Is this bumbling idiot for real?

[scandal 951]

That's the sobering reality. Although, there is talk of the airlines to begin profiling passengers the way El Al does.

I have no problem with passenger profiling if it indeed increases the security of air travel. Problem with that approach is, though, that those that seek to terrorize will adapt and find ways to work that system, too. If the airlines are out of reach, and that's a big IF, they'll go for lower hanging fruit - mass transit, tunnels, bridges, malls, large buildings, etc...

I've flown on El Al probably something like 60-80 times in my life - I was a a Gold member on El Al for several years while living in Israel and doing a lot of business travel.

El Al interrogates every single passenger boarding a flight with a series of questions intended to verify that (a ) the person is not an evil doer (b ) the person is not being used as a mule to carry an explosive aboard the plane. They fairly quickly assess the former category (aka - 'profiling'), and anyone they suspect even remotely of being a possible evil doer gets pulled aside for more thorough screening. Even the rest of us who are not part of the profile are grilled to ensure that we didn't accept any gifts or parcels from unknown acquaintances, and that the bags we packed were under our direct control at all times since packing them. All bags go through an X-ray screen prior to being checked in.

El Al can afford to do this because they have a relatively small fleet and operate out of no more than about 20 airports globally. Their flights all originate or terminate at one airport - TLV . This lets them provide the security staff and X ray equipment at each airport. It also lets them provide air marshals on every single flight. Even so, El Al tends to be more expensive than competing carriers no doubt because of the extra cost of this security.

By the way, all carriers operating out of Tel Aviv (British Airways, Delta, Continental, etc.) have the same security procedures, identical to El Al's, on the Israeli end of the flight. It's only in LHR, for example, that El Al security differs from BA's for a LHR-TLV flight.

Which begs the question - why don't they? Why go through all that trouble when you can just walk into a mall and KA-BOOM!

No metal detectors, no security checks, no air marshals.

Regarding malls and other 'soft' targets: here too Israel has had unfortunately way too much experience with shopping malls, hotels, cafes, buses, being targets. Of both suicide bombings and other IEDs. The response has been that every single shopping center in Israel has airport-like metal detectors and security guards posted at the entrances, and every single visit to the mall involves passing through those devices. For about 5 years after the last big wave of cafe/restaurant bombings in 2002/2003 there were security guards with metal detectors being posted in front of every single restaurant as well! Literally every pizza joint and McDonalds had it's own armed guard with a metal detection wand. By around 2007/2008, they started to remove these and they're mostly gone now. That coincided pretty much with the time frame in which the wall being built around most of the West Bank became an effective barrier at keeping suicide bombers out of Green-Line Israel.

[Pooky 3,809]

Both sides of the argument are missing the point here. The "spin" being applied here is that Napolitano is talking about the response to the failed attempt in the first place. I can understand the intent to find something positive in the situation, but the fact of the matter is that if the bomb had not failed, there is a very good chance we'd be talking about another Lockerbie.

A better approach, in my opinion, would have been to front up about the failures in preventive security measures and outline what is being done to remedy the situation. The mere fact that Napolitano appeared on TV (wrong person) to put out a positive message that "the response worked" (wrong message) merely serves to underline the administrations intent to put a positive spin on everything, when, in this case, a dose of cold, hard reality would have been a better message.

But that would need a non-politician.

Epic fail there.