What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?
For eight years, travelers in the United States getting ready to head to the airport have had to think hard about their footwear. Knowing that we’ll be forced to remove our shoes to go through the X-ray machines, we make sure that they are an easily removed pair — and that socks have been recently washed to prevent embarrassment. In warm weather, the ordeal can’t be prevented by a clever choice to wear open sandals that expose the feet, as the TSA employees are under strict orders to closely examine even the strappiest shoes.
But Israelis heading for Ben-Gurion Airport need not worry about donning even the most complicated pair of lace-up boots, as passengers are never asked to take off their shoes as part of the security process.
Airport security in Israel is not about what’s on your feet, or in your pockets, or — god forbid — in your underwear. It’s about what’s in your head.
While the Israeli security system is certainly not perfect, it is unlikely that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could have successfully boarded a plane without being detained, questioned in-depth, and hopefully caught — even if his risk level hadn’t been so clearly documented.
The secret of Israeli airport security doesn’t just lie in super-sophisticated technology. Simply put, in Israel’s airport, there are simply far more opportunities to get caught. As Rafi Sela, an expert on security, outlined for the Toronto Star, the security system at Ben-Gurion Airport is multi-layered, comprised of the following elements:
– Roadside check: Drivers are stopped and asked who they are and where they came from. Even at that early stage, they are examined for behavioral giveaways that would mark them as suspicious.
– Armed guards at the entrance to the terminal and the entrance of the airport give you the visual once-over as you enter. They can pull you aside for a random check.
– Before you arrive at the main check-in counter, you stand in a security line where a young, clearly intelligent young man or woman examines your passport and ticket, looks straight into your eyes, and asks you about who you are, where you came from, where you are heading, who packed your luggage, and whether you are carrying any packages for anyone. If you offer an ambiguous answer, or raise any red flags by your behavior, the grilling continues, and the questions can frankly become irritatingly personal. My ire was up in an airport stop pre-9/11, when, to check whether I was in fact an American Jew, I was asked questions about my Bat Mitzvah. Suspicious behavior results in closer examinations.
– Luggage is X-rayed before check-in. Suspicious items are put in blast-proof containers and moved away to a safe area. The airport doesn’t shut down over a suspicious object.
– Only then comes the walk through the X-ray machine (with your shoes on) and the check of your hand luggage. Yes, they are checking out your bags, but again, they are mainly checking you out. Nobody cares about your bottle of water, baby formula, moisturizer, nail scissors, or tweezers.
The journey through this process, with multiple stations at every stop, is usually fairly rapid for low-risk travelers, even at the height of holiday season.
So, as the Star points out, the Israeli way is both more efficient and more effective. So why not adopt it in the U.S.?
The biggest barrier to a major change in process like this is the TSA work force. It’s sorta like they took DMV clerks and made them “screeners”, and then one day someone took a pen and made them all “law enforcement officers” with badges. On average they would probably make okay DMV clerks, but US Marshals? Naw.
Heaven help us if the C.O.B. ..concealed orifice bomb
becomes operational.
I can see it now …. assume the position.!
Your political correctness in the US might cost you your life. You’d rather annoy & inconvenience everyone rather than admit that terrorists come from one group – Muslims. I go through security checks every day – when I go to the bank, the supermarket, the mall, when I take a bus to another city, when I go to the Post Office, when I go to any gov’t. office.
Yes, we have PC idiots who complain about Arabs being profiled, the usual crowd of delusional leftist morons. Our PC brigade (and this includes members of our Leftist Supreme Court) has caused people to die because of their ”idealism” but generally, common sense has prevailed.
When I read about the new security procedures since the terrorist attack by the Nigerian Muslim, I had to laugh. What a joke, but unfortunately, the joke is on YOU.
Yeah, I reckon that you should ban anyone who might possibly dislike what america actually does from doing business with america – and that includes airtravel.
Nice knowing ya. I speak mandarin.
Transmission complete.
I think she made one small mistake about Israeli airport security, I was under the impression they have similar rules about liquids as in the U.S.
Fantastic article. Al Qaeda laughs at our moronic security measures, and revels, no doubt, in the fact that we profile the 99% non-Muslim innocent traveling public and subject them to humiliating procedure as if they ARE Muslim terrorists in order to avoid offending Muslims… How much more their delight if we now subject that 99% innocent traveler to naked Xrays or even anal (and other) probes to continue the charade. Their shrieks of delight will echo in mosques across the gobe if we refuse to reject these insane measures and insist on rational solutions to adress Islamic Jihad against our infrastructure.
Allison Kaplan Sommer is offering some great advice—-but it will unlikely be taken seriously in the United States while Barack Obama is president. Rational profiling is premised on probabilities. The elderly Scandinavian great-grandmother is perceived to be less likely a Muslim extremist than a dark skinned Arab. That is simply common sense. Our politically correct elites, however, refuse to face reality. George W. Bush was bad enough. Obama is much worse. Americans are in such serious danger. We still have three more years to endure Obama’s inept leadership. Will we survive? I don’t know.
I love it. I’d love to see the US people versus the ACLU/MSM and political left. I’d love to see the day we pit the security of American people versus the Islamic apologizing, US denigrating, PC left.
I am bewildered as to why the American public has not demanded that this confrontation take place already. Why risk the lives of Americans so the left/ACLU can make political points and control our lives. When will the American public see the left for who they are?
Is profiling 100% fool proof? Probably not but it is way better than the methods we currently use. El Al has a pretty good track record. Can a determined Islamic jihadit still get a bomb on board a plane? Yes. But at least we can begin to make it more difficult if we begin to really target them as our enemy.
When will the majority of American free ourselves of the chains the left has shackled us with for over 40 years?
The entire TSA baloney put in place was nothing more than a Union jobs program demanded on by Democrats …. why in the world Bush agreed to it and signed it into law is beyond me. Now we are stuck with Union folks that we can’t fire. These are the same people that Obama/Pelosi/Reid want to be in charge of Health Care for all Americans …. so long as their not a current or former member of Congress and their respective families.
It could be that there are too many people to screen, but I’m beginning to suspect (heaven forbid) the government wants terrorists to succeed.
Having been through EL AL security checks several times, also when arriving as a new immigrant, I can attest to their thorough screening.Thank heavens…
While asking questions, or utilizing so called profiling techniques makes many people perspire with PC dementia, so too should the indignity of parading barefoot, counting out ounces of every liquid, intrusive body pats etc etc. In fact, having proven to be ineffective, the indignity of such intrusions are pointless!HOWEVER, EL Al security methods DO work, and the proof is in their safety record – NO attacks on their flights.
It is patently clear that PC dictates are dangerous to the lives of planeloads of people.If US leadership had ANY backbone left, were interested in safety and NOT PC rhetoric, EL AL policies would be duplicated there too.
I would rather have armed guards around the airport, as well as flying air marshals, than not to have them. It is a relief to know that if a terrorist aims to strike, that EL AL marshals (mostly ex IDF)shoot to kill.NOW that is how to keep ones airplanes safe!
They can ask me any damn question they want, as long as I arrive in one piece.
What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?
Nothing, absolutly nothing, when you don’t listen, you don’t learn.
Is there a way to determine, without searching, who does not need to be searched? The TSA answer’s this question “No. Search everyone.”
The Jihadists want to destroy America. As America is an idea, an idea cannot be defended playing only defense,nor handing the football back to the other team when they fumble it.
Israel’s approach is uniquely holistic, encompassing intelligence, technology and subtle profiling. Unlike in the US, where intelligence is compartmentalized, Israel’s intelligence groups know they’re all on the same side. Aside from sophisticated databases, they *do* utilize technology as well (indeed, they’ve invented some of it), but it’s never deemed the magic bullet. Indeed, many of their people *oppose* the use of full body scanners because the religious public they serve – Jewish as well as Muslim – find it so offensive.
And that “profiling” that is deemed so politically incorrect is backed by experience and science, but relies on the professionalism of its people – all ex-IDF. In some places (Detroit, for example) the screener or baggage handler is more likely to be a local Muslim than ex-military.
And, BTW, I’ve seen “for show” security all too often. I’m a former federal employee from whose office I could see the Pentagon burning on 9/11. (Indeed, we felt a tremor following the impact.) For weeks, we – government employees! – had to pass our lunch bags and coffee cups through the machine. One colleague – an ex-Marine – who for years had been carrying a small army knife to open boxes was told he could no longer bring it into the building. Security was eventually relaxed, only to ramp up again on the first anniversary of the attack. Morons!
Were it not such a deadly serious matter, Israel would be mocking us for our foolishness.
“The biggest barrier to a major change in process like this is the TSA work force.”
The Israelis don’t have this problem. We can take for granted that affirmative action policies determine the hiring of TSA workers. Minorities are hired regardless of their lack of qualifications. The TSA is nothing less than a “diversity” dumping ground.
Chris Matthews said he
“felt a thrill going up his leg when Obama spoke.”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2008/02/13/matthews-obama-speech-caused-thrill-going-my-leg
When I heard Obama speak about the suicide bomber Abdulmutallab as an
“isolated extremist” and a “criminal suspect”,
I felt a ‘cold shiver go up my spine’.
The bomb was detonated,
but it caught on fire instead of blowing up the plane.
The bomber is a card carrying Yemen trained terrorist.
Combat vets have a saying-
“He is not supposed to die”
I can assure you that out of the hundreds of people on that plane one or several of them was not supposed to die.
(Divine Intervention/Protection)
Pray he/she is on your next flight.
Profiling is the ONLY solution!
17. David P:
Profiling is the ONLY solution!
agreed …but with this crowd who will they be profiling ?
Question: “” … the Israeli way is both more efficient and more effective. So why not adopt it in the U.S.? “”
Answer: “” … (In Israel,) Before you arrive at the main check-in counter, you stand in a security line where a young, CLEARLY INTELLIGENT young man or woman examines your passport and ticket, looks straight into your eyes, and asks you about who you are (etceteras) … “”
And in dumbed-down America we have quota hiring, instead.
Quarantine the Islamic world. Begin with the true enemy, Saudi Arabia. Is that easy enough profiling, or what?
Pa and Ma
Thank you Allison Sommer for writing this.
The difference between US airport security and the Israeli method is obvious to anyone who has travelled between the two.
I have told my story before on PJM, which happened on our first family trip to Israel this summer. I will repeat it again.
Amazing to me.
So when going from here to there one goes through our familiar routine. No problem. Five family members travelling together. My family, myself, wife, son (17), Daughter (24) and future son-in-law. Go through US checkpoints with no questions asked other than the routine. No questions asked about our plans. Checked bags go right through. Carry-on went right past the silly screens with shoes and all that.
In New York, baggage already cleared by TSA, our first Israel screen happens at the El-Al check-in desk. They cannot do baggage checks or so on, that is covered and we are on US territory. The helpful, curteous, obviously professional and intellegent young woman shows up. Checking to see you are prepared with documents and so on when you get to the head of the line.
She looks at us. “So you are family travelling together?”
“Yes”
“Have you been to Israel before”
“They have” Looking sidelong at my daughter and her fiancee. “The rest of us first time”. Looks over my son, big and strong looking blond and blue eyed, nice kid who just wants to curl up and sleep the ride out.
“Ah, so are you going with a tour group or something?”
“B’nai Brith. BBYO”
She stares me straight in the eye at that response.
“So what synagogue do you attend?”
I felt suddenly stunned ’cause we actually recently quit our old one and then I gave her the truth “We are going to Chabad for holidays. The new one over on Oak Street”. She looks at us all, waits, shuffles our papers. Bit more conversation.
Pass on to Israel. Wonderful trip.
So our innocent 17 year old screwed up. Inside his carry-on book bag was a large switchblade knife. He had forgotten about it and why he had it…anyway teenage boys, I can understand having been one myself.
That thing went all the way through our trip without incident until Ben Gurion airport.
1:00 AM and our bedraggled family just wants to get home after an excellent trip. Tour guide checks us in which gives you a limited pass. Checkpoints are as exactly as described in the article. Each of us questioned about the contents or our bags “where did you buy this? Is this a book? Cosmetics from the Dead Sea? What kind? did you buy it here?”
Carry on now that we have our boarding passes.
Last checkpoint when they see the x-ray of your carry-on, my 17 year old son gets stopped. Something is not right in his bag.
They do not panic and just start asking questions. Calm prevails and the senior detective shows up. Bag opened and switchblade exposed. My wife and I assume parental position appropriate (we hope) for the situation. Let him answer the questions and keep up what is true. ‘Dumb-ass kid screwed up ’cause he didnt pack until the last second… He is ours and is not, by any stretch of imagination, a terrorist.’
Somehow something changed as I could see the decision point light in the detective’s eyes. At this point my son could be charged with a very real crime, or we can be waved and the whole matter forgotten.
We were waved on, knive confiscated and good riddance.
There is an important difference. I do not think our would-be terrorist could have gotten past this screening.
US needs to learn now.
Spindok
15. David Thomson:
“The biggest barrier to a major change in process like this is the TSA work force.”
and soon to be unionized.
the Israelis cannot teach the americans anything because the people in power (the obama administration) don’t care about the american citizen, even if that citizen is a socialist/marxists. their heads sit nicely on a post just as a conservatives.
http://www.dianawest.net/Default.aspx
“…and soon to be unionized.”
Government employee unions are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. None existed even on a local level until 1958. John F. Kennedy in 1962 signed into law a bill permitting federal employees to join a union. They have brought our nation to its knees. These unions have jacked the political system to the point where many cities and states are near bankruptcy because of absurd salary and pension obligations. The TSA will be become even less effective in carrying out its duties.
All my friends and/ or spouses that were vocal about their long questioning at Ben Gurion Airport have become silent after the Christmas Day bomber.
It is easy to criticize Israel’s methods when you are safe. It is something different when you are in danger.
WOW…a well written, researched article that does not go off into a rabid attack of imagined socialistic wrongs against the world.
Very well done.
We probably have such lousy security at our airports because we have such lousy TSA workers. They all look bored, about to fall asleep, and really aren’t the sharpest tacks in the old gene pool, if you know what I mean. A reason why everyone is searched in America is simply because these workers are so bad they can’t be trusted to actually look for terrorists. So, to the TSA, it’s safer just to treat everybody like potential terrorists and search everyone, even though I haven’t seen many white or black elderly Methodists from Kansas blowing up planes lately. Come on people, a little common sense is needed here. The current bombing attempt on one of our planes had nothing to do with profiling and everything to do with a big, bloated, bureaucracy (i.e., The Department of Homeland Security) falling down on the job big time. This terrorist should have been stopped in Europe and he certainly never should have gotten a visa to enter this country, especially after he was turned in BY HIS OWN FATHER! You’re going to see a lot more of this happen unless we get serious and start streamlining the Department of Homeland Security and have better communications between our intelligence services.
Why do we allow lawyers to run our lives by perverting reality? Since all terrorists have been Muslims, let’s have a ham at the entrance to airports. Those who refuse to touch it, since Muslims don’t want to die “unclean” will be scrutinized closely. The rest of us will just get aboard like we used to.
It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to nuke Iran, as an example of our commitment to survive. Since Muslims insist on being at war with us, I think it only reasonable to use every means at our disposal to kill them until they capitulate, like they did at Kosovo. Dead people make the best enemies, don’t they?
America has become an affirmatively actioned hellhole of irreversible incompetence. They had us at “hello.”
While the Israeli security system is certainly not perfect, it is unlikely that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could have successfully boarded a plane without being detained, questioned in-depth, and hopefully caught — even if his risk level hadn’t been so clearly documented.
You have only a superficial understanding of this issue. Were you a Muslim, you would note that only some people are red-flagged. Those with muslim sounding names are subjected to a rigourous series of interrogations that begin in the outer ring of the airport. Not everyone is questionned as they enter the airport. There are obviously not enough security agents for such an endeavor as any reader with half a brain will realize if they give the matter some thought. The system works because it only profiles Arabs and Muslims. Given the fissures we are now seeing in Israeli society, I can guarantee you that within the next few years, Israel will be humbled by just how short sighted its vision has been on this issue when the first right wing Zionist zealots target Israel’s airports. Trust me, nothing would be easier for a Jew with a violent agenda than to walk a weapon on to a flight.
Israel achieves this magical level of profiling by ghettoizing its Muslim population in the first place. The country can do this because it does not pretend to be a representative democratic republic, rather an ethnically exclusive enclave where those who are not Jewish are considered to have secondary rights. Because the world and the Israeli public do not actually believe that Israel has responsibilities that other countries have to ALL their citizens, its quite easy for Israel to maintain a two tiered ethnic system for air travel. They d
WHat you’re proposing for the US is that the country admit that is also not a representative democracy, rather the Anglo-American homeland. Its an absurd proposition. The strength of this country is based on its unique character, and that character is based on a goal of offering all people who are born in this country the exact equal citizenship no matter what their race, ethnicity or religious beliefs or where their parents are from.
I have rarely read a more anti-American diatribe, though such disturbing essays are becoming ever more common, unfortunately, as the sewer dwellers rise to take advantage of the paranoia of an ignorant American public.
John Lott convincingly argues that crime rates increase when more black police officers are put on duty. Affirmative action polices virtually require the hiring of blacks and other minorities regardless of their low-test scores. The same is also almost certainly true of the TSA. Left-wingers have not really done black Americans any favors in the long run. They have inadvertently created situations guaranteeing ridicule of these unqualified employees. Those blacks that truly have their act together get lumped together with the inept and unqualified.
The horrible 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Griggs vs. Duke Power, it must be added, essentially makes it impossible to test prospective employees. An employer is open to law suits if they dare test their applicants. They therefore have to overly rely on credentials—which may be more fraudulent than a three-dollar bill.
49erdweet: hor are you doing?
Ms. Kaplan : if you like barriers, road block then pack up and move to Israel. we do not want a police state here. what went wrong here is own arrogance and our own agendas here. if the info were passed out correctly and in a timely manner this a….hole would not be on that plane. and if Israeli were that good with security they not have hammas missiling them all day long
I do not want to take this discussion off on a tangent, however: David Thompson makes a very important point about Griggs vs. Duke Power. This case was the legal form of Lyndon Johnson’s statement that we “must not only have equality of opportunity; we must have equality of results”. The net effect is that whatever the endevour, we must have quotas by whatever name (currently “Diversity”). TSA is caught up in this trap, and, even if the airport security screen was made up of Harvard graduates (even non-affirmative action Harvard graduates), they would not be allowed to differentiate between Koran spouting imams and ninety year old Nebraskan grannies.
“I do not want to take this discussion off on a tangent, however: David Thompson makes a very important point about Griggs vs. Duke Power.”
You and I are definitely not taking “this discussion on a tangent.” Griggs vs. Duke Power is something of a mystery court decision. Few people have ever heard of it—even many lawyers. And yet, it has severely changed America for the worse. I am not exaggerating when saying that employers rarely dare to test their job applicants. The burden of proof was laid entirely on their shoulders to legally justify the relevancy of the tests. Lawsuits were inevitable, and therefore employers wimped out and instead placed an insane emphasis on credentials. The TSA worker may not even be able to read at an seventh-grade level, but their worthless high school or college degree may be all that matters.
Two points: If the Israeli security guards think you are “wrong” but cannot find anything to justify keeping you off the plane they can and will place trained security guards on the plane around you by displacing other passengers.
I met with an Israeli security airline consultant that claimed that the best airline security in the world was Saudi because they had so many muslims entering the country that wanted to do harm to the the society, the Royal Family and government. He said their screening was tough and used retinal identification. No details in screening beyond that.
I spoke to a former mercenary soldier that was able to watch as a Israeli airport security was training a new employee. They would split up parties and question them and then the security would confer and compare stories and answers to questions like: where are you from, where are you staying, where are you going, any relatives or friends etc.
This comparison of stories for larger traveling parties is very effective and very quick as an assessment of truthfulness.
#31, mr….
The first rule of trolls: read the content you are attacking. Ms. Kaplan already lives in Israel, so you can’t threaten her with living there. Nice try, though.
Ice. One point. You don’t know what you’re talking about. If the Israeli security think you’re wrong, they simply won’t let you fly. Its obviously easier to keep you off the plane, than displacing passengers and sending two security officers on a wild goose chase. Resources are finite, this is why your fantasy of how things are done doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
35. Roger L Simon:
#31, mr….
The first rule of trolls: read the content you are attacking. Ms. Kaplan already lives in Israel, so you can’t threaten her with living there. Nice try, though.
lol …the trolls don’t even read the articles. they are driven by ideology.
conservatives have no problem debating and disagreeing with each other, the trolls/leftist/socialist/marxist cann’t do that.
they are not critical thinkers …if they were they would not just parrot the talking points of the socialist/marxists.
there are always interesting discussions between conservatives with new and differing aspects to any topic. this is not the case with liberals/socialist/marxists, they are not critical of themselves or whoever they follow.
Anonymous #29:
Let’s compare the rights of religious minorities in Israel with the rights of religious minorities in, say Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Iran. Or in your case let’s not compare them for it would show how full of it you are.
Is this administration interested in crushing the islamic jihad ?
That is the only question.
The president speaks of
“not jumping to conclusions”
about Fort Hood
The president says
“alleged”
when speaking of the terrorist of the Christmas attack
and Napolitano’s first answer is that the system worked.
I guess that alqaeda agrees.
The whole point is:
what are the goals of this administration ?
#29 Anonymous. You are writing fantasy since the chances of ”right-wing Zionist Jews” in Israel carrying out terrorist attacks against other Jews at our airports is ZERO. Your obvious anti-Israel bias causes you to imagine a fictitious imaginary ”Israel” that does not exist in reality.
In plainer language, your post is BS.
The point of the article is that profiling is a reasonable & efficient security technique given that terrorist attacks, not just in Israel but world-wide, are carried out by one group – Muslims.
So, why not fly to Europe via El Al. Is its only destination Israel?
The Israelis are probably better able to detect the rare blued eyed, blond haired Muslim extremist. There may be a number of these terrorists in the near future. The emphasis that the Israeli security personnel place on overall probabilities and probing questions can make the difference. This could also be the case when a terrorist group slips an explosive device into the handbag of an elderly Scandinavian grandmother.
Better yet, Gary Rosen, let’s compare ourselves every day to pedophiles and rapists. That way no matter what we do–lie, cheat, steal, etcetera–it would show how full of it anyone who criticizes us is. I was comparing the rights of religious minorities and ethnicities in the US to Israel. In that comparison, Israel comes up well short. Your trick is one very common to the mediocre and morally obtuse; find the worst of the lot, and then compare oneself favorably to avoid scrutiny. In your case, you might have a chance if you compare yourself to Trig Palin. Emphasis on might.
Obambi’s world view is that the United States is the progenitor of evil in the world today, it is the reason for his world apology tour. It is reflected in his appointments and policies set forth by this administration. The watermelon movement (green on the outside red on the inside) of Van Jones and the EPA is a great example. In this mindset America is the great polluter, but eastern block countries with command economies have a staggeringly poor environmental record, with devastation on a scale the western world can’t imagine.
How many times have we been told that terrorism is the result of poverty and the inequitable distribution of wealth, with the implication being that the wealth was somehow stolen by the west. Why is it then that so many of the terrorists come from middleclass to affluent families, could it be that economic circumstances are not the driving factor, but merely a vehicle for self flagellation for those who wish to ascribe guilt to America and western economics.
It is this upside down and backwards world view that refuses to acknowledge that Islam is the problem. We are repeatedly told how most Muslims are moderate peace loving people and it is only small minorities that are the radical violent extremists. The problem is that the silence from the so called moderates is deafening. How are we to differentiate between silent condemnation and tacit approval? Since this can not be done the only alternative is to approach the situation as if all Muslims are radical terrorists. It is a far better idea to inconvenience some moderates than to allow innocent people to die.
As an American citizen I have the RIGHT to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PRUSIUT of HAPPINESS, nowhere is it written that you have the right to a Visa to visit or study in the USA nowhere. It is past time we stop ignoring reality. Granting a visa after being warned, more than once, by the father that his son had gone radical rises to the level of criminal negligence. If we are unwilling or incapable of making rational choices based on the facts, as they are not how we would like them to be, then we are probably doomed.
#35 Mr. simon: you call me a troll if you like. I am here just to get a good laugh and by no means I am a libral. In fact I visit liberal sites as well just to laugh. the reason I do not read the entire article yours included and as I do not read the entire article when I am on a liberl site, is beacuase you both have blinders on. your idea is everything liberals do is either wrong or no good and liberals think exactly the same way. therefor you are both a waste time….. Ms. Kaplan living Israel has no basis here.. it is her thoughts that matter. I still think we should ask the former president Bush and Veep Cheney to run the home land security. this way the terrorists can only kill 3000 of us at time. what do you think? BTW: is your loyalty to our country here or is it to Israel?
Happy new year
@20: Shouldn’t that be Ma Shugginer and husband? ;^)
45. mr:
#35 Mr. simon: you call me a troll if you like. I am here just to get a good laugh and by no means I am a libral. In fact I visit liberal sites as well just to laugh. the reason I do not read the entire article yours included and as I do not read the entire article when I am on a liberl site, is beacuase you both have blinders on. your idea is everything liberals do is either wrong or no good and liberals think exactly the same way. therefor you are both a waste time….. Ms. Kaplan living Israel has no basis here.. it is her thoughts that matter. I still think we should ask the former president Bush and Veep Cheney to run the home land security. this way the terrorists can only kill 3000 of us at time. what do you think? BTW: is your loyalty to our country here or is it to Israel?
Happy new year
I guess you aren’t a troll …more like a d!ckhead.
Interesting article.
mr.
Admittedly, you don’t read articles in their entirety, yet feel the need to comment on them?
You are a sad, sad individual. Moreso when your raison d’etre of perusing the aforementioned sites is for a ‘laugh’ and not for interesting discussion.
You’re an unfulfilled man, person. You unabashedly share your ognorance, ridiculous banter with the masses.
I wish you luck in finding some reason for reason.. honestly.
interesting article and comments here
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/airport_securit_7.html
mr…
you are a daily troll on Pajamas Media. Just disappear already. You never have anything meaningful or insightful to add. Just senseless troll rhetoric.
Anonymous, well, you’re just anonymous. goodbye.
After PanAm flight 103 American Airlines hired former Israeli screeners to run the AA security system at Heathrow. It worked like a charm.
But one day not long after the attempted bombing of American’s flight out of Paris, I showed up at the Heathrow gates, and they were all gone. I ask the station manager where are the Israelis? His answer: corporate headquarters fired them, because our new Arab airline interchange partners had complained of being profiled.
Well duh! Who exactly blows up our airliners? My point is the corporations, the government, and the insurance companies have all done the math on cost benefit of the counter terrorism equation. Al the big bad talk out of the politicans, corporate presidents, and the TSA is blue smoke and bullshit for you the people’s consumption.
I took early retirement, and bought my own airplane.
Excellent article. But often that “profiling” gets so stupid and annoying that you wonder when they have the time to catch anyone seriously up to no good. All of us who travel back and forth to Israel have our own stories about being senselessly grilled by Israeli agents who seem to have all the time in the world. My own latest was a month ago returning to Israel from Brussels on ElAl: I am Israeli, Hebrew-speaking and a woman over the age of 65, yet I was questioned for 25 minutes about whether my family observed Jewish holidays when I lived in the U.S., and do I observe them now that I live in Israel. Puleeese.
Would that I too could “take early retirement and buy my own airplane”!
This contrasts with the often bored and frustrated low-wage workers who man the X-ray stations in the U.S. and who joke with their friends as they stare at the screens and wand the unhappy passengers.
Reportedly, Obama’s pick for new bureaucrat to head the TSA (in addition to having some contentious issues in his own background) may well want to unionize those bored workers who, my experience is, are often contemptuous of passangers.
Once unionized, they’d be even harder to fire than they already are.
After shoebomber, it was take off your shoes. After (failed)liquids bomber attempt, all the rules for liquids kicked in.
The new directive immediately following the Christmas day incident seems more of the (dumb) same.
there is always room for improvement, but notice the size of Israel in comparison to the USA, as you can see they have a lot less area to protect and yet have a lot more suicide bombers on the streets, in malls, on buses etc. and rockets dropping on them. the fact is, they can’t protect everything and nether can we, there is no perfect security, and Israel is not the USA, in size, culture, people coming and going, commerce, or by its laws, or anything. it is a different, we should try to learn from what works, but I caution anyone who thinks they are all perfect and we are all wrong.
It is obvious reading many of the comments that few people really understand the damage caused by Griggs vs. Duke Power and other affirmative action mandates. They are the law of the land! It matters not a whit if Sarah Palin is elected in 2012 or Ronald Reagan rises from the dead. We can do next to nothing to effectively protect ourselves from the terrorists. There is no sense in pretending to seriously discuss security at airports or anyplace else in the United States until the U.S. Supreme court reverses itself on the 1971 Griggs decision.
Gutless, I mean anonymous, your trick is one that anti-Zionists have been using for years – demonize Israel for not meeting the highest possible standard while giving a pass to her enemies, bent on annihilation, which are all bloody abominable human rights hellholes. Have you written a lot of furious posts condeming those other countris, or are you content to point out the one Jewish state?
By the way, “anonymous”, your alleged concern for the dignity of all people apparently doesn’t extend to those with Down’s Syndrome as your mocking reference to Trig Palin proves. You gave the game away there, coming up with an irrelevant and offensive Palin reference out of nowhere, proving that you are nothing but a hysterical, knee-jerk, foaming-at-the-mouth left wingnut.
Me too me too! I want to retire with my own plane! Or better yet, Highlander, need some company up there?
I live in Israel and fly back and forth all the time. Never been grilled and always sailed thru. However, I believe many of the stories about endless hounding. My advice; look them straight in the eye and answer their questions calmly and with a friendly smile. You’ll be out of there in no time (unless you really do have something to hide).
There is a simple way to train the American security folks: A point system. Develop a “challenge” unit. Simple catch – one point, difficult catch – 2 points, simple miss – minus 2 points, difficult miss – minus 1 point. Five minus points and you’re out; five plus points and you receive a monetary supplement to your salary. No problem to set up. Unions have to agree not to seek alternate employment for those let go. This system is objective and will keep the guards working 24/7.
To prevent collusion between the “challenge” unit and the security workers, complex misses earn challenge personnel financial rewards, simple misses increase vacation time. Supervisors are fired if they cannot devise methods of fooling the guards and receive financial rewards for novel complex misses.
I have thought about it and would like to add that if anyone dies as a result of a real or challenge miss, the supervisor and his supervisor are out and cannot reapply for Federal employment for ten years. If a worker makes a “real” catch, the supervisor and his supervisor should receive a substantial financial remuneration. Anyone killed in the line of duty from a “real” challenge, receives a benefits package for their spouses and offspring. Anyone killed in the line of duty by an overzealous marshal on a plane or an irate passenger in a challenge should receive for their families the same postmortem benefits package. This stuff has to be realistic, you know.
In the case of a really big real catch, everyone up to President Obama should receive a substantial financial remuneration. We can use part of the TARP money for the bonuses.
Re anonymous #39: Given your diatribe that is full of falsehoods about Israeli democracy, I would hope that you too would be targeted full-body inspection, even with such an absurd non-Muslim name as “anonymous.” Jews are an endangered species and it is people like you that have to be isolated so that you can do no harm to them. I would hope that your weapons would be confiscated and that you would appear on a watch list and perhaps even a no-fly list. No there!
No profiling while up there in the Cessna 172…… and a better view.
Y’know, I read the articles here, and the posts – but don’t we put these people in power? People talk about Republicans in 2010, but look at the nonsense of the Bush admin – Medicare part D, TSA unionization, budget deficits. Look, Obama is exponentially worse, but aren’t we all missing the point? Aren’t we the ones to blame? Enough of the complaining, and stop letting empty suits and skirts hold your local offices. Enough. Time for some actual people, who travel coach, who pay highway tolls, who pay insurance, who have to haggle with banks……
Did the Ricci case negate Duke Power? I was under the impression it at least neutered it.
Several years ago, my teen-aged daughter and I were traveling through the Amsterdam International airport. Apparently, there had been some specific concern about our flight which was headed from Amsterdam to Baltimore—perhaps a telephoned-in bomb threat or something. A well trained and intelligent security man (part of a team of several interviewers) carefully interviewed both of us, as well as the other passengers about to board. His interview of me was fascinating in that he maintained constant eye contact with me (as compared to the bored and impersonal demeanor of a TSA screener here in the States). Out of curiosity, I asked him at several points about his line of questioning. (I am a retired lawyer.) He politely and skillfully deflected my inquiries and continued with the interview, all the while maintaining eye contact and attempting to judge my responses and demeanor. All went quite smoothly.
By the way, “anonymous”, your alleged concern for the dignity of all people apparently doesn’t extend to those with Down’s Syndrome as your mocking reference to Trig Palin proves.
I see what you’re trying to do, but I never claimed to be concerned with all people. I don’t believe that people with Downes Syndrome, Trig or yourself, have the same rights as other Americans, simply because you are unable to care for yourselves or participate in society fully. Our tax dollars subsidize the educations and lives of the Trigs and Garys, so you’re not the same as other people, Arab, Muslim or what have you. Hiding behind your handicap in this instance won’t help you. I am only interested in equal rights for people who are mentally competent.
El Al relies on intelligent minds asking prying questions based on racial and cultural stereotypes because stereotyping works. In fact we all do it everyday..instinctively and for the same reasons. Stereotyping keeps us from being ripped off, conned and, yes, killed. “Yo..homie..wanna buy some righteous stereo equipment?” We size up the black guy with the dredlocks and the Bob Marley tee shirt..and we know..we know what the real story is. But not in the fake world of PC…the same fake world that the Federal bureaucrats
have been trained to take for real.
That’s pretty funny, anon, considering that *you’re* the one living off the large number of *my* hard-earned tax dollars that I get to pay each year. By the way, thanks for admitting what a pitiful hypocrite you are.
this president already knows everything so he does not need to learn anything from israel besides he went to a racist anti-semite church for 20 years
“I am only interested in equal rights for people who are mentally competent.”
The Nazis completely agreed with you. They minimally sterilized the so-called mentally incompetent—if not outright murdered them. And this is one time where the Nazi label is easily defensible and appropriate. I am definitely not indulging in vicious slime jobbing. The Progressive movement may be perhaps the first major group to advocate this line of thinking. The Nazis gave Margaret Sanger and the rest of them credit. Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes even ordered the forced sterilization of a young woman deemed mentally incompetent.
mr:
“and if Israeli were that good with security they not have hammas missiling them all day long”
Ahem. Hamas is forced to resort to rockets and mortars precisely because that’s the only avenue Israeli security leaves open to them- it’s almost impossible to sneak suicide bombers in any more. While that’s cold comfort to the people of Sderot, most Israelis don’t have to live with the constant fear of being murdered by Mormons… wait, I meant Methodists… oh, was it Mennonites?
Whenever I fly to the States, I am amazed at the lack of professionalism of the airport security workers. Half the time they are chatting about where they went the night before…laughing and kibbitzing and chatting with their co-workers in Spanish. Many are not really paying too much attention to the very people whose lives they are supposed to be protecting….the passengers. Are these people trained in their jobs? Are they hired off the street? Do their supervisiors not know of their laissez-faire attitude? I don’t mind the extra time needed for the security process if it means that I get to my destination alive.