(This is a repost from February 2010. It contains form letters giving you the ability to post your name and send it to your representatives.)
Dear Fellow Hoosiers,
In light of recent events, the Indianapolis International Airport, by order of Transportation Security Administration, has implemented the use of full body scanners. Many are unaware of the nature of this machine. We need all Hoosiers that care about their privacy to contact their Congressmen, Senators, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, and the TSA.
We have written two form letters that you can use to attach your name and send off. You can download them here and here.
A full body scan entails standing in front of a machine that dispenses extremely high frequency radio waves that reflect off a person and creates a digital image. Americans would never submit to mandatory strip searches, so the TSA has employed the technological equivalent. This image is essentially a nude image of that person’s body. That nude image is then “interpreted” by a security officer to verify if there is a threat.
This scanner is a hands-off approach to a strip search and is a major invasion of privacy.
Several problems, exposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, have shown the following:
1. The photos are not secure as the TSA claims. Images can be extracted from the machines, and taken by machine operators.
2. The full body scanners are not effective at detecting explosives hidden in body cavities. Terrorists over the last several months have all had explosive devices either hidden in body cavities, in heavy clothing, and some are surgically implanting devices. The weaknesses of these devices have been exposed, and are no longer effective.
3. It is unclear if children are or are not prevented from walking through the devices. If they are walked through these scanners, then this is breathtakingly inappropriate. If they are not scanned then we are putting children at a higher risk of being used in terrorist plots.
4. The scanners are not identified at the Indianapolis International Airport. Many who walk through the scanners are unaware of what they are walking through. The Indianapolis Airport Authority has responded by stating that there should be two signs in place warning passengers of the scans while they are in line and if a passenger refuses the scan they will receive a pat-down by a security official; however, there is no verbal explanation and they offer no alternative pat-down unless there is a refusal of the scan.
For more information on the serious problems with the full-body scanner, please visit: http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/see-through-body-scanners
Please write to Sen. Lugar, Sen. Bayh, Rep. Carson, or the IAA with your concerns about the Full-Body Scanners and how they are an invasion of privacy. Demand that the TSA end this invasion of privacy immediately.
Sincerely,
Sam Goldstein Chairman, Libertarian Party of Indiana
Richard Lugar
306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Evan Bayh
463 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Find your congressperson’s address here:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA)
7800 Col. H. Weir Cook Memorial Drive, Suite 100
Indianapolis, IN 46241
Complaints can be made directly to the TSA using this online form: