Comments invited on TSA use of "Advanced Imaging Technology"

You can read the full notice here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=TSA-2013-0004-...

BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2013/04/21/tsa-finally-seeks-public-co...

Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5995181/time-to-give-the-tsa-a-piece-of-y...

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-comment-on-ts...

Ruling: http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/B31004711...

Under the APA, administrative acts that establish new regulations (rules) require notice and comment. The TSA tried to implement this without the required notice and comment process, and EPIC got a court order requiring them to. So it's for show on their part in the sense they didn't want to do it in the first place. But now that it's a notice and comment rulemaking, that sets the stage for endless litigation over any procedural failures and court oversight of their determinations.

The pre-established counter arguments are there for efficiency. The way notice and comment works is that you have to respond to significant new issues that come up. You might have to have another round of comments on the new issues. If you anticipate counter arguments up front, that saves time on the back and forth.

Not that it will make a difference, but I feel better now.

"This, and every other measure simliar to it, are a monumental waste of tax payer money. The former TSA chief Kip Hawley has stated publicly that knives and all manner of weapons should be allowed on planes because, after 9/11, it is not possible for an attacker to gain control of the aircraft. (See here for example: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/06/travel/tsa-carry-on-hawley)

These kinds of measures have a single purpose and that purpose is to enrich the companies who develop these technologies. We do not need this to have safe air travel.

A significant side effect of this corporate enriching/tax payer fleecing is a very real and unforgivable transgression on the freedom of all travelers to the USA, including citizens of the USA. In other words, the terrorists win.

It has already been shown that the current body scanners can be defeated and new systems will have vulnerabilities as well. If the government is truly concerned about saving the lives of citizens, they would take whatever money is to be spent on this useless technology, likely in the billions, and spend it on road safety. Instead of self-driving cars, we have peeping-tom scanners with unknown health effects.

Please stop this insanity."

I just get a page that says (null) when I follow this link. Same result since the last time someone shared this link with me.

The biggest issues I have with AIT are as follows:

1) How much longer they make security lines due to how much slower they are, and having to funnel two metal detector lines into a single AIT machine.

2) How much more expensive they are than metal detectors.

3) How they don’t actually work any better than the cheaper metal detectors.

4) How those longer waits and compressed lines actually make a much more dangerous “soft target” outside of the screening areas. When you pack so many more people into a security situation and take longer to screen them, you have a lot of innocent people at risk.

The privacy concerns are less of an issue to me, as I choose to opt-out every time I fly (which is rather frequently, and unavoidable.) But given the overall cost, ineffectiveness, increased wait times, and increased risk as a passenger, AIT is a completely unacceptable solution.