During a vote in June, Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dentraced around the House floor urging his colleagues to defeat legislation that would forbid full-body scans as the primary security at U.S. airports.
Dent, the Republicans‘ point person on transportation security issues on the Homeland Security Committee, warned that traditional metal detectors would not pick up more advanced explosives being sneaked onto an airplane. His efforts that day fell short.
But the failed Christmas Day attack, allegedly by a Nigerian man on a jetliner en route to Detroit, has shed new light on airport security and its vulnerabilities.
The chemical cocktail that 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to use as an explosive on a Northwest Airlines jet would not have been detected by standard metal detectors. But technology that scans underneath a passenger’s clothes would have picked up the explosives.
On Wednesday, Dent said he plans a full-fledged effort to jump-start the debate on implementing full-body scans as widely as possible. He said he is encouraged by comments from President Barack Obama that suggest the White House will review airport screening policies.
”I’m going to kick up some dust down in Washington and say we have to resurrect this issue,” said Dent, who represents the 15th District. ”We had a 10-minute debate on it and not a lot of members were paying close enough attention to it. They are going to understand it better now.”
The decision to prohibit full-body scans as the primary screening technology was part of a larger debate on legislation to reauthorize programs under the Transportation Security Administration, an agency formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The main argument against the technology is concern over invasion of privacy.
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