornography per se, but the fact that whole-body imaging is being considered as the primary means for performing security scans at airports.
For those still living in a pre-9/11 fog, whole-body scanning is the latest mega-expensive means by which questionably trained airport security operatives will theoretically keep the airlines safe from terrorist attack. In order to do that, of course, they need to see everybody naked.
“Whole-body imaging is exactly what it says.” the 3rd District Republican opined. “It allows TSA employees to conduct the equivalent of a strip search.”
Chaffetz probably speaks for most Americans when he insists that “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”
In order to address the issue, the lawmaker has proposes his first legislative bill, designed to keep whole-body imaging from becoming the de facto means of checking passengers for unauthorized carry-ons.
One reason Chaffetz is so hot under the collar about something that most citizens still think sounds like the stuff of futuristic science-fiction stores is because Salt Lake City has been one of the host locations chosen for the $170,000 per security machines’ testing debut.
Chaffetz’ Aircraft Passenger Whole-Body Imaging Limitations Act would restrict the method to secondary status, used only for those passengers who fail a metal detection scan – and only if those passengers decline a pat-down search.
The images, which Chaffetz has likened to “TSA porn,” present travelers in the all-together, showing viewers precisely what the scanner person looks like without their clothing. It is possible to determine a subject’s sex by the resulting image, although their faces are obscured on the screen.
Among Chaffetz’ concerns are the possibility that scan images might be stored indefinitely, something that would not happen if his bill becomes law. Instead, all images would be deleted once a person had successfully passed through the machine.
In a statement that once-upon-a-time might have been stating the obvious, Chaffetz pointed out that “Passengers expect privacy underneath their clothing and should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies as a prerequisite to boarding an airplane.”
