German Pirate Party protests full-body scanners at airports

One of the more dubious "solutions" to terrorist threats to airline passengers is the requirement to install full-body scanners at all airports with flights into the US.  I was in Canada this week and there was much grumbling about the plans to purchase 44 machines for Canadian airports. Canadians view the fear-mongering over terrorism by US politicians and American news media with amusement and disgust. But they have little choice but to comply with US directives, even if they disagree.  Not the least worry are the doubts about the safety of the machines: does exposure to the low-level radiation pose a health risk? And who stands to benefit financially from selling and installing these machines?  Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security head in the Bush administration, has been on all the major television networks calling for full-body scanners but not revealing that he is a highly-paid lobbyist for the company that makes the machines.

In Germany, the small but highly visibile Pirate Party has formally protested the installation of full-body scanners and threatens to organize "flash-mob" demos at German airports: 

Die Piratenpartei lehnt die Einführung der Nacktscanner ab, weil sie
“die Intimsphäre und die Persönlichkeitsrechte der Passagiere”
verletzten. Für den Parteivorsitzenden Jens Seipenbusch
sei die Einführung des Nacktscanners vor allem eine “Steigerung der
gefühlten und nicht der tatsächlichen Sicherheit”. Seipenbusch
kritisiere den Scanner für die Bekämpfung von Terrorismus als “den
falschen Weg” und als “Interesse von Leuten, die ihn verkaufen”. (The Pirate Party rejects the installation of "naked scanners" because they violate the intimacy and the rights of privacy of the passengers.  According to party chairman Jens Seipenbusch the scanners merely increase the perception of security, without adding anything to actual security.  Seipenbusch criticized the scanners as "the wrong way" to combat terrorism; they benefit only those individuals selling the machines.)

A press release on the Pirate Party Web site goes into more detail:

Die Nutzlosigkeit der Nacktscanner zeigt sich unter anderem bei der
Betrachtung des jüngsten Attentatsversuchs in den USA. Der von dem
Täter verwendete Sprengstoff wäre durch die Geräte nicht erkannt worden (The uselessness of the "naked scanners" is evident from the most recent terrorist attempt in the US. The explosive substance used by the perpetrator would not have been detected by the machines).

The Pirates intend to organize demonstrations at major aiports where the protestors will strip down to their underwears, using the slogan: “Ihr braucht uns nicht scannen – wir sind schon nackt” (You don't need to scan us – we're already naked!).