Israeli airport security

[scandal 951]

By Dan Williams

TEL AVIV | Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:53pm EST

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - As Americans fume at ever more intrusive airport patdowns and screenings, some are looking to Israel for answers on how to make aviation security both strict and streamlined.

The possibility of adopting Israeli security methods has become a hot topic in the U.S. media as millions prepare to travel by air for the Thanksgiving holiday this weekend.

But while Israelis may enjoy the resulting prestige and commercial payoffs, there are those who doubt their methods would translate to places like the United States.

Differences in scale, budgets and sensitivity to accusations of "racial profiling" may be insuperable, they say.

"We're not the smartest in the world, and I'm not sure I would even describe ours as the absolute best security in the world," a senior Israeli transport official said. "What we do have, though, is suited for our needs -- and that's enough."

Those needs center on Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel's core international gateway. There's no full-body scanner yet -- one is to be installed next year -- and while staff are empowered to frisk and even strip-search passengers, most generally endure only the standard walk-through metal detectors.

Yet this overall painlessness is the end-product of a powerful, probing and often unseen screening system that kicks in before travelers have even set foot in Ben-Gurion.

Israeli intelligence agencies, working in lock-step with airport security, flag travelers deemed potentially dangerous -- a designation applied most readily, and controversially, to Arabs who make up 20 percent of the Jewish state's population.

Commensurate scrutiny follows: from the rifle-carrying guards that question the drivers of incoming cars, to the unsmiling sentries who eye passengers as they wheel in their luggage, to the security interrogations in the check-in lines.

As a last resort, on Israeli airlines at least, undercover sky marshals can be seated next to passengers seen as risky.

Budgets at U.S. airports -- especially international hubs that dwarf the mid-sized Ben-Gurion -- may not allow for qualified security personnel in such numbers, said Shlomo Dror, an Israeli defense official with extensive aviation experience.

OUT OF PLACE

"The question is, are they willing to invest in the right people, those who can spot suspicious nuances in language, who can develop an instinct for what's out of place?" he said.

Ben-Gurion security staff, most of them recent veterans of Israel's conscript military, go through a year of training and earn competitive salaries, Dror said. They also have access to intelligence briefings that guide their searches in real time.

"The degree to which these officers are made privy to classified information is pretty unique," Dror said. Such quick trickle-down would be unthinkable in the United States, with its vast, removed and sometimes factionalized intelligence agencies.

Yet it is this very focus evinced by Israeli security staff, in contrast to the more generic attentions of their American counterparts, that galls Arab and other non-Jews who complain of "racial profiling" at Ben-Gurion. Israel's emergency laws allow it, but in the United States civil liberties may hold more sway.

Ben-Gurion appears to be trying to allay such sensitivities. By 2012, it plans to issue biometric identity cards that will spare passengers much of the discomfort of face-to-face interviews. It will also search all bags in out-of-sight holds.

Jafar Farah, an Israeli Arab rights activist, poured scorn on these efforts and called for the airport "to be like it is in New York, where all passengers are screened equally."

"Why should I be happy about an identity card that still intrudes on my privacy, or separate baggage searches when, I'm certain, I'll still be singled out?" he said. "The whole idea at Ben-Gurion is to create a deterrent atmosphere against Arabs."

Dror agreed that the Israelis sought "to drain any ambition on the part of terrorists to attack, because it's so hard."

But he said Ben-Gurion profiling went far beyond race, to a range of criteria including the possibility of innocent passengers being used as hapless carriers of hidden bombs.

"I don't think there is any doubt that the Americans already accord extra screening to people coming in from the Middle East, though they may not admit this," Dror said. "It remains to be seen whether they can institute smart measures more broadly."

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"It remains to be seen whether they can institute smart measures more broadly."

As long as the quality of people who work for TSA is so low, no. They will need to pay them a lot more. Make them full partners in the job and not just fast food style order takers who do as they're told.

Of course, this means increasing their budget by a lot. That won't happen in this "government is bad and taxes are evil" country.

[scandal 951]

As long as the quality of people who work for TSA is so low, no. They will need to pay them a lot more. Make them full partners in the job and not just fast food style order takers who do as they're told.

Of course, this means increasing their budget by a lot. That won't happen in this "government is bad and taxes are evil" country.

Point taken. Though not everyone thinks US airport security is so bad. From the OP, we have the following individual who thinks JFK and LGA are models to be emulated. Has he BEEN to LGA recently??

Jafar Farah, an Israeli Arab rights activist, poured scorn on these efforts and called for the airport "to be like it is in New York, where all passengers are screened equally."

[mawilson 2,133]

Of course, this means increasing their budget by a lot. That won't happen in this "government is bad and taxes are evil" country.

Why should the government do it? Let the airlines do it - after all, they are liable if one of their planes explodes in mid-air.

[SuperDuper! 230]

A major component of the Israeli model of passenger screening is interviewing EACH INDIVIDUAL PASSENGER in line at the airport.

Why can't the US interview passengers?

In Israel, the Shoe Bomber and Underpants bomber, WOULD HAVE NEVER MADE IT ON THE PLANE.

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Point taken. Though not everyone thinks US airport security is so bad. From the OP, we have the following individual who thinks JFK and LGA are models to be emulated. Has he BEEN to LGA recently??

Jafar Farah is a rights activist.

[Amby 490]

how extensive are the airport interviews? I'm just curious.

[SuperDuper! 230]

how extensive are the airport interviews? I'm just curious.

They will ask subtle questions about anything. If someone is jewish, the examiner asks what temple you attend, and they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis. The trick is you hire experts who can detect subtle inconsistencies in stories and accents. ALso, they ask you point blank, "Do you have a bomb?" If you are inconsistent in your story and answers, chances are, you will NOT be flying El Al that day, or never again.

[^_^ 5,021]

They will ask subtle questions about anything. If someone is jewish, the examiner asks what temple you attend, and they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis. The trick is you hire experts who can detect subtle inconsistencies in stories and accents. ALso, they ask you point blank, "Do you have a bomb?" If you are inconsistent in your story and answers, chances are, you will NOT be flying El Al that day, or never again.

That sounds similar to what they do when you enter the US from Canada by car.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

But here they would claim unfair profiling and it wouldn't work.

[Amby 490]

They will ask subtle questions about anything. If someone is jewish, the examiner asks what temple you attend, and they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis. The trick is you hire experts who can detect subtle inconsistencies in stories and accents. ALso, they ask you point blank, "Do you have a bomb?" If you are inconsistent in your story and answers, chances are, you will NOT be flying El Al that day, or never again.

oh ok. I was just curious because every time I've flown back to the US since the thing in London in 2006 with the liquids, I've been interviewed before going through security again at the gate. when I came back from vacation in august they didn't let this old lady (she looked about 70) board the plane because she didn't speak english or dutch (this was in amsterdam) and they couldn't find anyone who could translate for her. the interviewer even went through the line of people to see if anyone spoke the same language as the lady.

[scandal 951]

They will ask subtle questions about anything. If someone is jewish, the examiner asks what temple you attend, and they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis. The trick is you hire experts who can detect subtle inconsistencies in stories and accents. ALso, they ask you point blank, "Do you have a bomb?" If you are inconsistent in your story and answers, chances are, you will NOT be flying El Al that day, or never again.

You are so completely full of shi't it's not even funny.

[Amby 490]

You are so completely full of shi't it's not even funny.

I was kinda waiting for your answer

[mawilson 2,133]

They will ask subtle questions about anything. If someone is jewish, the examiner asks what temple you attend, and they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis. The trick is you hire experts who can detect subtle inconsistencies in stories and accents. ALso, they ask you point blank, "Do you have a bomb?" If you are inconsistent in your story and answers, chances are, you will NOT be flying El Al that day, or never again.

You are so completely full of shi't it's not even funny.

He is? I don't know about the whole temple business, but they do ask the same

questions over and over again, trying to detect inconsistencies. They'd ask you

a question, then ask 10 more questions, then ask the same question again in a

different way. I used to make up stories just to see if they'd catch me

fibbing, and I have to say, they are pretty good. After a couple of unsuccessful

attempts (which resulted in extensive pat-downs - LOL), I now know exactly what

they want to hear and how to get them off my back.

[scandal 951]

He is? I don't know about the whole temple business, but they do ask the same

questions over and over again, trying to detect inconsistencies. They'd ask you

a question, then ask 10 more questions, then ask the same question again in a

different way. I used to make up stories just to see if they'd catch me

fibbing, and I have to say, they are pretty good. After a couple of unsuccessful

attempts (which resulted in extensive pat-downs - LOL), I now know exactly what

they want to hear and how to get them off my back.

The "temple business", yes. That's a crock. "they KNOW all the temples and Rabbis"

They certainly do interrogate and ask questions. They don't ask "Do you have a bomb?"