Updated: This story was updated with new information from the TSA on March 17, 2011 at 6:41 EDT.
It might not be long before airport security will let you keep your shoes on, even if they do grope you.
The Transportation Security Administration announced this week that it’s accepting proposals for a “shoe scanner” device. It could be a way to cut down on the aggravations of airline travel while still allowing officials to check for weapons and explosives inside a terrorist’s Reeboks. The idea crashed and burned when the Department of Homeland Security first proposed it years ago.
The current push to acquire the devices kicks off on April 25, when would-be designers will have the chance to submit proposals for the scanners.
What will the next scanners look like? Will they use X-ray or millimeter wave technology? Will they be held in a TSA agent’s hand, or will you have to put your feet on some kind of scanning pedestal? We’ll have to wait until the full request is published on April 25. But a TSA spokeswoman, Sarah Horowitz, tells Danger Room that the agency “is not limiting the types of technologies that can be considered, as long as they meet TSA’s requirements, including those for safety and detection standards.”
Ever since would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to blow up a transatlantic flight in December of 2001 with explosives concealed in his shoes, TSA has made airline passengers remove their shoes for X-raying, in the belief that terrorists will emulate Reid’s failed effort. Nearly 10 years later, TSA’s effort still contributes to long lines at security gates.
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Triacetone-Triperoxide also known as TATP has a third name, among the Palestinians, it was called “MOTHER OF SATAN”. That is because it is about the most unstable compound there is, it’s makers were marked by missing fingers and hands. So consider my surprise to hear our alleged “Protectors” claiming that the 240+ pound, 6 foot 4 inch, Richard Reid, the “Shoe Bomber”, supposedly had his shoe-soles stuffed with TATP. I asked myself, how does a hulking galloot stomp around for at least two days, with the most unstable explosive in the world…… in his shoe SOLES!? And he could not ignite it? I would like to know how he KEPT it from igniting! TATP appears in a lot of their questionable scenarios.
Just how much radiation do you suppose you, your children, can absorb? Chernobyl covered the northern hemisphere, now Japan will, and T&A keeps finding new, UNTESTED, ways to radiate you. So 30 years from now, as your child dies of agonizing cancer, remember what a SWELL time you had at Disneyland.
Where else are UNTRAINED operators, NOT wearing lead vests, allowed to x-ray patients with NO supervision? When standing in the “FULL BODY PornoSCANNER” ask yourself, has the operator pushed the button ONCE …… or THREE times?