I would wonder if a jamming device (preferably area-effect with a slowly randomly varying swathe of area, to avoid figuring out who was carrying it) would be possible, or some variety of shielding (i.e., emitting waves looking similar to flesh). -Allen
Direct Media NEW X-RAY GUN TRADES PRIVACY FOR SAFETY Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 The Associated Press
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Aug 12, 1996 09:47 a.m. EDT) -- The latest weapon against terrorism can see right through you.
The Passive Millimeter Wave Imager can X-ray through clothing to "see" a concealed weapon, plastic explosives or drugs. A police officer can surreptitiously aim it into a crowd from as far away as 90 feet.
The new X-ray gun is becoming a symbol for an unlikely alliance of civil libertarians and gun owners who fear the fight against crime and terrorism may be waged at the expense of personal freedoms.
"I'm incredibly concerned," said John Henry Hingson, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, meeting here this past week. "The entire nation could become a victim of illegal searches and seizures and the law is powerless to protect them from these police abuses."
But in these nervous times following the the crash of TWA Fight 800 and bombings at the Olympics, Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center, many Americans are now willing to trade some of their privacy and civil liberties for greater security.
A poll last week by the Los Angeles Times found that a majority of people -- 58 percent -- said they would curtail some civil liberties if it would help thwart terrorism. Thirteen percent said it would depend on what rights were at stake. The poll didn't ask people to single out any rights.
The Clinton administration has proposed increased wiretapping and other anti-terrorism steps, and is doling out research grants for cutting edge anti-crime technology that once may have been intended for only military use.
[...]
Two models are being developed of the Passive Millimeter Wave Imager, a creation of Massachusetts-based Millimetrix Corp.
The larger one, about the size of a shoebox, is mounted on a patrol car and pointed at the unsuspecting person. The gadget doesn't send out X-rays; instead, it picks up electromagnetic waves emitted by human flesh.
Anything that stands in the way of those waves -- like a gun -- or anything that emits weaker waves -- like a bag of cocaine or a plastic explosive -- will show up on a little screen in the patrol car.
Clothes emit no waves. Neither do walls, allowing the device to be used from even outside a room.
A second model is a smaller, battery-operated version that an officer can operate by hand, like a radar gun.
Millimetrix hopes to field test the larger model soon at a police agency.
Hingson argues the device runs roughshod over bans against illegal searches and seizures. The law says police can stop and frisk a person only when an officer has a "reasonable suspicion" the person is armed or involved in a crime.
Millimetrix points out that while the imager can see through clothing, it still leaves people some privacy. The device's display screen, the company says, "does not reveal intimate anatomical details of the person."
Chip Walker, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, noted that devices like the imager threaten the legal rights of people in 31 states who are allowed to carry concealed weapons with proper licenses.
"We certainly support efforts to disarm criminals, but we need to be careful that we're not painting with too broad a brush here," he said.
Walker said that as troubling as terrorism is, people may be playing into terrorists' hands by giving up their privacy.
"One of the broader issues is that if we start giving up certain civil liberties, that essentially means that the terrorists are starting to accomplish one of their goals," he said.