Should Airports Use "Smart Screening"?

[brown77]

Originally Posted by dr. mabuse

Someone on this forum that has experience with flying in and out of Israel update me please.

Why? Are you taking notes for the TSA or something?

Seeing as you asked, this article sums it up pretty well:

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."

Sourced from: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/ar...-little-bother

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

Here piggy piggy! I never did have a problem with a dog sticking its nose in my crotch.

Who remember the little foo foo lap rats that got paraded through the barracks after payday? Nothing quite like a miniature poodle named "Killer" going ape-shit, doin' cartwheels and pissing herself in front of a wall locker!

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Who remember the little foo foo lap rats that got paraded through the barracks after payday? Nothing quite like a miniature poodle named "Killer" going ape-shit, doin' cartwheels and pissing herself in front of a wall locker!

HEY! cheap thrills are, well....cheap!

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

HEY! cheap thrills are, well....cheap!

Not if it was your wall locker . . .

[TOMAHAWK9521]

My late wife and her German Shepherd worked on the Larimer County SAR dog team. I was stunned how sharp all the dogs' sense of smell were. If the animals are properly trained, there isn't much that they won't detect. As for shepherds or Belgian Malenwas/Malinuais (screw the spelling) the other Belgian breed being used as sniffers, I would think they provide a great intimidation factor. It's not like the dog will attack the person as soon as they detect something but the offender doesn't know that. No one likes having a large, aggressive dog like that behaving like it's going to bite you.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Richard

Teddy,

I'm not sure that (1) your wife would allow it and (2) you heart could take it.

Now me, on the other hand...

Richard's $.02

Just broke the news to Maggie regarding your comment and she LHAO......

Big Teddy

[G]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

We are not Isreal! It's a lot easier for them. Compare the number of Airports and daily flights to the U.S. They cover the amount of flights equal to one of our major Airports. We have one or more Airports and numbers of flights to Israel in everyone of our States.

Kgoerz,

You're right....even though their system is far more effective, the problem would be the cost. I don't believe the US can afford to pay the higher wages (and for the training) for the vast number of security agents that would be required.

Maybe it's worth closely examining how they operate, extract the parts that are scalable, and build it into a new system?

By the way, don't just focus on Ben Gurion / Tel Aviv airport; the Israelis screen passengers getting onto their flights at every airport worldwide that their airlines fly to / from. So from a logistical point of view, they have screening people at every check-in for El Al in the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia. Where they cannot screen people their way, they do not fly. It's an impressive system.

G

I vote for large 350# razor back hogs walking around airports at TSA.

or better yet,...

[hoepoe]

Dogs have 20 minutes of effective "sniffing" before they need a rest.

Too much focus is spent on looking for objects and not for the terrorists. Remember, guns don't kill people, people do.

Israeli methods are indeed scalable. From a recent trip CONUS, i can tell you that flying out of Ben Gurion is far safer, far smoother and far quicker.

H

[Sneaky Pete]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

I don't know about you, but I have a Constutionally garunteed right to privacy. I don't intend on giving it up. This smacks of pervasive fear. As long as we live in fear, they have won. If you think that TSA will be not saving stuff, you are naive.
I might as well just strip on the sidewalk and then enter the terminal.

Tell me just whom is going to pay for all this ultra expensive equipment?
Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Tell me do you want your wife to be viewed by some stranger?
AM

Originally Posted by Warrior-Mentor

Do you have a constitutionally guaranteed right to fly?

Don't want to play?

Trains, cars and boats. Help yourself.

Israel's cracked this nut. Find success, imitate.

The right to privacy is suggested in several amendments to our constitution but despite common belief it is not specifically enumerated.

You could say that you have the:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." (Amendment IV)

Given the circumstances, being sniffed by a dog, or being subjected to an invasive scan seems worth the convenience of lower risk air travel.

[nmap]

Originally Posted by G

I don't believe the US can afford to pay the higher wages (and for the training) for the vast number of security agents that would be required.

Perhaps part of this is the low-priced ticket model that seems to be in place within the U.S. I cannot help but wonder how the cost of the Israeli model would compare with the current U.S. approach.

If we combined excellent (albeit expensive) security along with a few amenities to make the travel experience more pleasant, we might find that travelers were delighted to make the switch.

[Richard]

FWIW - the Israeli model came into existance when it became evident that the Israeli's could trust nobody to look our for their safety/self-interests and their government made the decision to protect their interests no matter the cost. To that end, El Al does the following:

• Their aircraft have specific modifications
• Their agents (world-wide) and crews are Israeli
• Their aircraft are only serviced by Israelis
• Their security personnel (world-wide) are entirely Israeli
• Their citizens and equipment all have military obligations

Expensive - but - a must from their point-of-view.

שלום לכל המבקשים אותו

And so it goes...

Richard's $.02

[hoepoe]

Originally Posted by Richard

FWIW - the Israeli model came into existance when it became evident that the Israeli's could trust nobody to look our for their safety/self-interests and their government made the decision to protect their interests no matter the cost. To that end, El Al does the following:

• Their aircraft have specific modifications
• Their agents (world-wide) and crews are Israeli
• Their aircraft are only serviced by Israelis
• Their security personnel (world-wide) are entirely Israeli
• Their citizens and equipment all have military obligations

Expensive - but - a must from their point-of-view.

שלום לכל המבקשים אותו

And so it goes...

Richard's $.02

There will be computerized semi-auto security profiling procedures at Ben Gurion airport soon....will be interesting to see.

H

Originally Posted by Sneaky Pete

Given the circumstances, being sniffed by a dog, or being subjected to an invasive scan seems worth the convenience of lower risk air travel.

Is the risk lower? Or are we just deluding ourselves?

Originally Posted by Richard

FWIW - the Israeli model came into existance when it became evident that the Israeli's could trust nobody to look our for their safety/self-interests and their government made the decision to protect their interests no matter the cost. To that end, El Al does the following:

• Their aircraft have specific modifications
• Their agents (world-wide) and crews are Israeli
• Their aircraft are only serviced by Israelis
• Their security personnel (world-wide) are entirely Israeli
• Their citizens and equipment all have military obligations

Expensive - but - a must from their point-of-view.

שלום לכל המבקשים אותו

And so it goes...

Richard's $.02

CNN had a vid short on exactly the profiling and procedues to fly out of Israel.
The several levels of security one must get through to fly. It is efficient, to the point, and works. They do profile and they like to talk directly to you, focus on you. Not your shoes, liquids or undies. I like that model and think it should be implemented here in the States. Quite obviously our model involves heavily on reaction rather than proaction. It also is not working, time to look at what does work.

I would, however, like to see a cost comparison analysis of the Israeli vs US current methods of airport security. I bet the Israeli method, over time, is cheaper.

AM