Detroit flight plot may prove boon for security firms

Airport body scanners that privacy advocates have likened to strip searches are to be removed from U.S. airport because the company behind the machine couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing. Airline passengers were offended by the revealing images, including those of children and the elderly. The Washington- based Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in July 2010, claiming the scanners violated privacy laws and has called use of the machines equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.”

Airports worldwide ramped up security after a botched attempt to blow up a US bound plane on Christmas Day, with the failed terror attack throwing the spotlight back onto flight safety.Amsterdam-Schipol airport was also investigating how the 23-year-old Nigerian with reported links to Al-Qaeda could smuggle onboard explosives that he tried to detonate as the flight approached Detroit before being overpowered.

After the United States announced it was axing revealing full-body scanners it appears Canadian airports may not be too far behind. The Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) in 2010 over the scanners, claiming they went against privacy laws and said the machines were equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.” Because their full-body scanner supplier, OSI Systems’ Rapiscan, is unable to produce the type of images they want, the TSA has decided to ended their $5 million contract.

The EU's anti-terror coordinator Gilles de Kerchove backs the use of full body scanners at airports, saying they would be "very effective" as long as privacy concerns can be overcome."I am in favour of the body scanners, as long as there are rules in place" to assure passengers over the images displayed, he told AFP on Friday.The Spanish EU presidency called Thursday for a common European stance on the use of body scanners at airports as member states bicker over the issue which has been highlighted by a failed plot to blow up a US airplane.

A young Nigerian was charged with attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction aboard a US plane, as under-fire security chiefs vowed to revamp intelligence services.Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was indicted by a grand jury on six counts arising from a botched Christmas Day plot to blow up a Northwest airliner packed with 279 passengers and 11 crew as it approached Detroit, Michigan.Michigan district court documents accused him of "carrying a concealed bomb" inside his clothing on board Flight 253 from Amsterdam.

Image from a back-scatter scanner

Washington will try to convince the EU to install body scanners at its main airports for use by US-bound passengers at talks in Spain on Thursday but European officials are seeking privacy safeguards before agreeing to the measure.US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is attending an informal meeting of interior ministers in Toledo to try to strike a deal, deemed crucial following last month's failed bomb plot on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The Rapiscan full-body scanners to be pulled by this summer use radiation to create nude-like images of passengers screened for hidden weapons at airports.The Transportation Security Administration is removing controversial full-body scanners made by a Torrance manufacturer, winning praise from privacy advocates and passenger-rights groups that raised questions about the health effects of the devices.