1 January 2010 / REUTERS, THE HAGUE
The Netherlands and Nigeria have said they would use full-body scanners at airports after a failed Christmas Day attack on a US-bound plane by a 23-year-old Nigerian suspect who passed through both countries.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport will begin using the scanners -- which “see” through clothing -- within three weeks to check people travelling to the United States, after consultations with US authorities, the Dutch interior minister said. Nigeria will equip its international airports with the scanners in the New Year, an aviation official said. In the United States, the botched attack aboard the Detroit-bound US airliner has prompted congressional calls for greater use of body scanners that advocates say would have detected non-metallic items like explosives smuggled aboard. The attack exposed what President Barack Obama on Tuesday called “human and systemic failures” in US security agencies, and spurred speculation that US intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could be forced to resign. The White House was standing by Blair, saying the four-star admiral had the full confidence of the president. “This is not about one person or one agency,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
