Europe, Mideast protest tighter airline security in wake of Christmas bombing attempt

Europe, Mideast protest tighter airline security

BRUSSELS — Officials in the Middle East and Europe questioned tighter U.S. airline security measures Tuesday, saying increased body scanning and inspections of Arab passengers would be discriminatory and overly intrusive.

After the alleged Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner, the Obama administration said it would require more full-body pat-downs, searches of carryon bags, full-body scanning and explosive-detection technology at U.S. airports.

The European Union has said it may require member nations to put in more full-body scanning machines in order to conform with American security measures and ease passengers’ trips from Europe to the U.S.

But the European Union’s new top justice official said at a confirmation hearing Tuesday that for privacy reasons scans must be voluntary, not mandatory, come with a guarantee they pose no health hazard and their images must be quickly destroyed.

“Our citizens are not objects. They are human beings,” Justice Commissioner-designate Viviane Reding told a European Parliament confirmation hearing.

The U.S. has also demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. Beside Syria and Lebanon, they include Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Algeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Tarek Mitri complained that “citizens of different countries are singled out in a discriminatory fashion.” In Syria, the state-run news agency said Washington’s top diplomat in Damascus was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and told the new measures constituted “unfriendly behavior.”

Existing EU law allows the union’s executive body, the European Commission, to attempt to unilaterally impose transport security across the 27-nation bloc, such as body scanners in every airport.

The European Union has indicated it may force resistant member states to use the full-body scanners being pushed by the Obama administration in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing.

But any such measure would have to be endorsed by the European Parliament, which has already expressed reservations about privacy and health issues involved in installing body-scanners.

To address those concerns, Reding said she may send the parliament additional legislation explicitly allowing passengers to opt out of a body scan.

Reding said EU governments have improved security measures to deal with terrorism, but have not spent enough time protecting citizens’ rights.

“There can be no freedom without both security and justice,” she said. “I believe that … Europe’s policies have too often focused only on security and neglected justice.”

Reding said she wants privacy protection boosted in agreements that the EU signs with the United States and other countries.

EU lawmakers have complained that the bloc’s governments have put security above civil freedoms by handing personal bank or travel data to U.S. authorities without seeking privacy safeguards.

Associated Press Writers Leslie Patton and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.