Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday called for technology that can spot bombs and suicide vests at train terminals and airports to be taken out of "testing limbo" and be approved, especially considering the growing tensions between the United States and Iran.
The Transportation Security Administration has been studying the screening, known as stand-off explosive detection technology, since 2004, and Schumer said in a statement it is time to put it into action, reports the New York Post.
"Clearly, this critical terror-preventing technology can give law enforcement the upper hand by spotting suicide vests and small explosives — but only if it can escape testing limbo to priority approval status," Schumer said.
Schumer noted the technology was tested at Penn Station two years ago, and should be used there and in other terminals and airports in New York City, especially considering the mounting tensions between the United States and Iran.
The system does not use radiation but instead, units detect threats by "passively assessing naturally occurring emissions from the human body" and trigger an alarm if a person is carrying or wearing an explosive device that can block the body's emissions.
"Amid tensions with Iran, security concerns and the constant threat of lone-wolf terror, which we have already seen in our subway system, the feds need to plot the course to make this technology install-ready," Schumer said. "Whether the hurdle is related to cost, complexity or whatever else, the bottom line is that we need to overcome it so law enforcement can have another critical intel tool at the ready."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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