Still think Israeli airport security is 'too expensive'?
I have written many, many posts over the years calling on the United States to implement Israeli style airport security. The excuse I keep hearing is it's 'too expensive.'
On Sunday at Chicago-OHare - an airport I fly through from time to time - 'dozens' of people missed their flights and ended up spending the night at the airport on army cots due to security lines that were three hours long.
What does that cost you, America?
Let's go to the videotape.
For the record, in Israel, from arrival at the airport to the end of passport control, I am through the airport in 30-45 minutes (okay, I have the equivalent of a trusted traveler card in Israel, so I don't wait in line for passport control).
Confirmed: Suspicious package on Air France flight was a (fake) bomb
A suspicious package on an Air France flight from Port Louis, Mauritius to Paris that forced the plane to land in Nairobi has been confirmed to be a bomb.
BREAKING: Suspicious package found between Air France luggage headed from Kenya to Paris confirmed as a bomb. #AF463pic.twitter.com/k6WTEb3SWS
My mother-in-law, though youthful in outlook and an all-around very attractive person, is also 79-years-old, 4'11" if she's lucky, and weighs about 110 pounds. She was in Washington to visit her grandchildren, and to lobby the Rhode Island congressional delegation as part of the American Library Association's National Library Legislative Day. She is not a threatening person, in appearance or demeanor. I don't know this for sure, but I think she was probably carrying a library tote bag of some sort -- or perhaps it was an NPR tote bag -- as she approached the security checkpoint. A general rule: terrorists don't carry tote bags.
She entered the machine and struck the humiliating pose one is forced to strike -- hands up, as in an armed robbery -- and then walked out, when she was asked by a TSA agent, in a voice loud enough for several people to hear, "Are you wearing a sanitary napkin?"
Remember, she's 79.
My mother-in-law answered, "No. Why do you ask?"
The TSA agent responded: "Well, are you wearing anything else down there?"
Yes, "down there."
She said no, at which point, the friend with whom she was traveling, also a not-young volunteer library advocate, came over and asked if there was a problem.
The TSA agent said, again, in full voice, "There's an anomaly in the crotch area."
Read the whole thing. I can envision Jeffrey's mother-in-law going through this, and I can only feel sorry for her indignity, but I have to ask one question from Jeffrey, who is identified with the center-left of the political map, and who has been known to glance at this blog from time to time: Would you be willing to have passengers profiled, Israeli style, to spare your mother-in-law indignities like this in the future? I would, and I bet she would too. Think about it.
It's been a while since we picked on TSA (Transport Security Agency), the people who conduct 'security checks' at US airports. Look who they think is an al-Qaeda terrorist.
Let's go to the videotape.
MFS - The Other Side has more details on this search here.
Scenes like the one in this picture may soon be a thing of the past for American airline travelers - or at least for frequent fliers of American and Delta. The Transportation Safety Administration is finally adopting a system that will allow certain pre-screened travelers to pass through without removing their shoes and belts, and with shampoo in their bags (Hat Tip: NY Nana).
The federal government announced today that it will expand an expedited check-in program called Pre-Check, now used by 310,000 travelers at seven major airports, to 28 more sites, including JFK, O'Hare and D.C.'s Reagan National, by the end of 2012.
Passengers who enroll in Pre-Check, run by the Transportation Security Administration, do not have to remove shoes or belts, can keep their computers in their bags, may keep three-ounce containers of gel or shampoo in their carry-on luggage, and may wear a light jacket. Pre-Check will be operating at Reagan National by the end of March, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who called the expansion of the program "part of a fundamental shift in how we approach aviation security."
...
Pre-Check prescreens passengers before they arrive at the security checkpoint. Members of the program will be identified via the bar code on their boarding passes. They will be steered to a dedicated line -- a sort of E-ZPass lane for fliers -- for quicker passage through security.
The Pre-Check program is already being used by American Airlines frequent flyers at the Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Los Angeles airports, and by Delta passengers in Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas and Minneapolis.
The 28 additional airports expected to be part of the Pre-Check program by 2012 include all three D.C. area airports, all three New York City airports, O'Hare, Boston Logan, Seattle-Tacoma, Phoenix, San Francisco, New Orleans, San Juan, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland (PDX), Tampa, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, San Juan, Anchorage, Orlando, St. Louis, Houston (IAH), Indianapolis, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Denver, Ft. Lauderdale and St. Louis.
I followed the links and the only requirements seem to be that you be a US citizen and that you belong to American's or Delta's frequent flier program or to one of the Trusted Traveler programs run by the Customs and Border Patrol. I logged into my account and it did not have an enrollment tab as is supposed to happen if you meet the enrollment criteria. I added my (US) passport and country of residence information to my profile, and I will let you know if I get in. I may have to contact American's customer service to push this ahead....
Just when you thought things could not get any worse for American travelers....
Rebecca Hains told ABCNews.com today that a Transportation Security Administration agent at Las Vegas- McCarran International Airport seized her cupcake, saying the frosting sitting atop the red velvet cake was gel-like enough to violate regulations.
The incident took place Wednesday.
Hains, a teacher, said the cupcake was a gift from one of her students. She was traveling with her husband and toddler, and thought her young son might get hungry on the long trip home.
The cupcake was packaged in a glass container with a metal lid, which was why it attracted the attention of the scanner in the first place.
The TSA agent didn’t know what to do with the cupcake, so she called over her supervisor, Hains said.
“The TSA supervisor, Robert Epps, was using really bad logic – he said it counted as a gel-like substance because it was conforming to the shape of its container.”
“We also had a small pile of hummus sandwiches with creamy fillings, which made it through, but the cupcake with its frosting was apparently a terrorist threat…I just don’t know what world he was living in,” said Hains, speaking of the TSA officer.
Morons. It's long past time for the US (and other countries) to implement Israeli airport security. Of course, if that happened, TSA would have to fire much of the current staff and hire people who pass intelligence tests instead. That won't happen while Obama is in office.
An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport.
Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes.
“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.”
TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows “proper procedures were followed.”
People like Lenore Zimmerman blow up planes all the time, don't they?
Foreign Press Association wants to keep their pants on
The Foreign Press Association is furious because an al-Jazeera camera man was required to remove his pants for inspection before being allowed in to film an interview with Israel's President, Shimon Peres.
"The Foreign Press Association demands that Israeli Authorities immediately cease undressing foreign and Arab journalists at official events," the statement said.
"This outrageous policy is an affront to common sense, an assault on human dignity and a blight upon the state of Israel. It simply must stop," the statement continued.
"The latest outrage occurred earlier today when an Al Jazeera cameraman was asked to remove his pants upon arrival for an interview with President Shimon Peres - an interview that came at the invitation of the president himself to criticize anti-Muslim violence! The explanations we have received - that such inspections are necessary for Arab journalists - are deeply troubling in a country that bills itself as the Middle East's only democracy."
The statement went on to say: "It is not the first time this has happened. This pattern has existed for years and has become more entrenched and aggressive over the past year."
"We respect Israel's need to maintain tight security. But when there is so much technology available to scan both people and their belongings, such practices cannot be justified and have nothing to do with security. The truth is darker and sadder: This lamentable policy combines blatant racism with systematic and ham-handed media harassment," the statement said.
The statement also attacked the Shin Bet and PMO. "Sadly, by now we expect nothing better from the Shin Bet. Frankly, we have ceased hoping that the Prime Minister's Office - scene of some of the most persistent abuses - will intervene," it said.
"But it is deeply disappointing that this policy is also accepted and enabled by the office of Shimon Peres - a Nobel Peace Laureate and outspoken advocate of human rights and progressive thinking. We respectfully call on the President to use the influence of his office to end this abomination," the statement continued.
But the article goes on to point out that Peres has no authority over the security authorities, and that while most of the complaints have come from Arabs, Jews and non-Arabs have also been subject to invasive searches. While the media would like to be exempted from the rules, given that suicide bombers elsewhere have hidden their wares in body cavities and clothing, I don't see how it's possible for Israel to avoid these types of searches. The article - by JPost's Greer Fay Cashman - mentions the possibility of using technology, but the technology is nowhere near as thorough as the good, old fashioned body search.
Will the Transport Safety Administration in the US drop grope or strip in favor of using Israeli profiling methods? Well, maybe.
TSA already has "behavior detection officers" at 161 airports nationwide looking for travelers exhibiting physiological or psychological signs that a traveler might be a terrorist. However, Pistole said TSA is preparing to move to an approach that employs more conversation with travelers—a method that has been employed with great success in Israel.
"I'm very much interested in expanding the behavior detection program, upgrading it if you will, in a way that allows us to….have more interaction with a passsenger just from a discussion which may be able to expedite the physical screening aspects," Pistole said during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. "So, we’ve looked at what works around the world, some outstanding examples and we are planning to do some new things in the near future here."
Pistole declined to elaborate on the enhanced behavior detection program but said it would "probably" be announced in August. During an on-stage interview with CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Pistole acknowledged that the Israeli techniques have been carefully examined.
"There's a lot—under that Israeli model—a lot that is done that is obviously very effective," he said. However, critics have said the Israeli program is too time consuming to use consistently at U.S. airports and may involve a degree of religious and racial profiling that would draw controversy in the U.S.
Israeli airport security could be implemented in the US
Claire Berlinski decries the state of airport security in the United States, but dismisses the possibility of implementing Israeli-style security there (Hat Tip: Instapundit).
What the Israelis do is effective, but it's not scaleable. Israel is a minuscule country. You could probably fit the whole Zionist Entity inside of Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. (That may even be literally true: I leave it to you to check.) It has exactly one major international airport, which handles maybe ten million passengers a year. In America, you've got about two million people flying every single day, 86 airports that carry more than a million passengers per year, and 25 that carry more than ten million--each one, in other words, handling the volume of traffic handled by the entire State of Israel. If you think the lines move quickly in Israel, think again. Implement those kinds of procedures and you'd grind what's left of the US economy to a halt.
The Israelis aren't using some racial or religious algorithm to screen passengers. If they were, I wouldn't get stuck at security at Ben Gurion for hours every time I fly there, would I? I assure you they don't take a look at my passport and say, "Well, she's an American, and 'Berlinski' sounds kind-of Jewish, so she's probably fine." Every single time, they interrogate me for hours.
She's largely right except in her assumption that Israeli security cannot be implemented in the US. Berlinski talks about Israeli security as if it takes hours. Unless you're one of the people who is pulled over, it does not. I go through security at Ben Gurion at least twice a year and I go through security in the US (Boston, JFK or both) at least twice a year. I am through security in Ben Gurion in about half an hour - as fast or faster than I get through security in the US during periods in which I don't have the right to go through faster as a result of my frequent flier status (there's no such thing here). I get through security faster in both countries than I do if I have to make a morning connection in London Heathrow, where you can stand on line for an hour and a half.
I get through security in Ben Gurion faster than Berlinski does because I don't live in Istanbul (something that might arouse suspicion these days), I don't take trips to Israel to check out Hezbullah installations on the border (and I would never put it that way to security) and because I carry an Israeli passport. Berlinski links to this article, but I've flown through Ben Gurion three times since then, and my most recent trip was the only time there were serious lines and even then we found out later that it was because an El Al jet had made an emergency landing a few hours before, after discovering a problem with its landing gear shortly after takeoff. Knowing how things work at Ben Gurion, that probably meant that no one was allowed to go through security until after that plane had landed in order to keep people out of the gate areas in case emergency crews were needed.
There are two obstacles to implementing Israeli-style security in the US. One is its cost, to which Berlinski alludes when she talks about scalability. But we know exactly what it would cost (or almost exactly) because we know what the US spends on airline security per passenger and what Israel spends per passenger. We know that it's not more than $50 per passenger and probably less because some of the Israeli costs are for Israeli-style security for El Al (and probably Arkia and Israeli charter) passengers around the world. Most Americans with whom I spoke in the airports in the US felt the security was a joke (it is) and they were just being harassed without gaining any safety. Would they pay $50 per ticket for better security? Well, I would. And the high price of tickets right now during a period when air traffic is at full capacity in the US shows that people don't necessarily decide to travel based on the price of a ticket.
The other obstacle to implementing Israeli-style security in the US is a mindset. No one in Israel aside from the people who work at the airport knows precisely what the security is going to be looking for on any given day. You know you'll be asked if you packed your own bags, whether they were under your supervision at all times since they were packed, whether anyone gave you anything to take with you, and whether you know why you're being asked those questions. But no one knows what they're looking for. I'm sometimes asked to name my children. Other times, I'm asked where in Jerusalem I live. Americans like to know what security is seeking. The Israeli system cannot work if everyone knows the correct answers to the questions.
When I say that Berlinski was stopped because she lives in Istanbul or because she says she came to Israel to check out Hezbullah installations on the Lebanese border, I'm making an educated guess because those are things that would make me feel insecure. But I can't tell you for sure that's why she was subjected to lengthy interrogations. And that, more than anything else is the genius of the Israeli system.
I'd love to see it implemented elsewhere. It sure beats strip or grope.
Once upon a time, we used to use twist ties to close our bags so that airport security wouldn't break our bags but thieves wouldn't break into them. Now, airport security (known as TSA) has become the thief, and you're not allowed to lock your bags - even with twist ties - anymore.
And even Brown represents just the tip of the iceberg. According to TSA records, press reports, and court documents, Brown is just one of some 500 TSA officers who have been fired or suspended for stealing from passenger luggage since the agency’s creation in November of 2001. The airports servicing New York City—John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty—harbor the most flagrant offenders, but virtually no city in the nation is safe from the TSA’s sticky fingers.
In 2009, a half dozen TSA agents at Miami International Airport were charged with grand theft after boosting an iPod, bottles of perfume, cameras, a GPS system, a Coach purse, and a Hewlett Packard Mini Notebook from passengers’ luggage. Travelers passing through the airport’s checkpoints reported as many as 1,500 items stolen, the majority of which were never recovered.
Let's put this in perspective. When I arrive in the US, I arrive with one half-filled bag which includes an empty duffle bag inside. When I leave, I leave with the bag and the duffle full of purchases.
This ought to make American air travelers feel secure
Here's an interview with Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, which shows why there is no relation between security and the safety of air travel in the United States.
Israeli scientists have created a detector, similar looking to a full-body scanner but with three concealed cartridges each containing eight specially trained mice.
According to the New Scientist the mice work four-hour shifts and are more accurate than using dogs and x-ray machines, the researchers claim.
Air is pumped into the cartridges every four hours so the mice can breathe.
When the mice sense traces of drugs they run to a side chamber where the trigger an alarm, the magazine said.
Eran Lumbroso, and inventor whose company BioExplorers is hopeful a larger company will help with the final stages of development, said: "It is as if they are smelling a cat and escaping. We detect the escape."
The device was tested last year on 1,000 shoppers in a Tel Aviv shopping mall when the mice successfully picked out 22 people carrying mock explosives.
Hezbullah looks to attack Western targets ahead of Hariri indictments
Intelligence sources indicate that Hezbullah is planning to attack Western targets ahead of the release of indictments by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The report said the intention of such an attack is to divert global public opinion from the indictments expected to be issued by a special United Nations tribunal dealing with the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
Lebanese officials and Western diplomats expect the court to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the assassination, a prospect Lebanese politicians fear could fuel further tensions.
The Lebanon tribunal, the world's first international court with jurisdiction over the crime of terrorism, was set up to try those accused over the 2005 bombing that killed Lebanese ex-prime minister Hariri and 22 others.
Israel's counter-terrorism bureau issued a similar warning on Wednesday, focusing on the Far East, Greece and Turkey.
And what are they doing about it in the United States? TSA is on the case.
The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.
The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.
Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of "an abundance of caution to reassure the public," spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released "as they are completed," the agency said on its website.
TSA officials have repeatedly assured the public and lawmakers that the machines have passed all inspections. The agency's review of maintenance reports, launched Dec. 10, came only after USA TODAY and lawmakers called for the release of the records late last year.
Awesome: TSA misses loaded Glock pistol in computer case; 'It happens all the time'
ABC News reports that a Houston-based Iranian American businessman left a loaded Glock pistol like the one pictured in his otherwise empty computer case. The case got through security at a Houston airport as his carry-on bag without being found by the geniuses from TSA. And we're told 'it happens all the time' (Hat Tip: Gershon D).
According to one report, undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times. A 2007 government audit leaked to USA Today revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts, and at Chicago's O'Hare airport agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.
Despite the results, there is no sign that the numbers have changed as the screeners have been tested year after year, former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told ABC News.
"Those reports were classified but it's sufficing to say that reports, both classified and unclassified, are concerning. Too often guns and knives and fake explosives get through the checkpoint," Ervin said. "And what is particularly concerning is that nine times out of 10 the checkpoint is the most critical layer of aviation security."
Ervin said a combination of factors is likely to blame for the persistent failures on the part of screeners. Low pay, poor training, and the monotony involved in watching bags pass through x-ray machines are a recipe for trouble, Ervin said.
"To be fair to screeners, it's very difficult work," he said. "After so many hours of seeing things that are innocuous, there's really a limit for the human brain to process something anomalous."
And many of them are barely high school graduates and they have not even been trained properly.
Remember how when I was discussing the Israeli system last month, all the US reports said it was 'too expensive'? How much is saving lives worth?
Last month, TSA Chief John Pistole told ABC News that the poor performance during undercover tests helped convince him that airport screening needed to get that much tougher -- and a desire to do better helped give rise to the controversial new regimen that includes enhanced pat-downs and back-scatter machines that can see beneath a traveler's clothing.
But with all the political correctness, they're finding random people and not potential terrorists.
Let's go to the videotape.
But Mrs. Incompetanto will tell us that the system is working since Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab was eventually caught.
What could go wrong?
P.S. I'm in Boston where it's not the Sabbath yet.
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.
Indian ambassador to the US subjected to 'enhanced patdown'
Give them credit for one thing in the US: When they're politically correct, they're politically correct. Last Saturday, in Jackson, Mississippi, the morons from TSA decided to grope the Indian ambassador to the United States, despite the fact that she had a diplomatic passport.
India's government expressed anger Thursday at a personal security check performed on India's ambassador to the United States, Meera Shanka. Shankar was searched by security personnel at the the Jackson-Ever International airport in Mississippi on December 4 on her way from a speech at a local college. She was pegged as "suspicious," Indian officials said, because she was a wearing a traditional Indian sari outfit. She displayed diplomatic documents, but was forced to undergo a full body pat-down anyway, Indian Foreign Ministry officials said in a formal complaint to the U.S. State Department.
"This is unacceptable to India," said Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna. "I am rather surprised by the way the ambassador has been treated."
Of course, if it were the Saudi ambassador to the US, this never would have happened. After all, that would have been 'Islamophobic.'
Remember how angry the Americans got last summer because Israel 'debriefed' former Clinton Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala? And she isn't even a diplomat anymore! Besides, I'd rather be 'debriefed' than have some TSA agent groping inside my briefs.
If I were the Indian foreign minister, I'd recall the ambassador for 'consultations' for a couple of weeks. Maybe then these morons running 'airport security' in the US would start to get it.
Great news: Al-Qaeda working on surgically implanted bombs
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but unfortunately it may not be much longer. It's inevitable that when security 'improves' by being able to detect more things, terrorists respond by finding new things or better ways to hide them. That's what's happening in response to full body scans and 'enhanced' pat downs at American airports: Al-Qaeda is working feverishly to develop surgically implanted bombs.
"What is your opinion about surgeries through which I can implant the bomb ...inside the operative's body?" an apparent mad surgeon recently asked an online forum used by Al Qaeda affiliates.
He called on bombmakers and doctors to cook up the perfect solution to murder "larger numbers of unbelievers and apostates."
"I am waiting for the interaction of the experienced brothers to connect the two sciences together and produce a new kind of terrorism, Allah willing," he wrote, according to a translation by terror experts at the SITE Intelligence Group.
...
Stitching a bomb into the abdominal cavity made of plastic or liquid explosives - such as semtex or PETN - was judged the best method.
"It must be planted near the surface of the body, because the human body absorbs shocks," advised one terrorist.
...
Unproven body cavity bombs worry security agents, though "no one has figured out how to actually do it," said a counterterror official.
Last month, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said his agency wouldn't do cavity checks because secondary screening procedures and technology can find fuses and detonators, which must be outside the body.
"You have to have some external device to cause that initiation," he said. "That's what the advanced imaging technology machine will pick up: any anomaly outside of the body."
Still experts worry about the doctors among the terrorists' ranks and their willingness to kill. Al Qaeda's No. 2 is Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, and last year a Jordanian doctor known as "Abu Dujana al-Khorasani" killed seven CIA officers in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
"In the same way that drug smugglers have placed bags of narcotics in the body cavities of animals and had people ingest condoms filled with drugs, it would not be out of the realm of Al Qaeda operational planners to conceive of such a technique," said Mark Rossini, a former senior FBI counterterror agent.
That's why you have to look for terrorists (like the Israelis do) and not for things. When will they ever learn?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
