Janet Napolitano Defends TSA Full-Body Scans and Pat Downs

From Janet "The System Worked" Napolitano: "Scanners Are Safe, Pat-Downs Discreet":

Nearly a year after a thwarted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas Day, the recent attempt by terrorists to conceal and ship explosive devices aboard aircraft bound for the United States reminds us that al-Qaeda and those inspired by its ideology are determined to strike our global aviation system and are constantly adapting their tactics for doing so.

Our best defense against such threats remains a risk-based, layered security approach that utilizes a range of measures, both seen and unseen, including law enforcement, advanced technology, intelligence, watch-list checks and international collaboration.

This layered approach to aviation security is only as strong as the partnerships upon which it is built ...

And we ask the American people to play an important part of our layered defense. We ask for cooperation, patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.

As part of our layered approach, we have expedited the deployment of new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units to help detect concealed metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers. These machines are now in use at airports nationwide, and the vast majority of travelers say they prefer this technology to alternative screening measures.

AIT machines are safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy. They have been independently evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who have all affirmed their safety. And the weapons and other dangerous and prohibited items we've found during AIT screenings have illustrated their security value time and again.

Rigorous privacy safeguards are also in place to protect the traveling public ...

RTWT at the link.

Napolitano indicates that the "officer assisting the passenger never sees the image" of hot naked travellers, and those pat down techniques are "conducted by same-gender officers," heterosexual, of course.

And Secretary Napolitano stresses repeatedly that we "face a determined enemy." Right. This is the same cabinet secretary and Obama crony who claimed there was no evidence that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's bombing attempt was "part of anything larger."

That said, conservatives and libertarians are demanding what? No more pre-flight screening procedures? Yeah, I know. We're combatting the last terrorist attack. But still? Unless we start racial profiling we're gonna have these searches Or, well, maybe not. See, Art Carden, "Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA" (at Memeorandum). And Reason.TV:

RELATED: "Hey, Hey, TSA, guess what? We won't fly."

IMAGE CREDIT: Voting Female.