9/11 Attacks And Airport Security

Airport security

This paper will address the September 11 attacks and the problems with airport security personnel and the outdated technology that was being used in most airports The September 11 terrorist attacks could have been avoidable if airport security was up to par with new security devices and better trained personnel. The government should have passed a new airport security law to update security devices and to make sure employees were properly trained long before September 11. Airport security would still be in poor shape if it wasn't for September 11. It took September 11 to happen to make the U.S. government realize that airport security was not good enough. The September 11 attacks are the worst terrorist attacks ever
This old equipment primarily x ray machines can pick up metal objects but not new advanced materials used as explosives or other weapons. These older machines don't always pick up all metal objects either. This machine that is used in most airports is the dual energy x ray system. This x ray machine only uses one x ray source to detect metal objects. The x ray power of this old machine sends out between one hundred and forty to one hundred sixty kilovolt. (www.controlscreening.com) That is pretty low power compared to some of the newer machines that can send out almost two hundred sixty kilovolts such as the backscatter machine. The more power used in an X ray machine the more it can go throw to view objects. This older machine will only pick up metal and nothing else. There is a newer machine on the market that could be successful in finding anything that could be used as a weapon or an explosive. This new machine is called the Backscatter and it would reveal all. This new machine will pick up both metals and plastics. This x ray machine scatters x rays beams that bounce off metals or plastics instead of skin like the older machines. The x ray beams are so powerful in this newer backscatter machine that it will show the person passing through it without any clothes on. The reason this machine has not been put into effect is because a lot of people feel that it would violate
People need to realize that if this machine will help prevent another terrorist attack like September 11 than it would be worth putting this machine in all 450 commercial airports and violate the rights of those that feel uncomfortable passing through the x rays machines. There is also other newer x ray machines that can pick up plastics as well as metals but are not as full proof as the backscatter machine discussed above. If people had the choice between the two machines Im sure that they would want the one that was guaranteed to pick up more than just metals. The reason it is so important to pick up more than metal is because bombs and other weapons are now being made with plastic materials. Plastic is now popular in making bombs and uses no metal so the older X ray machines never would have picked it up. All guns up to this point in time always have contained metal in them so they have always been detected by x ray machines. The older machines were good when they first came out because the main focus was to pick up metals such as guns. (www.abcnews.com) Weapons that contain metals have been the main thing used by terrorist in the