Real security versus window dressing...

[mantogasrsrwy]

It's too bad we don't have any politicians with the balls to implement real security.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... other?bn=1

F*#k I'm tired of political correctness.

[slowstream]

Excellant article!!!!

This method should have been adapted immediately after 9/11!!!

I strongly suspect that most Canadians strongly feel it times to put this term and policy of "Political correctness" where it belongs, in the garbage!!!

[flyinthebug]

Excellant article!!!!

This method should have been adapted immediately after 9/11!!!

I strongly suspect that most Canadians strongly feel it times to put this term and policy of "Political correctness" where it belongs, in the garbage!!!

+1!!

[mantogasrsrwy]

The point for all those going on about Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh whenever profiling is mentioned, is that it is only one of many tools that should be used for security. Granny will be just as nervous as any young Muslim male if she is carrying a bomb through security and proper security wouldn't overlook that.

Happy new year

[Johnny#5]

Our security is such a joke.

When you see a lot of security folk in the airport, people have the 'perception of safety' - even though the the guards really don't know what they're doing and its apparently not that safe.

[_dwj_]

It's such a ridiculous joke. Back in 2001 Richard Reid tried to blow up a plane with PETN in his shoe. Now, 8 years later, someone manages to get onto a plane with exactly the same explosive. PETN is also the explosive that likely blew up the Lockerbie and Air India flights. And if you think that pat-downs and carry-on checks are the answer, think again - in August, an al-Queda bomber blew himself up with PETN up his ass while trying to assassinate the Saudi counter terrorism mininster.

The irony is that the technology has been available for years to detect PETN - it can be done either with sniffer dogs or with electronic sniffers. But instead we have this ridiculous farce that just pisses off legitimate passengers and lets the al-Qaeda terrorists with explosives up their ass go on their merry way.

[Lost Lake]

Man that's a shitty way to die
Happy New Year

[Carrier]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... tle-bother

The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother
Cathal Kelly Staff Reporter
Published On Wed Dec 30 2009.

While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.

That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience.

"It is mindboggling 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. He's worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world.

"Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don't take s--- from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, 'We're not going to do this. You're going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport."

That, in a nutshell is "Israelification" - a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.
Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, the security set-up at Israel's largest hub, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. How do they manage that?

"The first thing you do is to look at who is coming into your airport," said Sela.

The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?

"Two benign questions. The questions aren't important. The way people act when they answer them is," Sela said.

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of "distress" — behavioural 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 behaviour. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I'm doing this?"

Once you've parked your car or gotten off your bus, you pass through the second and third security perimeters.
Armed guards outside the terminal are trained to observe passengers as they move toward the doors, again looking for odd behaviour. At Ben Gurion's half-dozen entrances, another layer of security are watching. At this point, some travellers will be randomly taken aside, and their person and their luggage run through a magnometer.

"This is to see that you don't have heavy metals on you or something that looks suspicious," said Sela.
You are now in the terminal. As you approach your airline check-in desk, a trained interviewer takes your passport and ticket. They ask a series of questions: Who packed your luggage? Has it left your side?

"The whole time, they are looking into your eyes — which is very embarrassing. But this is one of the ways they figure out if you are suspicious or not. It takes 20, 25 seconds," said Sela.

Lines are staggered. People are not allowed to bunch up into inviting targets for a bomber who has gotten this far.

At the check-in desk, your luggage is scanned immediately in a purpose-built area. Sela plays devil's advocate — what if you have escaped the attention of the first four layers of security, and now try to pass a bag with a bomb in it?

"I once put this question to Jacques Duchesneau (the former head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority): say there is a bag with play-doh in it and two pens stuck in the play-doh. That is 'Bombs 101' to a screener.. I asked Ducheneau, 'What would you do?' And he said, 'Evacuate the terminal.' And I said, 'Oh. My. God.'

"Take Pearson. Do you know how many people are in the terminal at all times? Many thousands. Let's say I'm (doing an evacuation) without panic — which will never happen. But let's say this is the case. How long will it take? Nobody thought about it. I said, 'Two days.'"

A screener at Ben-Gurion has a pair of better options.
First, the screening area is surrounded by contoured, blast-proof glass that can contain the detonation of up to 100 kilos of plastic explosive. Only the few dozen people within the screening area need be removed, and only to a point a few metres away.

Second, all the screening areas contain 'bomb boxes'. If a screener spots a suspect bag, he/she is trained to pick it up and place it in the box, which is blast proof. A bomb squad arrives shortly and wheels the box away for further investigation.

"This is a very small simple example of how we can simply stop a problem that would cripple one of your airports," Sela said.

Five security layers down: you now finally arrive at the only one which Ben-Gurion Airport shares with Pearson — the body and hand-luggage check.

"But here it is done completely, absolutely 180 degrees differently than it is done in North America," Sela said.
"First, it's fast — there's almost no line. That's because they're not looking for liquids, they're not looking at your shoes. They're not looking for everything they look for in North America. They just look at you," said Sela.

"Even today with the heightened security in North America, they will check your items to death. But they will never look at you, at how you behave. They will never look into your eyes ... and that's how you figure out the bad guys from the good guys."

That's the process — six layers, four hard, two soft. The goal at Ben-Gurion is to move fliers from the parking lot to the airport lounge in a maximum of 25 minutes.
This doesn't begin to cover the off-site security net that failed so spectacularly in targeting would-be Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — intelligence. In Israel, Sela said, a coordinated intelligence gathering operation produces a constantly evolving series of threat analyses and vulnerability studies.

"There is absolutely no intelligence and threat analysis done in Canada or the United States," Sela said. "Absolutely none."

But even without the intelligence, Sela maintains, Abdulmutallab would not have gotten past Ben Gurion Airport's behavioural profilers.

So. Eight years after 9/11, why are we still so reactive, so un-Israelified?

Working hard to dampen his outrage, Sela first blames our leaders, and then ourselves.

"We have a saying in Hebrew that it's much easier to look for a lost key under the light, than to look for the key where you actually lost it, because it's dark over there. That's exactly how (North American airport security officials) act," Sela said. "You can easily do what we do. You don't have to replace anything. You have to add just a little bit — technology, training.. But you have to completely change the way you go about doing airport security. And that is something that the bureaucrats have a problem with. They are very well enclosed in their own concept."

And rather than fear, he suggests that outrage would be a far more powerful spur to provoking that change.
"Do you know why Israelis are so calm ? We have brutal terror attacks on our civilians and still, life in Israel is pretty good. The reason is that people trust their defence forces, their police, their response teams and the security agencies.

They know they're doing a good job. You can't say the same thing about Americans and Canadians. They don't trust anybody," Sela said. "But they say,... ' So far, so good...' Then if something happens, all hell breaks loose and you've spent eight hours in an airport. Which is ridiculous. Not justifiable

"But, what can you do? Americans and Canadians are nice people and they will do anything because they were told to do so and because they don't know any different."

[W0X0F]

Everything eluded to in the article is 100% right on especially....

"But you have to completely change the way you go about doing airport security. And that is something that the bureaucrats have a problem with. They are very well enclosed in their own concept."

We could have far better security and a lot less numb-skull bovine feces if we actually began looking at travelers and not their 130ml of toothpaste. Profiling is not prejudice. It just happens to be a fact that blonde haired, blue eyed ladies aren't giving it up for Allah, so why bother taking their tweezers from them.

Here we have minimum wage, ESL types on the front lines at the airports. Three hours prior check-in required to go to the States?! Are they kidding? It just goes to show that the search is on for a needle in the hay stack. Instead have trained professionals looking for terrorists.

The Israelis have a proven track record and we should take lessons, fast.

[Mark_space]

I recall being the recipient of the screening detailed in this article when flying from Ben Gurion to Athens on Olympic Airlines. Lined up for check in, young, smiling male and female security personnel moved along the line, asking everyone those two questions. They noted the padlock on my luggage, and asked some further questions about my work and destination, whether the luggage had been out of my sight, etc. This was pre-9/11, and was very effective. A plaque by one of the baggage carousels commemorating a terrorist attack that killed dozens of travelers in that same terminal was pretty damned sobering as well.

On the subject of Israeli security...anyone traveled through Terminal 3 at Pearson when there is an El Al flight boarding? I was waiting for my flight to London through an adjacent gate, and wandered over to the window overlooking the El Al flight boarding for Tel Aviv. Inside a minute, I was being questioned by El Al staff, compelled to show my boarding pass...the question occurred to me later why, exactly, was I surrendering information to the staff of an commercial airline after I had already cleared security. They must have used the Jedi Mind Trick on me ; )

One more. Waiting in Frankfurt for a flight to Pearson, I paid my 10 Dm (...pre-Euro days...) to visit the most-excellent open-air Visitors Terrace. There I was treated to the sight of an El Al flight being led to Terminal 1 by a wheeled armoured vehicle. More interesting were the semi-obvious security personnel out on the observation deck, watching us watching the arriving aircraft...

I guess El Al's record speaks for itself.

[flying4dollars]

Everything eluded to in the article is 100% right on especially....

"But you have to completely change the way you go about doing airport security. And that is something that the bureaucrats have a problem with. They are very well enclosed in their own concept."

We could have far better security and a lot less numb-skull bovine feces if we actually began looking at travelers and not their 130ml of toothpaste. Profiling is not prejudice. It just happens to be a fact that blonde haired, blue eyed ladies aren't giving it up for Allah, so why bother taking their tweezers from them.

Here we have minimum wage, ESL types on the front lines at the airports. Three hours prior check-in required to go to the States?! Are they kidding? It just goes to show that the search is on for a needle in the hay stack. Instead have trained professionals looking for terrorists.

The Israelis have a proven track record and we should take lessons, fast.

careful...

[W0X0F]

careful...

Of what? Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland or Iceland been recently added to a terror watch list?

Like Sela said it's just behavior that is being looked for. Personal hygiene implements does not a terrorist make.

[Driving Rain]

Of what? Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland or Iceland been recently added to a terror watch list?

Because those countries produce most of the "Blond Bombshells".

[MichaelP]

I watched the news this morning and there they were going on about even more security during these awful Olympic games.

In my own experience I was singled out twice at SeaTac for special inspection there while enroute to the far east.
I am not a religious person, I am not a political person, the only fanatacism I have is for flying; why twice, on two separate occasions, did they single me out in particular?
This was one factor in my decision to not bother flying out of Seattle regardless of saving a couple of hundred dollars.
The fact that they singled me out shows a lack of 'intelligence' and was a waste of resources when they could be picking a more likely person.

So here's the point that pilots who are hoping for a career should be aware of.
This heightened security and the obvious nuisance as shown on the news will mean a reduction in the number of people flying. It has to turn people off.
Ultimately this will mean a loss of potential jobs for pilots in the future unless they want a job in security instead.

More and more I consider living in a quiet corner of Devon or Cornwall while this mad world just gets on with it!

[_dwj_]

I am not a religious person, I am not a political person, the only fanatacism I have is for flying; why twice, on two separate occasions, did they single me out in particular?

I've been singled out twice - once, before 9/11 I had just gotten off a flight from LAX to Sydney, no sleep, half conscious, unshaven, and the security guy was bemused that I was only spending one week in his country, so he searched my luggage. Another time, last year, I was just in a grumpy mood at SFO (only partly due to annoyance at their ridiculous security) and they gave me the special treatment.


So my advice is - look neat, tidy, shaved, happy and relaxed.

[grimey]

Hopefully we won't pursue the Slovak model of planting explosives to improve security:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8441891.stm

[MichaelP]

http://v2010isu.ca/ViewPage.action?site ... 51&index=7

[foxmoth]

few months ago I suggested to some other security-prisoners that there should be a donation box to fund hunting Al Quida at all security points. they laughd but agreed.

I bet Osama would have a multimilion price on his head funded by irate travelers by now.

Theer are many Muslims who do not agree with the killing, but they must remove the peice in the Koran that sancsions it.

[foxmoth]

and, why does Canada (and the u.s. ) not look at sucessful security as an example. like the israelis and el al?
They keep reinventing the wheel, making it up as they go along, guided by past attacks. Dumb dumb dumb.
I noted one of the risks mentioned in a terminal over a year ago. Hope the terrorists don't figure that one out.

[grimey]

Ben Gurion is roughly as busy as a decent regional airport in the US. We can certainly learn from how the Israelis go about airport security, but it's not as simple as just adopting their processes at all of our airports. What works at an airport that has 10 million passengers a year won't necessarily work at one with 40-50 million a year.

[flyinggreasemonkey]

"Do you know why Israelis are so calm? We have brutal terror attacks on our civilians and still, life in Israel is pretty good. The reason is that people trust their defence forces, their police, their response teams and the security agencies. They know they're doing a good job. You can't say the same thing about Americans and Canadians. They don't trust anybody," Sela said. "But they say, 'So far, so good'. Then if something happens, all hell breaks loose and you've spent eight hours in an airport. Which is ridiculous. Not justifiable"

cpl_atc can stick that in his pipe, smoke it and STFU.

[Finn47]

A short story from my home country: A security manager actually had the balls to suggest that profiling should be used, based on ethnicity & religion and such. It didn´t take too long before it was officially denied though.

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/dome ... cans-.html

[bmc]

and, why does Canada (and the u.s. ) not look at sucessful security as an example. like the israelis and el al?
They keep reinventing the wheel, making it up as they go along, guided by past attacks. Dumb dumb dumb.
I noted one of the risks mentioned in a terminal over a year ago. Hope the terrorists don't figure that one out.

Canada is a nation of boy scouts.

[Dash-Ate]

HHmmm... 100% of Islamist terrorists are muslim. Obviously, not 100% of islamists are terrorists. However, since you have decided to belong to a religion (cult) that advocates slaughtering of innocent people, it does make sense to examine those people more closely. Is that profiling. For those of you bleeding heart liberals who think that is unfair, 4 more Canadians were killed today by Islamist terrorists in Afganistan.

Point of reason: if you withdraw all troops from afghanistan then exactly ZERO canadian troops will be killed.

Or are you the paranoid type who thinks you have to occupy a country to prevent "though crimes" against the USA?

The first casualty of war is the truth....and your only source is our media *cough*. You repeat what they tell you without even a second thought. It's easy to be a parrot isn't it. Weak people do not think.
War is a business and business is good.
Never, ever forget that.

[canwhitewolf]

I dont think 'Israelification' of airports in canada is a good idea at all.