Report: X-ray machines don't detect explosives in shoes

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-14-xrays-airports_x.htm?csp=34

X-ray machines that screen airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening.

Findings from the report, obtained by The Associated Press, did not stop the Transportation Security Administration from announcing Sunday that all airline passengers must remove their shoes and run them through X-ray machines before boarding commercial aircraft.

The shoe-scanning requirement was ordered as the government fine-tunes new security procedures since British police last week broke up a terrorist plot to assemble and detonate bombs aboard as many as 10 airliners crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to the United States.

<snip>

In its April 2005 report, "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security — Phase I," the Homeland Security Department concluded that images on X-ray machines don't provide the information necessary to detect explosives.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Great. Millions of people taking off their shoes...

...so the govt looks like it's doing something.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Your observation sums up most of the TSA's policies.

Absolutely pointless inconveniences, all for the purpose of looking like it is doing something.

[Retrograde]

9. it's a simple syllogism

Something must be done.
This is something.
Therefore, we must do it.

See? Straight-forward logic.

[zreosumgame]

10. I applied for a position with TSA

when it was first being set-up. I was given low marks for spotting 'too many' suspisious items. Now we see why, because the machines suck all by themselves...

[MADem]

3. That's it, EXACTLY--so they LOOK LIKE they are doing something.NT

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Apparently they don't detect the long screwdrivers that I have

accidentally left in my little bag on a number of occasions either. The explosives/shoes/xray thing was apparent from the very start.

[wakeme2008]

5. Up there with taking away ppl lighters but allowing them to

bring on three packs of matches... Shitttttttt.

[Robb]

7. Of course, everyone I know who smokes

...and myself included, has inadvertently brought a lighter on a flight, just because it was in a pocket.

[Tesha]

6. Of course they don't. And any idiot would have known this. (NT)

[damntexdem]

8. But maybe they'll set explosives off. Or maybe gel insoles.

Oh, right: we can't take those onto planes anymore, anyway.

[Eugene]

11. AP: TSA Says Shoe X-Rays Can Detect Bombs

TSA Says Shoe X-Rays Can Detect Bombs


Wednesday August 16, 2006 12:31 AM

AP Photo DCNW101

By LESLIE MILLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government sought to assure airline travelers
Tuesday that X-raying shoes at security checkpoints was a reliable way
of detecting improvised bombs, a claim contradicted by a Department
of Homeland Security study.

"Screening shoes by X-ray is an effective way of identifying any anomaly,
including explosives," said Kip Hawley, Transportation Security
Administration chief, at a news conference at Reagan National Airport
just outside Washington.

-snip-

A scientist who has studied the issue said the truth lies somewhere
between the study's findings that X-ray machines can't detect bombs and
Hawley's assertion that they can.

Richard Lanza, senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, said the X-ray image doesn't identify what a gel or a liquid
is made of. But, Lanza said, screeners can "look at the image and connect
regions that look the same in density and shape."

It's not a foolproof method, but it is often effective, he said.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6017528,00.html