News: US Government Accountability Office on the Cost of Full Body Scanners

Via Privacy.org: The Government Accountability Office , the audit, evaluation and investigative arm of the US Congress, has estimated that rolling out full body scanners worldwide will cost the American taxpayer about $3,000,000,000:

The audit agency said TSA estimates each unit costs about $170,000, meaning it would cost about $300 million to buy 1,800 units, enough to cover about 60 percent of screening checkpoint lanes at the highest-priority commercial airports. Each scanner requires three people to operate. Based on the administration's request for $219 million to hire 3,550 TSA staffers next year alone, GAO estimates it will cost $2.4 billion overall to staff the machines over eight years.

They also have raised the issue of effectiveness, noting in particular that the operation of such machines on the 25 of December would not have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The House Homeland Security Committee is due to have a hearing on the proposed use of the machines this afternoon.

Detecter partner Mathias Vermeulen has a piece summarising the growing opposition to full body scanners over at the Lift.