They've already put airplane bombs in shoes and underpants. Now, terrorist masterminds have devised a new hiding place: Breast implants. Female Al Qaeda suicide bombers are being surgically fitted with explosive enhancements, according to intelligence sources. Such implants would only be detectable by X-ray machines, and not airport scanners. How seriously should America take this new threat?
The TSA is already thinking about it: The "tatas of terror" sounds like a joke, says Vicki Crawford in the Naples News. But it's deadly serious. How to deal with it though? One imagines "different scanners for the endowed" and even "visual checks" for surgical scars. Male TSA employees hoping to become "inspectors" in the new regime will be disappointed though — "sorry boys," that's a woman's job.
"Goombas of death"
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A good argument against body scanners: There's no "ironclad system" to protect against this, says Elan Singer in Forbes, unless we're willing to "travel naked." What this proves is that Al Qaeda can always find a way past security precedures. These "high tech" body scanners, bought for around "$150,000 a pop" will produce nothing except "longer security lines" — we should give up on them now.
"Next up: The boob bomber"
Only profiling will work: This "takes terrorism onto a whole new level," says Jeff Taylor at Economic Voice. But we shouldn't go down the "intrusive" and "time consuming" route of banning hand luggage and introducing mandatory "full body searches." Far better to "get off the PC bandwagon" and "start overt profiling." By "using all the tools in the box," we can defend ourselves.
"Surgically implanted bombs, what next?"
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SEE MORE OF THE WEEK'S TERRORISM COVERAGE:
• Is Obama 'tone-deaf' on terrorism?
• Playing the odds on airport terrorism
• Airport security showdown: TSA vs. bloggers
