Call for Boycott of New Airport Scanners over Thanksgiving

(The Wall Street Journal) - Examples of public resistance to the rollout of high-technology body scanners in American airports are mounting Tuesday, with some protesters calling for a nationwide boycott of the new security scanners on the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Several pilots unions are advising their members not to pass through the machines because of concerns about exposure to radiation -- levels of which the government says are negligible. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil-liberties advocacy group, filed a lawsuit to block them. Two pilots filed a suit Tuesday claiming that enhanced body scanners and pat-down procedures violate their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the machines, which use radio waves or X-rays to paint a graphic image of passengers' bodies, are an important part of the multiple layers of security for air travel. The alternative to the scans is aggressive pat-downs by the TSA.

"There's a new paradigm in aviation security given the threats we are facing," said TSA head John Pistole, in an interview Tuesday. Pistole defended the enhanced pat-downs before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.

Criticism of the scanners and the pat-downs has lit up the internet, Twitter and late night talk shows. Some passengers have created headlines, including a man in San Diego who videotaped his confrontation with TSA officers and a woman in Florida who complained on her radio show about TSA treatment.

"We are absolutely committed to getting the scanners and the groping rolled back," said George Donnelly, one of the organizers of national Opt Out Day, which urges airline passengers to protest the scanners by choosing the invasive -- and time-consuming -- pat-downs. The group aims to get the travel industry to put pressure on Washington to change the policy.

The scale of opposition to the scanners isn't clear. The loosely organized effort to organize Opt Out Day only began about a week ago, and the TSA says travelers overwhelmingly agree to use the scanners. A CBS News poll conducted Nov. 7-10 showed 81 percent of Americans approve of the use of the machines.

"It's being done for passenger safety and security, and because of the changing threat environment we inhabit," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at a press conference Monday.

Source: The Wall Street Journal