Freedom Line Blog

In an interview with the Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”), Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”) Transportation Analyst Marc Scribner discusses the legal challenge to compel the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) to comply with a year-old court order to give the public an opportunity to comment on the agency’s use of full-body scanners on airports.

CFIF joined CEI’s amici brief.

Listen to the interview with Mr. Scribner here.

Remember Erroll Southers?  He was President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the chief of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), the agency in charge of security at all the nation’s airports.  If approved, he would have been the point man for installing full body scan machines for every passenger to walk through.  Yet, he withdrew his nomination last month after it surfaced that twenty years ago as an FBI agent he illegally accessed information about his ex-wife’s boyfriend.  By all accounts he was a model security professional before and after the incident, but introduce a personal motive, and even the best people may play a dangerous game with our privacy.

Once again, Britain provides a case study.  Recently, an Indian film star discovered the failures of a government-run failsafe system.  Immediately after participating in a mandatory full body scan at London’s Heathrow airport, Shahrukh Khan saw two female security workers printing out a picture with detailed outlines of his manhood on display.  The event gave the lie to assurances by the British government that no scanned information would be saved or printed.  Though irritated, he made light of the matter and autographed the paper.  The rest of us should take note.

It is darkly ironic that at a time when most Americans are disgusted with the lack of transparency from their government, their government is lusting after more transparency from its people.

They do in Britain if the subject of the security scan is under 18. As for everybody else, it looks like Heathrow personnel are taking their time deleting near naked images of celebrities like India’s Shahrukh Khan. Even more troubling, they may be printing and sharing them.

Who knew people charged with security would abuse their power in such a way?! Especially since they work for the government! It’s almost as if the people working at airport checkpoints are the same type of folks who would illegally access confidential information about an ex-spouse’s new squeeze while working for the FBI.