Full-Body Scanners

“The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will begin using more full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a ‘professional’ al-Qaida terror attack. A top Dutch official said a scanner of that type might have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Friday carrying undetected explosives. Law enforcement officials say the 23-year-old Nigerian tried but failed to detonate the explosives on a plane carrying over 300 people. ‘It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster,’ Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst told a news conference, referring to it as ‘another al-Qaida attack.’ The Dutch minister said the U.S. had not wanted these scanners to be used previously because of privacy concerns but said there was now agreement with Washington authorities that ‘all possible measures will be used on flights to the U.S.’”