Full-Body Scans Rolled Out At All Australian International Airports 329
suraj.sun writes in with a story about the spread of full body scanners. It reads in part:"Passengers at airports across Australia will be forced to undergo full-body scans or be banned from flying under new laws to be introduced into Federal Parliament this week. In a radical $28 million security overhaul, the scanners will be installed at all international airports from July and follows trials at Sydney and Melbourne in August and September last year. The Government is touting the technology as the most advanced available, with the equipment able to detect metallic and non-metallic items beneath clothing. It's also keen to allay concerns raised on travel online forums that passengers would appear nude on security screens as they had when similar scanners were introduced at U.S. airports. The technology will show passengers on a screen as stick figures of neither sex."
It's not /just/ the nude thing (Score:5, Informative)
The cancer causing radiation is also a bit of a concern too...
Who in the Aussie government got the kickback? (Score:5, Informative)
The EU banned [naturalsociety.com] these contraptions due to unsafe radiation.
Re:I always wanted to go to Australia (Score:5, Informative)
Sterilization (Score:5, Informative)
The radiation used in the scanners might also sterilize us.
That way not only does the world learn that you have a miniscule penis, but they also know it's no longer a working one.
Re:Who in the Aussie government got the kickback? (Score:5, Informative)
There are two kinds of body scanners -- XRay and terahertz. EU banned the former, not the latter.
The picture in the article is a terahertz machine. That's what L-3 makes.
Re:Government Contract in Search of a Problem? (Score:5, Informative)
The problem that it solves is the ability to fly aircraft to the USA - the US lays down the requirements for the security of flights that are flying to a US airport or over their airspace, and if the flights do not meet the requirements, tehy do not fly direct (see the issue of the Pakistan International Airlines issues where for a long long time after they bought their brand new Boeing 777s, they had to do a stop over in Manchester, UK on all Pakistan-USA flights, deboard the aircraft and everyone was put through UK security before the plane could depart for the US (the plane was also subject to search while the passengers were offloaded).
If the security measures do not match up to what the US wants, you have problems flying to the US...
Sure, its a self made problem, but its a problem none-the-less.
Re:new meaning to down under (Score:5, Informative)
Now will they have pat downs as well?
I have to wonder about this too. Depending on the way the scans are done I'm sure that there will be medical reasons some people won't be able to go through the scanner. The ones in the US force me to not go through the scanner because I'm type one diabetic and have an insulin pump / real time blood glucose sensor. I find it hard to believe that all cases will be covered as far as medical equipment and safety of the scanners.
Very disappointing (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Government Contract in Search of a Problem? (Score:5, Informative)
It's 'toque'
Re:Government Contract in Search of a Problem? (Score:2, Informative)
In Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland I primary see it spelled 'tuke'.
The spellings 'toqué', or 'tuqué' are the french spellings, which I know are used in Quebec and New Brunswick.
The rest of the country it's one of the three, but without the acute e -> é
millimetre wave body scanner (Score:4, Informative)
They're using millimetre wave body scanners, so no ionising radiation.
http://www.ausbt.com.au/australian-airports-to-get-millimetre-wave-body-scanners [ausbt.com.au]
John Pilger: Australia remains a colony (Score:5, Informative)
Australia remains a colony in all but name. Australian intelligence agencies are, in effect, branches of the main office in Washington. The Australian military has played a regular role as US mercenary. When prime minister Gough Whitlam tried to change this in 1975 and secure Australia's partial independence, he was dismissed by a governor-general using archaic "reserve powers" who was revealed to have intelligence connections.
WikiLeaks has given Australians a rare glimpse of how their country is run. In 2010, leaked US cables disclosed that key government figures in the Labor Party coup that brought Julia Gillard to power were "protected" sources of the US embassy: what the CIA calls "assets". Kevin Rudd, the prime minister she ousted, had displeased Washington by being disobedient, even suggesting that Australian troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
In the wake of her portentous rise ascent to power, Gillard attacked WikiLeaks as "illegal" and her attorney-general threatened to withdraw Assange's passport. Yet the Australian Federal Police reported that Assange and WikiLeaks had broken no law. Freedom of information files have since revealed that Australian diplomats have colluded with the US in its pursuit of Assange. This is not unusual. The government of John Howard ignored the rule of law and conspired with the US to keep David Hicks, an Australian citizen, in Guantanamo Bay, where he was tortured. Australia's principal intelligence organisation, ASIO, is allowed to imprison refugees indefinitely without explanation, prosecution or appeal.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3806462.html [abc.net.au]