Hands up anyone who didn't see this coming.
Body scan machines to be used on Tube passengers:
Tube passengers are to have their bodies scanned by machines that see through clothing in an attempt to prevent further terrorist attacks. The millimetre wave imagers will be used to carry out random checks as people enter stations after services resume today.
Simon Stringer, managing director of QinetiQ security division, said: "After today, I expect the travelling public will be more prepared to put up with a greater level of surveillance."
Philip Baum, managing director of the security consultancy Green Light, said, "But there will be huge civil liberties questions because you will have to accept that people will see you walking round semi-naked."
Media after the London bombings: compare and contrast:
Right this minute, on the BBC World service: a lengthy report on humanitarian efforts in Africa. No news crawl. If you didn't know the London bombings had happened already, you wouldn't even know.
Right this minute, on CNN International: a lengthy report on anti-terrorism efforts in other countries, so far specifically framed as a series of successful trades: decreasing freedom for increasing surveillance, with greater security supposedly as the net result. Along the bottom, a news crawl repeats bombing-related headlines constantly.
One of these things is not like the other. One is constant, constant fear-pandering. The other -- from the country that actually suffered the bombings, no less -- is still reporting something resembling actual news, with something resembling a dose of actual perspective.
And so far, nobody on the CNN show seems to have realized that a London crammed with security cameras seemingly every few feet... didn't keep the bombing victims safe at all. The program is quite remarkably deceptive on its face, while advocating measures which attack our freedom much more directly than anything a terrorist can do.
In related news, water is wet, and elephants are very large.
