We Knew it was Coming: The Airport Crack Scanner

Danger Room reports:

The “underpants bomber” has renewed calls for new and more invasive security measures. Already, there’s a push to install scanners that show travelers’ naked bodies through clothing, using either millimeter wave or backscatter X-ray imaging. But even those scanners might not have caught the terrorist who nearly brought down Northwest flight 253.

That’s why one company is trumpeting a sensor that can supposedly “detect substances such as explosive materials … hidden inside or outside of the human body.” First step: Actually build a human-sized machine.There has already been one report of a suicide bomber carrying explosives internally. Many sources, including the BBC, carried an early report suggesting that Abdullah Hassan Al Aseeri adopted the new tactic of “carrying explosives in his anal cavity” for an attack in September. The target, a Saudi prince, survived, but Aseeri was reportedly blown in half by the blast. Later reports suggest the explosives were actually sewn into his underwear, but security experts believe there is a real danger of “internally carried” bombs, a technique used for years by drug smugglers.Nesch, a company based in Crown Point, Indiana, may have a solution.

It’s called diffraction-enhanced X-ray imaging or DEXI, which employs
proprietary diffraction enhanced imaging and multiple image radiography (.pdf).

Rather than simply shining X-rays through the subject and looking at the amount that passes through (like a conventional X-ray machine), DEXI analyzes the X-rays that are scattered or refracted by soft tissue or other low-density material. Conventional X-rays show little more than the skeleton, but the new technique can reveal far more, which makes it useful for both medical and security applications.

“Our patented technology can detect substances such as explosive
materials, narcotics, and low-density plastics hidden inside or outside
of the human body,” company CEO Ivan Nesch claims. DEXI allows
explosives to create contrast, he adds, so it would be able to detect
both the underpants bomber and the shoe bomber before they boarded.

The image shows how a conventional radiograph does not detect two packets of “illegal materials” concealed in soft tissue, while they are plainly visible in when DEXI technology is used.

Of course, X-ray scanners always bring up a concern over the level of radiation involved. One of Nesch’s corporate slogans is “Less radiation, more information,” as DEXI uses significantly less radiation than other approaches.“It is far less than what a passenger would receive simply by flying on an airplane across the United States,” says Nesch. “Passengers who are imaged using DEXI security will be exposed to approximately 50 times less radiation than that of a conventional radiograph. ”

Have we heard this before?? It is completely safe, and it will enhance security? It will preserve privacy?

The first thing I thought when I heard about bombers carrying explosives in their underwear and body cavities, I knew privacy would go down the toilet. People would be screaming for full body scans and body cavity searches in as many airports as possible. Of course, any pretenses about modesty from the "family values" right would immediately be forgotten in the name of security. Which is what we see now. And the advent of the "crack scanner" seems to point us in this direction.

Bend over, America!