TSA Chief Says No Change in Airport Scanners, Pat-Downs

(Nov. 17) -- Faced with a barrage of questions about new airline screening procedures, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said today there would be no changes in the use of full-body scans and pat-downs for passengers.

Administrator John Pistole acknowledged at a congressional hearing that the new body imagers, along with more thorough pat-downs, are causing a public outcry. But he argued that educating the public, rather than changing the procedures, was the appropriate answer.

"Am I going to change the policies?" he said. "No."

While the pat-downs may not change, Pistole said that John Tyner, an airline passenger who attracted national attention this week when a video of him refusing the pat-down was posted on YouTube, would likely not face any fines. Tyner's phrase, "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested," helped make the video go viral.

"I do not anticipate anything coming from that," Pistole said when asked about Tyner.

The hearing in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee was supposed to focus on cargo security, but instead the discussion tilted heavily toward the escalating debate over TSA's new body imagers and pat-downs, which have evoked public outcry leading up to the holidays.

At issue are the rapid proliferation of Advanced Imaging Technology, an X-ray machine that uses millimeter waves to create a whole-body image to spot hidden objects. The graphic image of the human body that it creates has led many to dub the machines "naked screeners." An online campaign urges passengers to refuse body scans in a "National Opt-Out Day" on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, one of the nation's busiest travel days.

Travelers can elect not to go through the new scanners, but then they receive a pat -down from TSA personnel, which many feel is too intrusive.

Though not all of the senators were critical of new screening procedures -- some argued for better public education -- several noted public concern.

"The public outcry is huge," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, echoing comments made by other lawmakers about calls to their office from constituents complaining about the new procedures.

Pistole acknowledged that changes took place this month in the pat-down procedures, which previously involved using the back of the hand to check the groin area. He declined to specify precisely what the new procedures involved, citing the ability of terrorists to learn and adapt from this information.

Asked by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., whether he had personally experienced a pat-down, Pistole said he had, as had other senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security. "It is thorough," he said.

Not all the senators were critical of the imaging machines. "I'm wildly crazy about walking through a machine, rather than love pats," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., referring to the pat-downs.

The TSA has been rapidly expanding the use of the new machines at airports around the country. Pistole said there are 385 screeners at 70 airports, with plans to get to 490 imagers by the end of the year. By the end of next year, 1,000 will be deployed across the country.

Acknowledging concerns about the machines, Pistole said TSA is already looking at a next-generation imager that uses advanced algorithms for "automatic target recognition," a way of spotting possible threatening objects on a person without providing an actual detailed image of the body. He compared the images from those future machines as akin to a "stick figure," rather than the graphic images produced by the current scanners.

However, that technology is not ready for deployment yet and still has a high rate of false positives, according to Pistole. Asked how far away those machines are from being ready, he said it was hard to say, but possibly "months."