Could implementing Israeli airport security actually save Americans money?
I've been arguing for
years that Americans would be
safer at a
lower cost if they adopted Israeli style airport security. Now, in a scathing indictment of the TSA and its creators (Congress with enhancements by the Obama administration), the
same argument is being made by John Tierny.
It was the federal government, not the private screeners, that set
the policy allowing small knives and box cutters to be brought onto
planes. Federal guidelines prevented airlines from arming pilots and
reinforcing cockpit doors. The feds also stopped the private security
firms from using an existing system to identify high-risk passengers,
which would have singled out some of the hijackers for special
screening.
Instead of learning from those mistakes, the Senate doubled down on
central planning, voting unanimously to turn airport screening into a
federal monopoly. The only intelligent deliberation occurred in the
House of Representatives, where Republicans actually listened to experts
from countries with considerable experience in aviation terrorism.
Israel and European nations had learned the hard way that good security
requires a division of responsibility. An independent watchdog is
essential to ensure that screeners are doing their job, and the obvious
candidate for that role is the federal government. But that means that
someone else has to do the screening. The watchdog can’t watch itself.
House Republicans heeded the experts’ advice, and they had the votes
to trump House Democrats yearning for more federal workers. The House
passed a bill to establish a system modeled on the one used in Israel,
Canada, and Europe: each airport would run its own screening system, and
the feds would have wide authority to set standards, monitor
performance, and mandate improvements. When it came time to reconcile
the competing bills, however, Senate Democrats stood firm, and the House
Republicans were denounced for putting ideology above national
security. One of the loudest critics was New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman, who was such an ardent cheerleader for the TSA that he
deserves to have the line at Newark Airport named after him. “The
right’s fanatical distrust of government is the central fact of American
politics, even in a time of terror,” Krugman wrote. Exploiting the
public affection for firefighters after September 11, Krugman argued
that the Republicans’ anti-TSA ideology would logically call for the
elimination of the New York City Fire Department because fire protection
should be a purely private responsibility.
I actually part company with Tierny over the Europeans. In many ways, their security is worse than the Americans. First, like the Americans, they don't profile. Second, they don't screen their screeners well enough, with the result that their airport security is staffed by people who have gone on to
commit terrorist attacks. Third, they don't take advantage of the possibility of keeping people with connecting flights in sterile areas, so they don't have to be re-screened. Instead, they throw you out of the sterile area (in many instances, even if you're changing planes in the same terminal), requiring you to go through security again.
Last month, I was 'randomly selected' at Paris-DeGaulle (despite only connecting there, and despite being an elite flyer and old enough not to fit anyone's terrorist profile) for 'extra screening' on my way to board a flight to Philadelphia. I was practically strip searched, and the idiot went through every one of the nearly 20 pockets in my backpack with obviously no clue of what it was he was supposed to look for.
So, no, I don't want a European system. I want an Israeli one where people who have training in psychology profile passengers instead of randomly picking people out of a line like me or like the lady at the top of this post.
Like all government monopolies, the TSA blames its failures on lack
of funding. But it’s already spending way too much, as demonstrated in a
congressional study
comparing TSA screeners in Los Angeles with non-TSA screeners in San
Francisco, one of the few airports allowed to run its own system,
contracting with a private company. If LAX switched to the San Francisco
model, the study concluded, it could cut its screening costs by more
than 40 percent.
The San Francisco private company’s screeners received the same
salary and benefits as TSA screeners, but they were so much better
trained and deployed that each one processed 65 percent more passengers
than a TSA screener in Los Angeles. They apparently enjoyed better
working conditions, too, because they were much less likely to quit
their jobs. And in tests by federal investigators, they were three times
better at detecting contraband.
As far as I am aware, Israel's system is all government run (although, come to think of it, I don't recall ever hearing that they went on strike, which all government unions do from time to time). But the key (other than the profiling) is that Israel's system has redundancy. They have more than one shot at catching terrorists. There's security before you ever get near the airport. If you arrive in a taxi, the security guard nearly always rolls down the window and asks where you're coming from - to hear your accent. If they're suspicious, the car is pulled over and searched. There's a security guard standing outside each door to the terminal, randomly pulling people over. You wait in a long line that moves VERY quickly to screen your checked baggage. Before they screen your checked baggage, they ask who packed it and where was it, and do you know why they're asking that question (
Anne Murphy). They're looking for your manner (because they're trained in psychology) more than your answers. They always ask you if anyone gave you something to take with you. Usually, I just say no. A few months ago, I brought back a Torah scroll for someone and I spilled the beans to El Al (not Heathrow) security in London. They asked me who gave it to me and how well I knew the person. They were satisfied with my answers and let it go.
And then there's the security screening you're all used to abroad, which splits into 15-20 lines, most of which are not more than 10 minutes long. I usually get through all the security screening in 30-45 minutes and I have no priority status in Ben Gurion. That's no longer than anyplace else (one of the frequent excuses I hear why the Israeli system cannot be implemented elsewhere).
In Europe, when I'm not checking a bag, it takes about the same time (although in London that's only because I'm fast-tracked as an elite flyer with a British Airways partner - Heathrow is one of the worst airports in which to transfer if you have no privileges).
In the US, they don't screen checked bags until after they get them, and I get through security more quickly in most airports because (a) I'm an elite flyer (exception - Philadelphia where there's no such thing) or (b) I get TSA pre-cleared (always happens in Boston, usually in Chicago, rarely in Philadelphia).
TSA clearly needs to be reformed. It won't happen with Obama in power (he allowed them to unionize in 2011, which is what's preventing more airports from opting out) and it won't happen if Hillary Clinton wins the election either.
Read it all.
Labels: airport security, Ben Gurion Airport, El Al, Europe, London Heathrow Airport, profiling, Torah scroll, TSA
It's a travel day (and night)
Greetings from London Heathrow Airport where I am once again changing planes on the way back to Israel. I will try to post a couple of things before I leave here, so stay tuned.
Labels: London Heathrow Airport, personal stuff
The plan was...
... to try to post something from London Heathrow since I hadn't had time to post all day... until the moron in front of me in the security from an unnamed Scandinavian country thought he was going to get a bag full of liquids (including two half-drunk bottles of water!) through security....
Back in Israel later today God willing. Time to go work and pray.
Labels: Denmark, London Heathrow Airport, personal stuff, travel
Speaking of Heathrow Airport....
Speaking of
Heathrow Airport.....
Hi there
Inspector Tamim! Can
Israel Matzav be read at Dubai Airport yet?
Labels: Dubai, Inspector Tamim, London Heathrow Airport
It starts: Mayor of Ashkelon bans Arab workers from schools
It took a little longer than I thought, but good evening from 31,000 feet above the Atlantic. According to my trusty map, we are just about due south of Newfoundland right now, heading across 'the pond.' Air travel in the modern age is quite bizarre. First, we pulled away from the gate and they announced that we have a half hour hold because otherwise we will show up in London before their curfew ends at 6:00 am (you can't land at Heathrow before 6:00). And now we're going over 740 miles an hour and it keeps going up. I don't recall ever going more than a few miles per hour faster than 700....
In the wake of Tuesday's terror attack in Jerusalem, Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni has banned all Arab workers from his city's schools. 'Temporarily' of course. Here's what it gets rich: The workers were building shelters to
protect the kids from Hamas' rocket fire from Gaza. As you might imagine, the Left is seething....
The mayor explained that the increased presence of Arab workers in
close proximity to educational institutions is potentially harmful to
residents' security, and therefore their employment will stop until the
tense security situation improves.
The contractor which performs the work in the schools in the city is
employed by the Defense Ministry, and it should be noted that the work carried out in Ashkelon is done by Israeli Arabs and not by Arabs living
in Judea and Samaria.
The decision angered Meretz MK Issawi Frej, who accused Shimoni of "racism of the lowest kind.”
“Under the poor excuse of a 'sense of security', Shimoni wishes to
make the city of Ashkelon clean of Arabs and contaminate it with
anti-Semitic racism,” charged Frej. “I call on Interior Minister Gilad
Erdan and on the Chairman of the Local Government Center, Haim Bibas, to
publicly condemn Shimoni and ask him to reconsider his decision with
all its consequences."
The decision was also condemned by the President of the Israel Democracy Institute, former Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner.
But Shimoni was also condemned by Labor MK Nachman Shai of the 'sane' Left, as well as by Ofer Shelach of Yesh Atid, which is in the coalition (one has to wonder for how long). Here's guessing that Shimoni's decision will stand, at least for now. And here's hoping that every neighborhood in Jerusalem makes the same decision.
Labels: Ashkelon, Gilad Erdan, Labor party, London Heathrow Airport, Meretz, Nachman Shai, Ofer Shelah, Palestinian terrorism, personal stuff, racism, Yesh Atid party
British Airways goes for the jugular
After last month's announcement that
One World members may no longer accrue mileage or cash in rewards on El Al after October 31, British Airways (one of the airlines in One World) is
going for the jugular, by adding one flight per day, bringing its weekly total to 20 flights.
Starting in the summer of 2015, British Airways is raising the seat
capacity on the London-Tel Aviv route by about 50%, the airline
announced today. Six weekly flights will be added, raising the total
number to 20. British Airways says that it operates a longhaul service
on its Tel Aviv-London route, despite the relatively short flight
duration and distance, offering advanced entertainment systems with
personal touchscreens, high quality catering and free offering of
quality soft and alcoholic beverages. All the airline flights on the
route are operated via Heathrow Terminal 5.
British Airways Israel Manager Yael Katan said, “Due to the growing
demand for our service to London and long-distance flights, we have
decided to expand our Israel operation, with a significant increase in
seat capacity and frequency. In addition, we have recently changed our
schedule in order to offer convenient connections to various North
American destinations, specifically in the West Coast which are
extremely popular with our Israeli passengers, such as San Francisco,
Los Angeles and Vegas.”
I don't think this is going to matter to the occasional pleasure traveler, who will continue to choose El Al, but for business travelers for whom scheduling and frequent flier miles matter (El Al is the only airline that takes away your miles even if you have activity in your account), this is deadly. El Al is often several hundred dollars cheaper than British (I've seen a difference of $300-400 in my own reservations), so if British cuts its fares to El Al's levels or close to them, business travelers will be far more likely to choose British.
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, British Airways, El Al, London Heathrow Airport, One World, travel
Ooops....
Thank God for automatic alarms.
The flight crew of an El Al 737 'forgot' to deploy the plane's landing gear on an approach to London's Heathrow Airport on Tuesday. Fortunately, when they hit 800 feet above ground level
an alarm went off.
The pilots were supposed to deploy the landing gear about six miles
before reaching their destination, according to the report, and conduct
tests to make sure the wheels would fully deploy.
But the checks were allegedly not made before attempting to land - in an incident that almost ended in tragedy.
About 800 feet above the landing strip, landing gear alarms began
sounding in the cockpit - alerting the pilots to their mistake. They
quickly performed a go-around to drop the landing gear; passengers were
not notified of the mistake.
El Al responded to the report Tuesday. "The incident is under
investigation, in coordination with the Chief Air Crash Investigator of
the Ministry of Transport," it said in a statement.
I don't know how many of the passengers will figure out that this was their flight. Circling London is routine. Doing a pass, coming down that low and not landing is not routine. El Al had five flights to London on Tuesday (many Israelis save money by flying overseas on the second holiday day - which is still a holiday abroad - and then if they are religious, waiting in the airport until the holiday ends at their destination). At least one of them was a 747, so it wasn't that flight. I have no idea which of the other flights is the one under discussion.
I have no idea how often flight crews 'forget' to deploy their landing gear, but thank God I am not aware of it having happened on any flight I have flown.
Maybe they were too busy eating cholent?
Labels: El Al, London Heathrow Airport
How to thwart a hijacking at 29,000 feet from the only man who has ever done it
On September 6, 1970, an El Al pilot
thwarted the hijacking of his plane in a way that most commercial pilots would have no clue how to do. The pilot, who was supposed to fly from Amsterdam to New York, ended up landing the plane in London. What's most amazing about this story is the way the British authorities treated the El Al crew after the plane landed....
Before take-off, El Al’s security officer on
duty at the airport told the pilot that there were four suspicious
people seeking to board the flight. Two held Senegalese passports with
consecutive numbers; two others, a couple, carried less suspicious
looking Honduran passports, but all had ordered their tickets at the
last minute.
Bar-Lev, in consultation with the security
officer, barred the Senegalese passengers from boarding and demanded
that the local security officers closely inspect the two Honduran
nationals before allowing them to board.
Although at the time he did not know that no
such inspection had been performed, he stopped at seat 2C and had a chat
with Avihu Kol, one of the two armed security officers on the plane. “I
told him, I want you in the cockpit with me,” Bar-Lev said.
Kol was alone in first class. He might as well
have been wearing a sign that said air marshal. “Someone could just
come up behind him and shoot him in the head,” Bar-Lev said, recalling
that Kol had warned him about just such a scenario two weeks before.
At 29,000 feet, with the plane still climbing,
the emergency light flashed in the cockpit. False alarm, one of the
crew members said. It happened often. Flight attendants sometimes grazed
against the warning panels, sounding the alarm. “No,” Bar-Lev
responded, “we’re being hijacked.”
Seconds later a flight attendant’s voice came
through the intercom: two people, armed with a gun and two grenades,
wanted to enter the cockpit. If he didn’t open the door, they would blow
up the plane.
Bar-Lev sent flight engineer Uri Zach to look
through the peep hole. The “Honduran” man, Nicaraguan-American
Sandinista supporter Patrick Argüello, a former Fulbright scholar
operating on behalf of George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP), was holding a gun to a female flight attendant’s
head. Uri, she said to the pilot through the locked door, they are going
to kill me if you don’t open up.
According to the International Air Transport
Association rules, Bar-Lev said, a pilot is responsible “for the welfare
of his passengers” and therefore must acquiesce to the demands of
terrorists. His thinking was just the opposite: acceding will only
further endanger the passengers. Giving voice to an unformed thought, he
said aloud, “We are not going to be taken hostage.”
Sitting in the right-hand seat, having let the
co-pilot handle the take-off from Amsterdam, Bar-Lev recalled his
mandatory training on the Boeing 707 at the company headquarters several
years earlier. The certification training was eight hours long. After
six hours, the company instructor told Bar-Lev he was cleared to fly and
wondered if he had any other questions. He did. He wanted to know the
outer limits of the plane’s capacity. The instructor, a Korean War vet,
walked him through some of the maneuvers and explained that the
passenger plane was very strong and could endure more than it would seem
at first glance.
Bar-Lev told Kol, the air marshal, to hold on
tight. He was going to throw the plane into a dive. The negative
g-force, akin to the feeling one gets on the downhill section of a
roller coaster ride, would accomplish two things: it would lower the
plane’s altitude, reducing the pressure difference between the inside
and outside of the plane, which would make a bullet hole or a grenade
explosion less dangerous; and it would throw the hijackers off their
feet. The passengers, he said, were all belted in and would be fine.
Bar-Lev lifted the nose of the aircraft,
dipped one of the wings, and then tilted the nose down to earth. The
plane began to plummet, dropping 10,000 feet in a minute. When he pulled
out of the dive, Kol charged through the door and killed Argüello.
The second terrorist, Leila Khaled, a
Palestinian veteran of previous skyjackings, rolled a grenade forward
but it didn’t explode. In her memoir, Bar-Lev said, Khaled claimed to
have been violently subdued, but the air marshals found her passed out
from the dive and quickly arrested her.
“The whole thing took two and a half minutes,” Bar-Lev said.
Why did the plane land in London? What did the British authorities do (aside from releasing Khaled)?
Read the whole thing.
Obviously, this story was published now due to Malaysia Airlines flight 370. I don't believe that plane was hijacked. I believe that one or both of the pilots decided to crash the plane like EgyptAir 990. But that won't be proven unless and until the black box is found.
Labels: El Al, hijacking, Leila Khaled, London Heathrow Airport, Palestinian terrorism
Greetings from....
Can you all guess?
Labels: London Heathrow Airport
'Palestinians' commissioned by Gadhafi carried out Lockerbie bombing?
Saturday will mark 25 years since a suitcase with a bomb brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. Now, a senior Israeli security source has told the Times of Israel that the attack was carried out by Ahmed Jabril's
Popular Front for the Liberation of 'Palestine' - General Command. At the behest of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi.
The Israeli source, who spoke to The Times of
Israel on condition of anonymity, said Israel was “listening in” during
the months prior to the December 21, 1988 bombing on preparations for
what “we thought was a plan to target an Israeli plane” and that it was
“clear that Jibril prepared the operation.”
The comments came ahead of Saturday’s 25th
anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever carried out on British
territory, and the worst terror attack on American civilians with the
exception of 9/11. The anniversary is prompting another slew of
conspiracy theories as to who was responsible.
Among the claims that have come to the fore in
various newspaper reports, TV documentaries and new books in the last
few days are allegations that the bomber was Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Abu Talb, who carried out a series of bombings in Copenhagen and Amsterdam in 1985; that the CIA subverted the investigation; and
that a fair-minded examination of the evidence demonstrates that the
bomb, rather than beginning its fateful journey in Malta, was smuggled onto Flight 103 via a baggage container at Heathrow Airport.
The Israeli source did not dispute that Col.
Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, which in 2003 accepted responsibility for the
bombing and paid compensation to victims’ families, had commissioned the
attack. And he said that while an Iranian role made sense, Israel had
found no proof of Iranian involvement. (Iran, a prime orchestrator of
international terrorism, had pledged to avenge the July 1988 accidental
downing by the USS Vincennes of Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf,
with the loss of all 290 people on board.)
Several Israeli prime ministers and former
heads of the Mossad intelligence service have told this reporter over
the years that it is their belief that the Libyans instigated the
bombing.
The source, who was a senior figure in the Israeli military intelligence
hierarchy at the time of the Lockerbie blast, said there was a “huge
alert” in the Israeli security establishment in the months before the
bombing, because of indications that the PFLP-GC was about to strike.
“We told the British and the Americans what we knew, which was that
there was an intention to hit an Israeli plane,” he said. “We didn’t
warn about a British or an American plane because we didn’t know that,”
he said.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Islamic terrorism, London Heathrow Airport, Palestinian terrorism, Pan Am 103
Do you fly British Airways?
Those of you who have been readers for a while have probably read some of my stories about the security at London's
Heathrow Airport, where I generally change planes at least once or twice a year. Well, here's something to think about the next time you fly
British Airways.... Of course, there's no mention of the British Airways' employees religion.... I'll bet he's Amish (NOT!)....
Labels: airport security, British Airways, London Heathrow Airport
Two Arabs arrested for plotting missile attack on Teddy Stadium were British Consulate employees
On Sunday, I reported that five (a number I got from Israel Radio) Jerusalem Arabs had been arrested and charged with plotting a missile attack on
Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem's main soccer stadium.
As a couple of people have already noted in the comments, it now turns out that the two main suspects were also
employees of the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
Britain's Foreign Office has confirmed the arrests and says the UK is urgently seeking confirmation of the charges.
"We have been told by the Israeli authorities that the investigation into our two employees is unrelated to the work they do at the consulate," the spokesman said.
British sources in Israel say the pair are not thought to be senior members of staff. All staff at British embassies and consulates abroad are meant to undergo strict security screening.
So I guess that means they can keep their jobs?
By the way, 'strict security screening'?
Like at Heathrow?
What could go wrong?
Labels: airport security, Beitar Jerusalem, British Consulate, HaPoel Jerusalem, London Heathrow Airport, Teddy Stadium
These security people have no idea what to look for
I'm at London - Heathrow and I got flagged at the extra 'security' at the gate. Fortunately, not strip or grope. These people have no clue what they're looking for, and at least half of them look like they should be going through security instead of being security if you get my drift....
About to board a flight to Boston - 7 hrs and 50 minutes fly time.
Labels: airport security, London Heathrow Airport, strip or grope
Travel day
Around the time you'll all be reading this, I will be taking off for London. I'll have a few hours in London and then on to Boston to visit my Dad for a couple of weeks.
Needless to say, I sailed through security here. 20 minutes start to finish. Three or four questions. No taking shoes off. Even the metal detector didn't go off. Simply awesome.
Posting may be slow today and tomorrow (my brother and I have to move Dad's things from his old place to his new one), but I will also try to keep up on Twitter as much as possible. So follow IsraelMatzav on Twitter and you'll know what's happening.
The picture is where I am now.
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, London Heathrow Airport, travel
I'm Fatima, fly me!
Robert Spencer posts this picture and asks what measures Delta Airlines (her employer at Reagan National Airport in Washington) has taken to ensure that a hijab-clad clerk is not going to give a Mujahadein a break. Answer, of course,
none.
Of course, there is no doubt whatsoever that the hijabbed Delta clerk is as honest and patriotic as the day is long. But suppose, just suppose, that a hijabbed Muslim woman Misunderstood the Religion of Peace in the same way as do jihad terrorists such as Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be Christmas tree lighting bomber of Portland, Oregon. And suppose further that she applied for a job with Delta. What screening techniques would Delta employ to make sure that she wouldn't give her brother mujahedin a needed break that would enable them to carry out a jihad terror attack on a Delta airplane? What line of questioning would Delta follow in interviewing that applicant in order to rule out such a possibility?
Why, Delta would do nothing of the sort. Nor would any other airline. If any airline did question a hijabbed applicant that way, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would be filing a discrimination suit within minutes.
And we as Americans are more or less willingly acquiescing to this state of affairs. One day another plane might blow out of the sky and another group of jihadis will claim their houris for murdering another few hundred free people, but at least we will not have "profiled" or succumbed to "Islamophobia." And that's what is clearly more important than a few hundred more American lives.
Of course, the US is not alone in that situation - far from it. The last time I flew through London Heathrow, it seemed like at least half the security detail was 'Asian' as they so delicately put it. Recall
this story that I first posted in 2006.
Three years ago, I flew Tel Aviv - London - Boston and back with one of my children. Tel Aviv - London - Tel Aviv was El Al. On the way back, I had to go downstairs in London, identify my bags, open them, and ensure that nothing had been added during the course of my first flight. They even made me open the box with my brand new computer (on which I am typing this post) because Homeland Security had put tape around the box indicating that they inspected it. When I asked the security personnel why I had to open the computer, she reminded me that "the people who blew up Mike's Place worked at Heathrow." She was right. But the Brits still haven't figured that out: Two weeks ago, it was reported that one of the terrorists who was arrested in connection with the plot to blow up planes flying between London and the US was a Heathrow employee with an all-area access pass.
That's not even my only Heathrow story. Back in the early part of the last decade (post 9/11), I got all the way to the gate of my American flight to Boston before someone thought to ask me whether I had packed my own bags. Of course, by then they had been checked already, so it didn't matter anyway.
For the record El Al has its own security. At every airport in the World to which they fly.
Do you feel secure flying Fatima?
Labels: airport security, Delta Airlines, London Heathrow Airport, Reagan National Airport
