Hi-tech security: How the scanners reveal suspect items Millions of airline passengers will have to pass through body scanners in a major security crackdown, Gordon Brown will say today.
The UK and U.S. will use every possible technology to fight the Al Qaeda threat.
Introducing scanners, on transatlantic flights at least, will provide protection against terrorists but could lead to delays.
The £100,000 machines produce what is effectively a nude picture of the body.
They can detect small amounts of concealed explosives such as those used by syringe bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab in his failed attack over Detroit on Christmas Day.
In a letter to voters on the Downing Street website, the Prime Minister says the drama was a 'wake-up call' that Britain remains a prime terror target.
His aides said he wanted to make a 'major intervention' in the security debate. Britain has just one body scanner in operation, in a trial at Manchester.
Another four at Heathrow are not in use. Experts say at least 25 would be needed just to cover transatlantic flights from Heathrow, but a Government source said last night: 'Cost is not an issue'.
The scans have been described by critics as a 'virtual strip search', outlining every contour of the body in detailed anatomical images.
They are already used in some airports in other countries, including the U.S..
Although scanners are supposed to speed up security - passengers do not have to take off shoes, belts and coats or have 'pat down' searches - it will take time for airport staff to use them efficiently. There could be delays as hundreds of passengers queue at the machines.
Security row: Ministers have been accused of 'napping' over the delayed introduction of the scanners in Britain (Amsterdam's Schiphol airport pictured)Mr Brown's letter came after ministers were accused of putting lives at risk by failing to order the scanners into action at British airports.
Downing Street officials urged the public not to see the machines as a panacea. 'They're only as good as the people operating them,' one said last night. 'They won't solve the problem on their own.'
No 10 also denied that Mr Brown has been shown intelligence of an impending terrorist attack against the UK. But they made clear that his letter was a timely reminder to the public that the threat has not evaporated.
The Premier says he will hold talks with President Barack Obama to ensure equipment is available to combat the 'evolving' new hi-tech terror threat.
He writes: 'We need to continually explore the most sophisticated devices capable of identifying explosives, guns, knives and other such items anywhere on the body.
'These could include advancing our use of explosive trace technology, full body scanners and advanced X-ray technology. We will move things forward quickly.'
Mr Brown's letter says: 'The new decade is starting as the last began - with Al Qaeda creating a climate of fear.
‘The failed attack in Detroit on Christmas Day reminds us of a deeper reality - that almost ten years after September 11, international terrorism is still a very real threat.'
The Prime Minister says he will act quickly if a review he has ordered into terrorist-watch list results in a recommendation to ban people who are barred from entering the country from setting foot in a UK airport, even as a transit passenger.
He writes: 'We all urgently need to work together on how we might further tighten these arrangements, in particular, at what point suspects are added to the list and when they are deemed too risky to be allowed to fly or leave or enter the country, and also into wider airport security. Mr Brown calls the Yemen, where the syringe bomb plot originated, a terrorist threat to rival Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He said Britain will now help set up a 'Friends of Yemen group' with Middle Eastern countries to help the government there combat Al Qaeda. The UK has already committed £100million in aid to Yemen by next year.
The announcement of support for body scanners was greeted with scepticism. Tory transport spokesman Theresa Villiers said the Government had been 'caught napping'.
Liberal Democrat spokesman Norman Baker said: 'The Government ought to have made more progress in deploying these scanners. Ministers face serious questions about why they have not been introduced with much greater urgency.
'Once again the Department for Transport looks flat-footed and the price is being paid by hundreds of thousands of people going through our airports.'
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil liberties group Liberty, said: 'We all take our security seriously but we need to learn the lessons of the recent past. Any response to terrorism has to be proportionate and respectful of the values of dignity, privacy and liberty that governments on both sides of the Atlantic have been all too easily tempted to ignore.'
source: dailymail