U.S. Adding Body Scanners at 11 Airports

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is expanding the use of scanners that can detect bombs under passengers’ clothing to 11 airports following the attempted Christmas day attack, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today.

Scanners will be added at locations including Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Boston, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, as part of the 1,000 machines the Transportation Security Administration has said it plans to install by the end of next year.

“We are enhancing our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the nation,” Napolitano said in an e-mailed statement in Washington.

The agency, which runs airport security, is accelerating machine use after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on approach to Detroit Dec. 25 by igniting explosives in his underpants.