Posted on 08/14/2006 1:52:34 PM PDT by marshmallow
Doing more thinking about the new, more onerous restrictions on what you can carry on board flights today, I’m reminded that El Al, as far as I’ve been able to tell, has never had an in-air attack on one of its aircraft via a weapon smuggled on board. How do they do it? After all, they are target Number One of every Islamic terrorist in the world. And they don’t do it by making every passenger submit to multiple indignities and force them to fly bereft of their possessions.
The difference is that while the Transportation Security Administration screens out weapons, El Al screens out terrorists. While the TSA would not mind a weaponless terrorist on board a US flight, El Al on the other hand has no problem with a regular civilian with a potential weapon.
And they do it with a tool that the TSA, the Bush administration, and the entire left-wing establishment refuses to use: Profiling.
What El Al does to secure its flights
For decades El Al has taken its security much more seriously than the US ever has. When you check in for an El Al flight, their representative will ask you so many questions, you’ll wonder if you’re taking a flight or applying for a job. Not just the silly “Did you pack your bags” questions either, but detailed inquiries into your reason for flying, where you are coming from, your background, your job, and so on. (Here’s an October 2001 USA Today article on El Al’s security screening.) And once on board, there’s even more security, including armed guards.
El Al knows that they have much more to fear from a 35-year-old college-educated Muslim from Saudi Arabia who has spent time in Pakistan and who has a chemical engineering degree and a history of attendance at radical mosques than they do from a 90-year-old grandmother from Winchester, Illinois, carrying a bottle of Gatorade on board to stay hydrated on her flight. Heck, Grandma Millie (that’s really Melanie’s grandmother) would probably be allowed to board carrying a machete.
Reading the 10/01 article, I’m dismayed at what we’ve failed to do and lessons not learned in the past five years.
For Americans considering an end to free and easy flying in the USA, El Al provides a glimpse of what might lie ahead after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [Unfortunately, not an accurate prediction.] ... Despite their current anxieties, Americans also might balk at El Al-style ethnic profiling. Staff scrutinize the passengers’ names, dividing them into low-risk (Israeli or foreign Jews), medium-risk (non-Jewish foreigners) and extremely high-risk travelers (anyone with an Arabic name). These people automatically are taken into a room for body and baggage checks and lengthy interrogation. Single women also are considered high-risk, for fear they might be used by Palestinian lovers to carry bombs.
To sift out who is who, screeners usually begin by asking passengers whether they understand any Hebrew, which most Jews do. Officials argue that such blatant discrimination is necessary.
... In fact, El Al’s security kicks in long before the passenger will notice. Call an El Al office in any city to book a ticket, and your name will be checked against a computer list of terrorist suspects compiled by Interpol, the FBI, Shin Bet (Israel’s intelligence service) and others.
... Once you board, up to five armed undercover agents will travel with you in strategic aisle seats, ready for attack. Furthermore, like many Israelis, cabin crews are former soldiers in the Israeli military who have received combat training. The cockpit door, of reinforced steel, is locked from the inside before passengers board and is opened only after everyone has disembarked at their destination. No matter what’s going on in the rest of the plane, it is never opened during flight.
... By El Al’s standards, my screening was light — only 10 minutes of questioning by two well-paid officials with full military training. It ended with one of them locking all the zippers on my suitcase with plastic ties.
... A lot happens behind the scenes, too. Once luggage moves from the check-in desk to the conveyer belt, it is put in a pressurized box that detonates any explosive before the bag is loaded on the plane, Dror says. No unaccompanied bags are allowed. Those bags remain behind.
By contrast, our new government bureaucracy has given us pat-downs of 10-year-old girls, grandmothers forced to remove their shoes, mothers forced to taste test their own bottled breast milk, and hundreds of thirsty passengers forced to sit through transcontinental flights without books, music, or movies to pass the time. All because we don’t want to take the politically incorrect step of profiling. I’m glad political correctness trumps safety and convenience.
If Marshmallow and daughter were not YMMs, then it was terribly stupid to take the Asthma inhaler away for ANY other reason.
And I've fixed your last sentence for you.
BTTT
Same here...going on BA from here to Gatwick, and then connecting on another BA flight in Heathrow...going to be be FUN....
You know how many muslims live in britain? The inconvenience wouldnt be to 'some' muslims, and the rioting in the streets that would follow would be unpleasant to say the least. You know what happened in bradford just a few years ago?
In my line of work, I fly a lot. I hardly know where I'm going to be going next, in fact, and fly at least twice a month. And I've observed that the security measures taken to secure air travel are just plain idiotic. They've secured NOTHING.
There is no end to the objects and substances that Muslim terrorists can bring on board an airplane and kill the passengers or wreck the thing. Our methods for screening for dangerous objects include only honesty (law-abiding, non-terrorists voluntarily give up certain items or substances for no good reason), X-rays for some checked baggage and all carry-ons (detects only SOME dangerous objects), metal detectors for passengers (detects only metal objects - does not detect ceramic blades, for instance), and very expensive explosives sniffer devices (detects only some specific types of explosive substances). NONE of those methods and NONE of the current methods would stop a Muslim terrorist from carrying out a slightly modified version of the most recent liquid/gel plot.
The only sane screening method is to target the population demographic that is responsible for 99.99% of terrorist acts. The only sane thing we're doing is deploying armed Air Marshals on some flights. But the policies under which Air Marshals must operate have reduced their effectiveness considerably.
Why should the threat of "rioting" prevent us from protecting airliners from terrorists? Right now they're inconveniencing EVERYBODY and there's no riots. Maybe the rest of us should have the uprising.
If the inhaler has a prescription label with a name, it is permitted.
Permitted Exceptions: Baby formula and breast milk if a baby or small child is traveling; prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger’s ticket; up to 8 oz. of liquid or gel low blood sugar treatment and up to 4 oz. of non-prescription liquid medications.
MAYBE we'll do that if we see any actual possibility, plans, or attempts to use a little old lady as a mule. Until then, how about we focus on the actual perps and leave the blue hairs alone.
Additionally, I'm sure many restaurants in airports are seeing declining sales. I used to get my dinner at the airport after arriving if I had an afternoon/evening flight, but I do this no more as I have to retrieve my baggage and can not re-enter to go to the restaurant.
Amen.
I have a theory on the reluctance to profile.
First...what does a Middle Eastern male look like?
They can be all types of colors,...skin types...
some light, some dark, some may look like a black
American male.
Therein lies the problem.
If you think the likes of Jesse Jackson,Al Sharpton,Louis
Farrakhan are making noise now....imagine what will happen when they start pulling aside young American black males for
questioning before they board a plane.
You've got THAT right.
Everyone flying out of TLV regardless of airline is screened
like that. BG airport was packed the time I have flown into
or out of there.
While I have some sympathy, I no longer give a damn.
Believe me.....I have no sympathy either.
It needs to be done.
Well, great, I don't know that my inhaler has a prescription label on it. The pharmacy normally puts it on the box.
I'll have to call about it and make sure. Typical government garbage. Maximum inconvenience without increasing actual security.
I've hated flying since 9/11. Especially since I've been pulled aside and searched on more than one occasion, yet, I'm obviously a middle aged white guy who hardly fits the profile of a terrorist.
The difference is that while the Transportation Security Administration screens out weapons, El Al screens out terrorists. While the TSA would not mind a weaponless terrorist on board a US flight, El Al on the other hand has no problem with a regular civilian with a potential weapon.
What an absolute load of crap.
http://www.iaa.gov.il/Rashat/en-US/Airports/BenGurion/InformationforTravelers/SecurityInstructions/
(FYI: I couldn't get the web page to work right with firefox)
If you fly out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, the recommend that you arrive three hours prior to your flight.
It is prohibited to carry sharp tools or utensils, such as pocketknives, scissors, nail files, etc, in your handbags or on your body.
Entering the terminal with a personal weapon is absolutely prohibited!
As the author mentions they are going to ask you lots of questions. They aren't going to only ask those questions if the person appears to be an Arab.
They do not just rely on profiling to pick out the most obvious candidates, the screen everyone considerably more throughly than we do here in the US.
If you think the procedures we go through here consist of suffering through indignities, you're going to face even more indignities there than you do here.
The author acts like flying out of Israel an American would fact less hassle boarding a plane than they do here, however the facts they present don't support that.
The author claims that profiling is used instead of the cumbersome regulations we use here. However, the evidence doesn't support that either.
While the government in the US avoids using the term profiling, they unquestionably do profile passengers looking for suspicious things. They endeavor to avoid messy, and generally useless legal battles by avoiding explicit "racial profiling". However, they do have different policies regarding citizens of different countries, and the FBI does investigate people who have a lot of ties to suspicious people in foreign countries, and such suspicions can land someone on the no fly list.
I'm not arguing against profiling. I think it's an excellent tool to use to concentrate limited resources on the highest risk passengers. I also believe it is a tool the TSA does use, though I think they should be able to use it more broadly than they have explicitly been allowed.
By contrast, our new government bureaucracy has given us pat-downs of 10-year-old girls, grandmothers forced to remove their shoes, mothers forced to taste test their own bottled breast milk, and hundreds of thirsty passengers forced to sit through transcontinental flights without books, music, or movies to pass the time.
Children can be overly trusting and susceptible to strangers asking them to carry something through security for them.
While suicidal terrorists tend to be young and idealistic, the elderly can also be extremists, and I've known a number of grandmothers that would be likely to carry something through security for someone who asked nicely without even considering the implications.
The foolish, and rather short lived, provision about tasting the contents of bottles was removed long ago.
Beverages are provided on flights, there no reason for passengers to go thirsty.
Books as well as electronic devices for playing music and video were not banned.
All because we don’t want to take the politically incorrect step of profiling. I’m glad political correctness trumps safety and convenience.
Profiling in Israel has not removed the need for banning certain items on planes there, and the more time consuming questioning they perform reduces convenience.
This article is seriously lacking in accuracy and honesty.
marshmallow: Apparently my daughter's asthma medicine is now considered a national security threat and as a result, was trashed.
If it was a prescription medication it should have been allowed.
They have now updated the regulations so that even if it is an over the counter medication it will be allowed if it contains 4 oz or less.
Their hastily made new regulations in the face of a specific threat did have some shortcomings. However, they are getting better at making changes to them relatively quickly.
Here's a couple useful links at the TSA website with more information. http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/new-items.shtm http://tsa-7.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/tsa.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php
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