IT’S TIME TO PROFILE!

[lostinblue 1,989]

Preventing Brussels/Paris-Type Attacks : IT’S TIME TO PROFILE!

It’s Time to Profile:

The attacks in Brussels on Tuesday weren’t the first—nor will they be the last attack on a transportation hub, they’re a key target simply because the volume of people passing through hubs on a daily basis. Little by little the ominous black cloud of radical Muslim terrorism is moving across the world. Before it is too late, we need toss out the entire TSA system and all the employees and managers. We hire new people and begin to screen (profile) passengers and crowds of people the “Israeli way,” in airports, bus & train stations, even big shopping malls. This means hiring agents based on their intelligence and their ability to behavior profile and profiling passengers as they make their way through the airport and/or depot.

The real difference between the Israeli and American approach is the goal. Israel tries to identify and stop the terrorist while the U.S. tries to stop the bomb or other weapon. The Israeli approach is totally void of politics and it is consistent no matter who sits in the Prime Minister’s office. The Israeli government realizes the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival. Thus her government and citizenry have a view of preventing terrorism that is unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States. But that has got to stop.

This doesn’t mean preventing everybody from one faith or another from entering the country. It’s an entirely different approach which the airport security division of the ISA (the Israeli Security Agency also known as Shin Bet) calls looking for the “human factor.”

Some parts of that human factor would cause Al Sharpton’s ears to bleed just before he shows up to picket the Airport because ethnic profiling of passengers plays a role in Israel’s multilevel approach. However ethnicity is only one element of the profiling, country of origin, religion, general appearance, and the most important element behavior, are all part of the data used to profile. Wherever that profile is being made, no matter what country a flight is leaving from, if the destination is Israel, an Israeli doing the screening. Israel does not believe in trusting its security to citizens of other countries and neither should the United States.

All passengers traveling to and from Israel are questioned by security staff. For Jewish Israelis, the process takes a couple of minutes at most, as the passengers being asked whether they packed their luggage alone, and whether anyone had access to the luggage once it was packed. Jewish tourists also usually pass through security within a few minutes.

When my family entered the El Al terminal at Newark Airport before our last trip to Israel, we were greeted at the entrance by someone who asked where we came from and where were going.

When we made our way to the check in line, a ISA security employee in a suit and tie asked my then 12-year-old son out of my ear’s range why we were going to Israel. He was asked if we were Jewish and when my son answered yes, the screener followed up by asking the name of our Synagogue and our Rabbi’s name. The entire time he was asking my son questions he was looking at my wife and me, gauging our reaction to the “interrogation.” The entire process with my son took less than 30 seconds.

When the security guy was done with my son, he came to me and asked me the same questions (plus the typical who packed your luggage-type queries). Once again gauging my reaction very closely, and looking over at my wife.

Like the Mossad, tank drivers, and air force pilots, Israeli airport security has that super hero, no-nonsense, get to the point directness, efficiency and professionalism,

“Who packed your bags?” “What was your Bar Mitzvah portion?” “Why are you visiting Israel?”

This quick-fire interrogation was not bothersome but it was reassuring. It gave us feeling we were dealing with people who knew what they were doing. After all it was much more important to us that when we returned to the ground it was because our plane was landing, not because it was blown up over the Atlantic Ocean.

Non-Jewish tourists tend to be questioned a bit more thoroughly, and may be grilled over the purpose of their visit and about their accommodation.

… the procedure for Arabs and Muslims can often be lengthy and irritating, and may end a full body and baggage search. Visitors who have passport stamps from countries hostile to Israel are also questioned intensively in what can be a traumatic experience for the uninitiated.

Of course many in the politically correct set would object to that procedure, but Arabs and Muslims are not banned, they are just asked some more questions. Besides it still beats a country like the UAE or Saudi Arabia, where if your passport has a stamp on it that you’ve visited Israel you are not allowed in the country.

….Anyone admitting to leaving their luggage at an airport or bus station left-luggage area before check-in will have their suitcases stripped, with each item individually checked and re-packed.

The individual check also happens with “wise-asses,” like the people who were in line in front of me of me in line during my last Israel trip. The security people are serious but polite and expect the same out of the passengers.

Being Muslim or Arab won’t get you the extreme bag-check treatment, but it will make the questioners pay a bit more attention to your behavior.

If I had been more attentive when traveling to Israel, I would have noticed that throughout the terminal there were “armed eyes” surreptitiously looking at my family as well as everyone else in the terminal. These observers were making the same behavioral profiles as the people who questioned us on the check-in line

“It is mind-boggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago,” said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy.,.

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of “distress” — behavioral profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory.

“The word ‘profiling’ is a political invention by people who don’t want to do security,” he said. “To us, it doesn’t matter if he’s black, white, young or old. It’s just his behavior. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I’m doing this?”

Another important difference between Israel and the U.S. is that you don’t just come off the street and get a job with the ISA (Israel Security Agency). This is not your typical civil service job, like the TSA. Shin Bet is one of three principal organizations of the Israeli intelligence community (the other two are Mossad and Military intelligence). The security agents are ex-military (as most of the country is) and are selected based on their intelligence and their ability to behavior profile. The agents are rotated out of the airports every few months to keep them sharp.

Shlomo Harnoy, vice president of the Sdema group, an Israeli security consultancy firm which specializes in aviation security, believes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines aircraft on Christmas Day a few years ago, would have been detained “within seconds ” at Ben Gurion airport. Harnoy says, a young Muslim traveling alone, on a one-way ticket, with no luggage, was an obvious suspect.

Harnoy, who once headed the Israel Security Agency’s aviation security department, believes investing millions in new technology is not the answer. “

Whoever is concentrating on stopping old ladies bringing a bottle of mineral water on to the plane will not find the terrorist, or the bomb. The old lady is not a suicide bomber and the bottle of water is not a bomb component.”

Not only do most Israeli security selectors have degree-level education, they are trained to the highest standards. The most important element in the “human factor” is that security guards understand the threat to the country.

On every El Al flight there are armed air marshals. You won’t know who they are, but allow me to suggest that you don’t make a mid-air fuss to find out.

As for my family’s brush with Israeli Airport Security, we arrived in Ben Gurion Airport twelve hours later, tired but not even realizing that we went through a more extensive security process than we ever had before.

The TSA needs to adapt the entire Israeli process; not just the behavioral screening but the ethnic elements; not just the screening at the gates, but throughout the terminal and on the planes. We need to adapt a similar process at train stations. The U.S. has to copy the Israeli training, select our agents the way Israel does based on military training and intelligence (personally I think it would be a great job for Special Forces vets).

During her 68 year fight against terror, Israel has achieved a balance between protection of civil liberties and the prevention of violence. Her decision about airport security is the sanctity of saving human lives outweighs possible targeting and inconvenience of the extra questioning of a few.

And face it getting to your destination alive and whole is what we all want.

The same concept happens in other large public spots. While one doesn’t get questioned when entering a giant shopping center, the people looking at the shoppers’ behavior are there. Surely they were also there in walking shopping areas such as Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem, and at major tourist and religious site. Most restaurants and many shops had a guard outside with a hand-held metal scanner, and to be honest after the first two or three, the scans ceased being noticeable.

Some will say this will make America seem like a “police state,” which is nonsense. Adopting the Israeli way of profiling at transportation hubs and other areas were a great number of people congregate will make American’s feel more comfortable in their surroundings, knowing that there are people protecting them and their families.

http://lidblog.com/preventing-brusselsparis-type-attacks-part-2-its-time-to-profile/#

[ExPatty 502]

What the bleeding hearts here don't realize is that profiling already happens. All good law enforcement profiles, because criminality has a profile.

When the cameras are pointed at us in TSA lines the old ladies are getting checked for bombs just as much as the young bearded men.

When the cameras aren't there, when the analysts are at work and time counts, they are not wasting it looking at the old ladies.

[Sousuke 1,214]

Israeli is a bit different because they actually interview every passenger with bags in hand.

[OriZ 3,157]

Israeli is a bit different because they actually interview every passenger with bags in hand.

That "interview" is pretty much a joke. For one, before you get to that part there is still plenty of time for someone to blow someone up - they don't ask you questions till you get in line to...check in.

For two, the questions are very repetitve; we all know what they are by now and know exactly what to answer whether it's true or not. For instance, one of the questions is did you pack your bags yourself. Obviously the reasoning behind it is - if someone else helped you they might have snuck something in you don't know about. However, nobody wants a wrong answer to cause them to stay in line longer so pretty much everyone says no, even if someone did infact help them(parent, friend, whatever). They ask you stuff like if you left your bags alone, do you have this or that in your bag etc etc. It takes a whole of 1 min and all you have to do is go "no...no...no....no" and you're good. We all have a ton of jokes about those questions.

When my wife lived in Israel with me we would actually joke that they make it harder for her to LEAVE the country than to get in it. Every time she would go back home to visit her family - the way into Israel was actually very smooth, no questions asked nothing. When she would fly out I would go to the airport with her of course and go as far as I can with her, so at the point where the "interview" is they would see her passport and my Israeli ID ask us about our relationship how we met etc. Then they would always tell us to hang on...someone would walk away with our passport/ID and return after a few minutes just to tell us we're good to go. What they did in those minutes we have no clue.

However one thing is true; In Israel you get screened even entering the airport whether you know it or not. There are ALWAYS eyes on you. It's more of an undercover thing and some profiling. They are highly trained to spot suspicious behavior. You have one guy outside the airport right at the entrance just checking people out. Doesn't necessarily look in bags or anything like that - just stuff like eye contact etc. Once you get inside - my friends and I actually used to play a game(which now I try to play with my wife but she doesn't cooperate) - spot the undercover agent lol. Instead of them spotting us we would try and figure out who might be one. Because they are literally EVERYWHERE. Sunglasses/bigger build and a shirt that looks like there might be a handgun underneath it are always a good start lol

[TBoneTX 46,379]

The interview questions might be a joke, but it enables the security people to have a further opportunity to gauge behavior. I would certainly prefer the above to the "security theater" joke that we have here.

[Webdevman 93]

Are you guys really comparing Israel to the USA? How many people travel in and out of Israel every day? How many travel in and out of the USA? What does or doesn't work over there probably would not work or would not be feasible to do in the US.

I will not mention the fact that they have attacks all the time and their walls do not seem to work well..

[OriZ 3,157]

The interview questions might be a joke, but it enables the security people to have a further opportunity to gauge behavior. I would certainly prefer the above to the "security theater" joke that we have here.

That is true, but it still wouldn't prevent someone from blowing themselves up around a ton of people before they even get to said interview. The only thing that might prevent that is the undercover peeps.

Are you guys really comparing Israel to the USA? How many people travel in and out of Israel every day? How many travel in and out of the USA? What does or doesn't work over there probably would not work or would not be feasible to do in the US.

I will not mention the fact that they have attacks all the time and their walls do not seem to work well..

Actually, the wall works very well for the most part. If you compare the attacks nowadays to those a decade and a half ago...and that's with a wall that's not even completed everywhere.

[OriZ 3,157]

Speaking of which - absolutely no shame:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4782689,00.html

[Jacque67 7,328]

This is Obama.....lol.

[Teddy B 17,252]

I am in favor of profiling for all factions of law enforcement, I think it is a very effective tool. There will always be incidents where a LEO over steps his bounds and that officer(s) should be dealt with accordingly. But I think the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to profiling, it saves lives and prevents crime.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Everybody on the planet profiles, telling people not to profile is like telling them not to see the color purple.

Say you stop at a local convenience store on the way home from work and there are three cashiers.. and three short lines... You avoid the line with the guy wearing painters pants and a case of bear because he is probably going to want cigarettes - plus the old couple behind him may be confused with the new chip readers or want to pay by check.. The sloppily dressed heavy set woman in the other line is probably going to buy some power-ball tickets and and with a female cashier they are going to talk and bag the stuff slowly since she will feel the need to inspect and comment on every item. So chose line #3 behind the well dressed guy buying a health drink that looks like he just wants to get out of there: No worries of a card being declined, buying tobacco or lottery tickets or being a chatterbox.

That's how the human mind works. We even do it without consciously knowing that we are - we scan a situation and make instant judgments based on past experiences and personal bias. We are wrong much of the time but we are built to filter out the mistakes.

Edited March 24, 2016 by OnMyWayID

[Teddy B 17,252]

Everybody on the planet profiles, telling people not to profile is like telling them not to see the color purple.

Say you stop at a local convenience store on the way home from work and there are three cashiers.. and three short lines... You avoid the line with the guy wearing painters pants and a case of bear because he is probably going to want cigarettes - plus the old couple behind him may be confused with the new chip readers or want to pay by check.. The sloppily dressed heavy set woman in the other line is probably going to buy some power-ball tickets and and with a female cashier they are going to talk and bag the stuff slowly since she will feel the need to inspect and comment on every item. So chose line #3 behind the well dressed guy buying a health drink that looks like he just wants to get out of there: No worries of a card being declined, buying tobacco or lottery tickets or being a chatterbox.

That's how the human mind works. We even do it without consciously knowing that we are - we scan a situation and make instant judgments based on past experiences and personal bias. We are wrong much of the time but we are built to filter out the mistakes.

I'd watch out for portly men wearing Visa Journey briefs and a cape, that's trouble right there.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

I'd watch out for portly men wearing Visa Journey briefs and a cape, that's trouble right there.

Don't forget the gun tattoo. Next time I'm in a long line I'll ask the people in front of me if I can talk to them about Jesus, see how many need to take a bathroom break all of a sudden

[Teddy B 17,252]

Don't forget the gun tattoo. Next time I'm in a long line I'll ask the people in front of me if I can talk to them about Jesus, see how many need to take a bathroom break all of a sudden

Believe it or not, I never knew that was a gun until just now. My eyes are terrible.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

I think all men should be profiled