the explosives were wrapped in cloth or similar soft material. Gunpowder, of course, has to be wrapped in something that holds the material very tightly, so what material would both allow for a big explosion and would be invisible to scanners is a very good question.

In the Inky today, a letter-writer asks about the harm that these machines may do.

Furthermore, there are health issues that add to the problem. Despite the fact that the radiation given off by these body scanners is not as harmful as that in a CAT scan, how do we know what effect the scanners will have on our bodies after 10 years or more?

I dunno, I don't think you're flat-out wrong on the issue as much as I think that there are questions and complications that should be addressed before the US runs pell-mell into a frantic, possibly ill-considered solution to a very real problem.