In a hearing held on March 16, 2011 by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations entitled, “TSA Oversight: Whole Body Imaging,” Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who Chairs the House Transportation Committee, entered into the Congressional record that studies performed at his request by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded an “extensive failure rate” for the TSA’s whole body scanners’ ability to detect explosive weapons as they are widely advertized to be capable of doing by the Transportation Safety Agency (TSA). 

Congressman Mica was forbidden to disclose the true extent to which the TSA scanners failed to detect explosives or threatening substances because the federal government has classified these embarrassing results.  Rep. Mica expressed humility and remorse about having played a key role in creating the Transportation Security Administration and for being an early advocate of the use of advanced imaging systems, actions for which he now seems to hold deep regret.

The Congressional hearings examined issues associated with the use of imaging technology, including its effectiveness, privacy concerns, and associated health risks.

In Panel 1 of these hearings Alaska State Representative Sharon Cissna, who spearheaded Alaska’s efforts to resist the TSA scanners, testified that these systems are causing the American people to lose trust in their government.   

True to form, TSA representatives called before the House Subcommittee initially refused to testify in the first panel as they had promised the chairman.  Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) was eventually able to arrange their testimony in the hearings’ subsequent panels.

Panel 2 of the hearings focused on privacy issues and featured testimony by Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which has filed lawsuits to compel TSA to stop saving the naked images it collects and to release technical specifications on the scanners to provide an independent review of their public health safety risks. 

The general consensus of the subcommittee testimony and discussion acknowledged that TSA scanners provide little more than “security theater”.  At which point, House Subcommittee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) flatly noted that: “Nobody has to look at my grandmother naked to secure an airplane”.

Panel 2 also featured testimony by Dr. David Brenner of Columbia University who pointed out that even if low radiation intensities are indeed used the “low” risks become significant when averaged out over large population samplings, prompting the question why these risks should be taken if the scanners do not and cannot detect explosives.  Dr. Brenner was compelled to admit that the general scientific community did not have access to the data TSA claims to confirm the safety of their imaging systems. 

When pressed by Chairman Chaffetz, Brenner further conceded that the reports of radiation levels being 10x higher than “expected readings” in over 1/3 of the systems as logged by the scanner manufacturer was cause for justified concern.  Dr. Brenner also confessed that he probably would not allow his “pregnant wife” to go through the scanners.

Rep. Mica acknowledged that his initial investigations into setting up aviation security included counseling the penal system which advised that even when body cavity searches are applied to prisoners drugs invariably get into the penitentiary.   Mica’s experience with all technological solutions, for which he has long been a strong advocate, is that they simply do not work and should not be introduced without rigorous and successful testing to avoid repeating the federal government’s propensity for promoting fiasco. 

Mr. Rotenberg (EPIC) provided testimony that the United States “is now really alone in treating its traveling public in this manner”.

Panel 2 concluded with an exchange between Chairman Jason Chaffetz excoriating TSA representative Mr. Baker that the U.S. military does not use the scanners in Afghanistan or Iraq, locations where improvised explosive devices are most widely used, opting for bomb-sniffing dogs instead, and that bomb sniffing dogs are used exclusively during the most secure events on Capitol Hill, for instance during the State of the Union Address.

Panel 3 convened to hear testimony from the TSA officials Robin Kane and Lee Kair, who insisted that the whole body imaging systems were the best solution for keeping “America safe”, however, they could not confirm that their scanner qualification tests abided by the National Academy of Sciences standards. 

Chairman Chaffetz expressed frustration with TSA’s lack of candor, which includes its refusal to release technical specifications that would allow an independent review of radiation hazards to safeguard the traveling public’s health. 

Congressman Chaffetz also forced the TSA officials to concede that all whole body scanners are built to specifications that allow them to transfer images through a high-speed network interface in contradiction to DHS Secretary Napolitano’s public representations.  The TSA officials could not provide a definitive “no” when asked if the scanners were being used to transfer images of the public’s naked bodies.

Representative Farenthold (R-TX), who had been the unfortunate subject of an intrusive enhanced pat-down when the scanners set off a false alarm, demanded why TSA employees were not required to wear dosimeter badges to monitor their risk of radiation exposure.  He was once again told that the radiation exposure intensities were well below safe limits, without being told what those levels actually were.

The video proceedings of these hearings are informative and now available to download from the House of Representatives website.   A brief summary of the hearings was reported by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune.

Take a stand and put an end to the scanners in Texas.  With a few clicks of your mouse, you can speak your mind to EVERY MEMBER OF THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE and encourage them to support David Simpson’s (HD-7) legislation to criminalize enhanced pat-downs and ban the scanners in Texas.