The US homeland security czar on Sunday said the controversial full-body scanners and invasive pat-downs, which had sparked an outrage in India earlier in December, will remain in place for the “foreseeable future” at airports around the country.
Asked on CNN’s State of the Union programme if anything is going to change with the pat-down programme, homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano said it will not change for the “foreseeable future”.
Even as she argued that the new technology and pat-downs are safer for the travelling public, the security czar said she is always looking to improve the security systems in place.
Some airline passengers and legislators have objected to the new Transpor-tation Security Administr-ation (TSA) policy, which includes full-body scans and pat-downs.
TSA, under its new policy, must screen airline passengers using whole-body imaging systems. But passengers who feel that the scans are too intrusive are permitted to go through a metal detector or receive a pat-down, which some have said comes too close to groping. There was outrage in India when Indian ambassador to US Meera Shankar was pulled out of security line at Mississippi airport and patted down by a US security agent despite being told of her diplomatic status. The incident had sparked a diplomatic row and prompted the Indian mission here to strongly protest.