Interpol chief plays down role of scanners

Body scanners are a misguided attempt to thwart terrorism, according to Interpol

The head of Interpol has questioned the amount of resources devoted to implementing body scanning technology in airports, according to an Associated Press report.

Interpol secretary-general Ronald K. Noble argued at the World Economic Forum in Davos that better intelligence and information sharing between countries is the answer, rather than wide-scale body scanning technology.

Prime minister Gordon Brown told parliament last week that body scanners will be placed in UK airports this week. The US has already rolled out the machines, and a growing number of countries are following suit.

The moves are in response to Nigerian citizen Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow himself up on a flight to Detroit over the Christmas holiday period.

However, Noble's views echo growing dissent over the use of what many believe to be flawed technology. The Interpol chief is reported as questioning "the amount of money and resources that go into these [body-scanning] machines", and maintained that passport fraud is a bigger travel threat.

"The greatest threat in the world is that last year there were 500 million international air arrivals worldwide where travel documents were not compared against Interpol databases," he told Associated Press.

"You don't know the motivation behind the person carrying the passport. [If you're a terrorist] are you going to carry explosives that are going to be detected? No."

MEPs expressed concerns this week over the privacy and health implications of the body scanners, insisting that they should not become "the religion of counter terrorism".