Over the years, I've spent many hours, more than I care to count, in airports around the world.
From the perspective of security, one is in a class by itself: Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport. In the wake of the thwarted terrorist attempt on Northwest Flight 253, it's time to revisit the Israeli model, as other countries ask what more can be done to prevent such near-catastrophes.
What are the Israeli ingredients? I don't pretend to know them all, many of which are understandably hidden from view. But some are quite obvious and rather distinguishable from the norm at too many other airports.
In Israel, security comes first. It's never an afterthought. It's not outsourced to the semi-competent. It's not about show-and-tell. Rather, it's front-line work that's in the hands of professionals and is well-coordinated and no-nonsense.
Israel creates a set of security layers, or circles, around airports - and, by extension, airplanes.
By the time a traveler boards the plane, there have been any number of potential interception points, starting with the toll-booth-like security entrance for all vehicles entering the airport grounds. Every car is stopped, while the guards make visual examinations and follow their training and instinct. Behind them stand intense-looking young men with sub-machine guns at the ready.
When entering the terminal buildings, again, more non-uniformed guards and more visual screening.
Then there's the first actual security line in advance of flight check-in. An official approaches each passenger on line and patiently poses questions, which aren't simply perfunctory, as they are, say, here in New York. They can be rather extensive and by no means predictable, usually accompanied by a review of tickets and passports -- before the formal passport control, which only comes after check-in -- to corroborate statements about itineraries and examine travel patterns.
When it comes to the actual security lines after check-in -- the ones we're familiar with -- the contrast with, for instance, the U.S. can be striking. Everyone is quiet. There is no appearance of hyper-activity (the "more-is-less" phenomenon), as too often is the case at American airports. Interestingly, no one in Israel has ever asked me to take off my shoes or remove liquids from my hand luggage, suggesting how sensitive the available technology can be.
Apropos, in a similar vein, after 9/11, when, on American flights, we were being handed plastic cutlery, flights from Israel continued to use stainless steel. Israel was less concerned with the symbols of apparent security -- the "Mickey-Mouse stuff," as someone called it -- and more focused on what constituted its real elements.
And even after successfully passing the security line, there's more to come, right up to the plane's interior, at least if it's El Al, where air marshals are deployed on every flight.
In fact, speaking of marshals, in 2001, Richard Reid, who was later to become the notorious shoe bomber, flew on El Al. According to a CBS news report, while the Israelis didn't have enough on him at the time to keep him off the plane, they were suspicious. They examined everything before he boarded and then, for good measure, placed a marshal in the adjoining seat. If he was on a scouting mission, he got the point and looked elsewhere.
To those who have never visited Israel, this may all sound as if it requires a full day, if not a week, before the actual flight. Not true. For the average passenger, the whole process moves quickly and with a minimum of personal inconvenience.
Of course, for travelers who have multiple visas from Yemen or Pakistan in their passports, look fidgety or distracted, become unnerved after the second question, try to buy a one-way ticket at the last minute with cash, show up with no luggage for an intercontinental journey, are wearing a heavy coat in summer, or display "attitude," it's likely to be a rather different story.
And this is the key. Israel understands that you need a security system that carefully scrutinizes everyone, as you can never tell who might be involved. Recall, for instance, the case of Anne Mary Murphy, the pregnant Irishwoman who, in 1986, planned to fly on El Al from London to Tel Aviv, thinking she was to meet her fiancé's Palestinian parents. Unbeknownst to her, he placed explosives in her suitcases, plotting the mid-air destruction of the plane carrying her and their unborn child. An alert El Al agent prevented disaster.
That said, the Israelis believe there must be an additional assessment mechanism -- apart from the essential pre-flight intelligence gathering -- which acknowledges that not everyone is equally likely to carry out a terrorist attack. Some call it profiling, which has become a dirty word to those who think it conjures up notions of racial, religious, or ethnic targeting. In reality, it's more sophisticated than simplistic classification.
At the end of the day, Israel's approach depends as much, if not more, on the human dimension as it does on sophisticated technology. It also places a higher priority on saving lives by preventing tragedies than succumbing to what might be termed political correctness or privacy concerns.
It's clear, even to the casual observer, that those responsible for security at Ben-Gurion Airport (and, no less importantly, for El Al flights traveling to Israel from airports around the world) see themselves on the front lines in the country's defense. It is a job, of course, but it's much more.
Each security official understands that the safety of the traveling public depends on the alertness and judgment exercised at every step of the elaborate process. Each recognizes that all this is not an abstraction, a distant prospect, but something very immediate.
Thus, as Israel has shown, it requires ongoing training and the capacity to anticipate the terrorists' next moves. Too often, we tend to employ an "after-the-fact' strategy, otherwise known as fighting the last war. That means a permanent effort to probe the potential vulnerabilities -- and plug them up fast.
In reality, of course, no country can claim a foolproof system, and all countries in the front lines against terrorism have experience to share. But, as recent events strikingly underscore, there is still much work to be done -- and at least some of it was embarrassingly avoidable.
Israel, which for decades has been on the front line in the war waged against the West by radical Islam, has more than its share of experience in dealing with both terrorist methodology and the jihadist mindset. We could all do a lot worse than to learn from the Israeli model.
These crazy guys are trying to blow up Americans primarily because of our government's support of israel's illegal occupation of palestinian land as well as invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq etc.
Much of the anti-American terrorism experienced over the last few decades was after the 1967 Arab/israeli war and before America decided to keep "infidel" troops in Saudi Arabia after Gulf War I.
see ICTS official US Government SEC annual report:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1010134/000089109209002579/0000891092-09-002579-index.htm
Aviation Security Operations in Europe
ICTS, through I-SEC, supplies aviation security at airports, airlines and governments in Europe and the far east. During 2008, I-SEC was contracted to provide and extend the security services it provides to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam ("Schiphol"). The contract is for a period of five years.
I think we've "Iearned" pIenty about IsraeIi security practices, thanks very much.
This sounds like the same garbage that all the Jews who worked at the World Trade Center stayed home on September 11 ...
Just another Jew hater who can't resist the urge to blame the Jews for Islamic terror.
Did you read this lie on some web site and swallowed it without ever bothering to check it's validity?
You just said to yourself "yeah its the Jews ... "
If one Israeli owned company ran security for all three incidents ... then how is it possible this same company sold its European operation in 2001 to Fraport AG which you would have known had you bothered to question all the propaganda people feed you.
This is what you would have found
"In 2001, ICTS International N.V. sold its European division to Fraport AG. Within the framework of the agreement, Fraport was permitted to name the purchased division 'ICTS Europe'. We hereby emphasize that ICTS Europe is not a member of the ICTS International N.V. Group, but an entirely different entity, and that from the completion of the sale transaction, the two companies do not maintain any further business relations. Furthermore, the proprietary, leading edge technologies and security concepts developed by ICTS International N.V. remain under its sole ownership.
http://www.icts-int.com/content6e03.html?id=13
Passenger screening at Schiphol is provided by I-SEC Netherlands, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of I-SEC International Security B.V. I-SEC International Security B.V. is a fully-owned subsidiary of ICTS International N.V.
In 2001, ICTS International N.V. sold its European division to Fraport AG. Fraport renamed the company 'ICTS Europe'.
In 2005, ICTS International N.V. established a new, fully-owned subsidiary, I-SEC.
It is I-SEC (a subsidiary of the Israel-owned ICTS International N.V.) -- not ICTS Europe (owned by the Germans) -- that has the security contract at Schiphol.
http://www.international-sec.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103:2008&catid=16:other-news&Itemid=7&lang=en
http://www.icts-int.com/content6e03.html?id=13
That you defeat the terrorists by being smarter than they are.
By learning from mistakes.
By attacking and destroying terrorists (Entebbe) whenever is possible.
But you knew that, right?
Except for millions of people who fly every year. LOL.
The fear of terrorism is disproportionate to the actual risk. Thats the whole point. Get it now?
One of my favorite quotes is from the late Kurt Vonnegut - it is the message he said he would leave for Earth's alien visitors. "We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard, and too damn cheap".
The terrorists are going after airport security because they see it as an effective way to scare the crap out of us and damage our pocketbooks. People travel less, and more money and attention is wasted on airport "security."
What you say about ports and the border and stopping WMDs is not what I am discussing. I'm all in favor of "draconian" measures being used against shipping containers. It's when they are used against people is when I get worried.
But of course this practice eventually caught on in other parts of the world.
And although I wouldn't ever advocate all international passengers being body searched before boarding the aircraft, this did happen to me and all my fellow travellers in India shortly after an assassination attempt on Indira Gandhi. In light of the close call on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight on Christmas Day, the practice makes sense in context.
It's up to the airports and the airlines to restore confidence in air travel, and they can only do that by spending money on equipment and training. And despite problems with no-fly lists, if a man's own father reports him as being suspicious to the feds, he would definitely be on that list if I was running the show.
Wrong. Iraq gets the most aid from U.S. followed by Afghanistan. By far. Their accomplishments so far?
Given that America destroyed Iraq, one can't call what they are getting now as "aid". I mean if you storm into my house and take it over and destroy everything in it then you owe me so the damage can be repaired. As to Afghanistan - well - the story line is different but the tactics are much the same. Take over and show the fools that your religion is better than theirs by wrecking the lives of many and demanding they adapt a government which took hundreds of years, revolutions, strikes etc. to evolve and it isn't working very well even to-day.
Oh yes....cant wait to be more like israel in every way...lol
I've been patted down at Heathrow and at US airports - world of difference. I've had my luggage searched 3 times in London, in front of me. I've been called out of the waiting area and asked to accompany armed guards to check my suitcase. I'm short, female and blonde, so it wasn't profiling, just a country that's had to deal with terrorism - right or wrong.
see their SEC annual report where they admit responsibility:
http://www.secinfo.com/dUScp.1r.htm