WASHINGTON (JTA) — Agudath Israel of America commended the Transportation Safety Administration for its new scanner technology that obscures details of passengers’ bodies.
"We are a community that is particularly sensitive to the threat of terrorism and the need for strict security measures,” Rabbi Abba Cohen, the haredi Orthodox group’s Washington director, said in a statement Thursday, “but we were convinced that, with perseverance, both religious concerns and security issues could be accommodated."
The TSA announced this week that its full-body scanners would use Automated Target Recognition, which casts only a generic image of the body.
Cohen noted that the Aguda had, along with a number of other religious groups, joined an effort spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union to ban earlier technology that revealed intimate details.
"There are other civil rights issues that still need to be addressed but it looks like this one has been resolved to the satisfaction of all," Cohen said.
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