Body scanner wouldn't have foiled syringe bomber, says MP who worked on new machines



Gordon Brown’s plans to foil terrorist attacks by installing body scanners at UK airports are doomed to failure, according to an MP who helped to design the machines.

Tory MP Ben Wallace, who worked on the scanners at defence research organisation QinetiQ before entering Parliament in 2005, said the £100,000 ‘millimetre wave’ machines would not have stopped syringe bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from trying to mount his attack on Christmas Day.



The terrorist had sewn high explosives into his underpants, which he attempted to detonate as the plane flew over Detroit.

Warning: The £100,000 body scanners, seen here at work, would not have stopped the Christmas Day bomber, according to Tory MP Ben Wallace

Bomber: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had high explosives sewn into his underpants

The Prime Minister vowed to use technology, and additional scans at airports, to fight the threat from Al Qaeda.



But Mr Wallace warned: ‘I must advise the Prime Minister – and the British public – that the scanners are not a “silver bullet”. You would be mistaken to think that they would counter the new threat.

‘The millimetre wave technology is harmless, quick and can be deployed overtly or covertly. But it cannot detect chemicals or light plastics.



‘They have their uses. They give a sharper image of objects – especially metallic – than the “metal arch” scanners now in use.



'And as they scan the whole body, they would speed up security checks as there would be less need for the “pat-down” search.

‘They are also able to scan crowds at a distance. But they cannot detect everything.’ He said that the only type of scanner that might be able to pick up concealed explosives were X-ray machines – but they pose health risks and are too slow to operate.



Mr Wallace, the Shadow Scottish Minister, added: ‘Scanners are only part of the solution. A method better than any scanner is profiling. Why is it at airports we all

are put through security the same way?’

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said he was considering following in the footsteps of the U.S. by banning airline passengers from leaving their seats for the last hour of any journey, as well as giving airline staff the authority to target 'high risk' passengers.

While this move would undoubtedly anger ethnic minority groups, one Muslim MP has caused controversy by saying he thinks Muslims should be singled out at airports for extra security checks.

Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said: 'I think most people would rather be profiled than blown up. It wouldn't be victimisation of an entire community.



'If people want to fly safely we have to take measures to stop things like the Christmas Day plot.



'The fact is the majority of people who have carried out or planned these terror attacks have been Muslim.'

But Massoud Shadjareh, the chariman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, contested: 'It's not true that all terrorists are Muslims.

'Any such measure would not only alienate people, it would also be ineffective in terms of stopping terrorists."



Meanwhile, it was last night announced that Britain and the United States are to jointly fund a counter-terrorism unit in Yemen, in response to the latest airline bomb plot.

Abdulmutallab is said to have told FBI agents that he was radicalised and trained in Yemen.