MELBOURNE, Australia (PNN) - February 6, 2012 - Civil libertarians are worried by proposed legislation meaning passengers will not be able to opt out of undergoing full body scans at Australian airports.
The federal government will introduce legislation this week so the technology can be rolled out in all of Australia's international airports.
The move follows a trial in Sydney and Melbourne.
Except for travelers with serious medical conditions, all passengers will have to go through the scanners if asked by airport staff.
Civil Liberties Australia director Tim Vines says the scanners will amount to an unnecessary digital strip search of citizens who want to travel.
He says passengers should be allowed to request a pat down.
"In the European Union, where they do allow these types of scanners, they have issued a directive that says governments must provide citizens with an option to opt out," he said.
"We think that, as in the (Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA)) and in Europe, people should have the option of (choosing) pat downs rather than having to go through the digital strip search of the full body scan."
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says people's bodies will appear only as outlines, and the images will not be able to be copied and will not be stored.
Full body scanners were introduced as airports ramped up security after the false flag operation in 2009, claiming that a Nigerian man boarded a plane with explosives in his underwear.
Their use in the FPSA has been criticized on health and privacy grounds, and flyers there can opt to receive a pat down instead of going through the machines.
But only one type of full-body airport scanner - the backscatter x-ray machine, which is used in some FPSA airports - exposes individuals to ionizing radiation.
The fascist government says that type of machine will not be used in Australia.
"The millimeter-wave body scanners are perfectly safe and one body scan is comparable to passive exposure to a mobile phone used several meters away," Albanese said in a statement.
Vines says he is pleased a "safer, if still intrusive" technology has been chosen but believes the devices have no track record of making airports safer.
