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Palestinian Authority hackers briefly managed to pull down a few sites in Israel Wednesday night in the ongoing cyberwar launched by Iran and anti-Israel Arabs. Among the sites that fell prey to attacks were the home pages of El Al Airlines, the Dan Bus Company, the Israel Festival, Israel's CinemaTek and Ha'aretz newspaper. The home pages were replaced with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans such as "Free Palestine, Death to Israel," "Jew = Nazi" and a promise that "4 more Gilad Shalits will be abducted." The latter hacker remark is a reference to IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas-allied terrorists...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

Hacker “OxOmar,” dubbed the “Saudi Hacker,” struck again on Monday, this time shutting down the El Al and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange information site. The cyber attack did not affect the site on which investors trade stocks, and trading was not affected. The hacker struck last month by invading thousands of accounts of Israeli credit card holders. The El Al site was shut down as of mid-morning, and the Stock Exchange site was available but not operable. OxOmar blocked the El Al site but did not take control of it or damage its content. The real damage is to the...

Passengers flying through Boston’s Logan International Airport will notice the security screeners are chattier than usual, but it’s not an improved customer service policy. On Tuesday the Transportation Security Administration began a test-run at Logan of its SPOT program, which stands for Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques. SPOT uses trained screeners known as Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) to determine if passengers are a threat, based on their reactions to a set of routine questions. “The vast majority of passengers will experience a casual greeting conversation with the BDO as they go through identity verification,” a TSA spokesperson said. “A...

America must focus its finite capabilities on those who crave the destruction of planes and the people who ride them. What would that profile be? Today's threat comes almost exclusively from militant-Islamic males between about 18 and 35 who hail from the Middle East and predominantly Muslim African and south-Asian nations. This profile was not drawn by anti-Muslim bigots, nervous Jews, or paranoid Southern Baptists. The terrorists themselves created this profile. It's past time to employ terrorist profiling to shield Americans from those who want to murder us.

Back in January, the Obama administration announced a new policy for airline safety: country-based profiling. Travelers from 14 countries known to harbor terrorists would automatically receive extra scrutiny, including additional pat-downs or full-body scans. The named states were: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. My reaction at the time was: You mean you weren’t already doing that? Apparently not. When underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab traveled from Nigeria to Detroit without baggage (it was reported at the time that he had purchased a one-way ticket, but that proved to be...

It is the topic on everyone’s mind right now. If you know you have travel plans, you’ve begun dreading the experience more than ever. If flying gives you anxiety, it has most likely taken a backseat to the security measures you know you are about to experience. You‘ve never “sexted” and sending naked pictures of yourself on the computer or your phone never even crossed your mind -but with the new TSA imaging and the picture we’ve all seen (unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere) you know the possibilities of real humiliation exist and your personal images could...

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israel's national airline El Al on Monday apologized to a visiting professor strip-searched on her way to conference in Jerusalem, an Israeli newspaper reported. Heather Bradshaw, a neuroscientist, was travelling from the UK to Israel at the invitation of Hebrew University when she was subjected a physical examination in which she was asked to remove her bra. She told the Israeli daily Haaretz that El Al security personnel detained her at Luton airport in London on 31 October, confiscated all of her belongings, and repeatedly questioned her. After nearly an hour of examinations, she was...

"No matter how distasteful it may be to civil liberties groups, Israel actively profiles passengers"...Maybe we should take a page out of their playbook instead of our P.C.-Searching 85 year old grandmas at our Airports for explosives...

Air travelers in the United States are now given two options at the security gate -- be groin-groped by gloved Transportation Security Administration agents, or photographed "naked" in the back-scatter X-ray device that Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic calls "the porn machine." You can thank failed "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for this one. While armies tragically tend to fight the last war, the TSA looks for the item the most recent terrorist used. After 9/11, everything sharp -- even tweezers -- was banned. Ever since Richard Reid tried and failed to light his loafers on fire, security agents have...

Built to replace human selectors or random check ups of visitors, the SDS-VR-1000 is based on the assumption that sophisticated terrorists might not be included in suspect lists. Not many terrorists walk into an airport waving a banner announcing who they are. They don't carry handguns or try to conceal explosives as they debark from an international flight into the United States. And just as rarely do they have police records. So how can US officials go about identifying potential terrorists? A new solution is Israel's Suspect Detection Systems (SDS) - a company that has developed an advance automated filtering...

Our ever-friendly Transportation Safety Administration sure has smacked a hornet’s nest with their new see-through body scanners and overtly invasive body inspections that border on criminal groping if done unofficially. The anger this has raised has once again brought to the front the example of the Israeli method of clearing people through questioning rather than all the hi-tech gadgetry. Some will always criticize the Israeli method due to the fact that it is a form of profiling. This is a mute and unsubstantiated complaint as the Israelis profile not by race, religion, or other physical traits, but profile by the...

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-assistant-president-homeland-security-and-counterterrorism-john-brennan-csi # Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release May 26, 2010 Remarks by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan at CSIS “Securing the Homeland by Renewing American Strength, Resilience and Values” Thank you very much John, and I would like to take a moment to express my appreciation to CSIS for inviting me back. You invited me here a little after six months after I came into this administration and I greatly appreciate the invitation...

French newspaper Le FIGARO announces today that profiling will be used in French airports. The French authorities have approved security measures based on Israeli counter-terrorism modus operandi. The slightest sign of nervosity could warn an agent, which will have the possibility to investigate suspects at any time and any place in the airport. Israeli profiling has been of much interest for French authorities since the aborted plot of Flight 253 in Detroit last month.

In the wake of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed at tempt to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, President Obama yesterday talked up more advanced technologies as the road to better air security. But what America really needs to do is take a lesson from the security practices at the world's most targeted -- yet arguably most secure -- airport: Israel's Ben Gurion International. Obama claimed, "There is no silver bullet to securing the thousands of flights" each day. In fact, the Israeli methods are proven. Ben Gurion has the same x-ray machines and metal detectors as other major...

As hands are wrung in the aftermath of the near-tragedy on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit, a conversation from London's Heathrow Airport in 1986 comes to mind. It consisted of an El Al security agent quizzing one Ann-Marie Doreen Murphy, a 32-year-old recent arrival in London from Sallynoggin, Ireland. While working as a chambermaid at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, Murphy met Nizar al-Hindawi, a far-leftist Palestinian who impregnated her. After instructing her to "get rid of the thing," he abruptly changed his tune and insisted on immediate marriage in "the Holy Land." He also insisted on their...

Stress Security, Not ConvenienceThe safest airline in the world, it is widely agreed, is El Al, Israel’s national carrier. The safest airport is Ben Gurion International, in Tel Aviv. No El Al plane has been attacked by terrorists in more than three decades, and no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked. What are the Israelis doing that we aren’t? Airports in the United States and many other countries are built around convenience while in Israel it’s all about security. We get our boarding passes online and check our baggage at the curb. At T.S.A. checkpoints, youths stare at...

An El-Al passenger jet bound for New York nearly collided with an Air France airliner over the skies of Belgrade on Monday, Channel 2 revealed on Tuesday evening. According to the report, the Serbian air controller made a mistake and instructed the Air France airplane to fly on a route already used by the El Al plane, so that the jets were on a collision course. The two planes were about to crash in midair, but emergency alarms alerted both pilots and the El-Al plane changed course at the last minute, when the distance between the aircraft was only 300...

VS. WHO: Yeffet Isaac, Former Director of El-Al Airlines Security -VS.- Ibrahim Hooper Executive Director of C.A.I.R.WHAT: A Well Overdue DEBATEWHEN: As Soon As PossibleWHERE: LIVE NATIONWIDE on American TV, CNN, FOX, Major Networks, Radio Stations, NPR, etc., With Studio Audience Able to Ask QuestionsWHY: America dodged a major bullet on Christmas Day in Detroit. Reports are that additional terrorist acts involving US airliners are probably on the way. El-Al has a clean record of never being attacked by Islamist Extremists. C.A.I.R. has stated that the US should not, at all costs, racially and religiously profile passengers in the...

SANTA ANA – A man was sentenced to 70 months in prison today for his role in a domestic terrorism plot to wage war on the United States by attacking Jewish synagogues and military bases. Hammad Riaz Samana is the fourth member of Jami'yyat Ul-Islam Is-Shaheeh, or JIS, a prison-founded group that wanted to make a political statement that also had plans to attack the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles and El Al Israel Airlines at the Los Angeles International Airport. Samana was 21 when he was charged in the case in July 2005, along with the cell's mastermind, Kevin...

(IsraelNN.com) Travelers on Israeli airline El-Al report that its flights now feature a satire about residents of Hevron which many have termed “anti-Semitic.” The producers of the film may face libel suits. The offending skit was aired earlier in the month on the satirical Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Land) show on Channel 2 TV. The popular show has run for six seasons in Israel and is similar to the American program Saturday Night Live. (The Hevron film clip can be viewed here in Hebrew.)

Plans by an unknown group to attack staff of Israel's national carrier El Al in Canada have been thwarted, Israel's private Channel Two television reported on Wednesday. Without giving the nationalities of the alleged attackers, it said they had monitored the comings and goings of El Al aircrew at a Toronto hotel. Security procedures for crews overnighting at the hotel between flights have now been changed, it added. On Tuesday, Israeli newspapers reported that at least five attempts by Hizbullah to abduct Israeli businessmen in Africa, Asia, and South America had been foiled. Each time, Hizbullah -- which fought a...

Israel's national airline, El Al, and American Airlines said Tuesday they will begin selling tickets on each other's connecting flights beginning in September. The agreement replaces a code-share deal that El Al had with Delta Air Lines Inc. until late last year, when Delta began its own direct flights from the United States to Tel Aviv. The agreement with American will begin Sept. 2. American will sell tickets on El Al flights from the US to Tel Aviv as if they were American jets. El Al will sell seats, or place its "code" on tickets, on some American domestic flights...

The security measures on aircraft belonging to Israeli airlines and around them during takeoffs and arrivals abroad have been significantly boosted over the past few days for fear that Hizbullah would act on its promise to avenge the February assassination of its top commander Imad Mugniyah. The number of armed security guards on some of the flights to several destinations has been increased, as was the number of guards surrounding the plane after the landing and before the takeoff. "The threat is extremely concrete, and there is no choice but to do everything possible," a source involved in aviation security...

(IsraelNN.com) El Al Airlines said it is negotiating with Boeing on the purchase of four new 777-220 jets, with delivery beginning in 2012. The airline said no final agreement is expected after several weeks and is subject to approval of the executive board, Reuters News Agency reported. All of El Al's planes are made by Boeing, and it would have the option to convert its purchase to 777-300 jets by the end of this year. El Al recently bought two 777 planes for its routes to the United States and Asia and said additional planes are needed to meet a...

A source close to the Italian airport police said local authorities only learned of the graffitti after the plane left the Italian airport for Tel Aviv on Monday. Pro-Palestinian graffiti written in Arabic has been found scrawled inside the cargo hold of an El Al plane during unloading at Milan's Malpensa airport, raising Israeli concerns about Italian airport security. "It was something like 'Long Live Palestine',"... "It has happened once before." Israel's flag carrier, which normally uses round-the-clock security for its planes...

Civil liberties group calls on Arab sector to protest humiliating security screenings at Ben Gurion airport, shun national airline Roee Nahmias Published: 09.18.07, 17:54 / Israel News Israeli Arabs should boycott El Al, a new pressure group said in its first press conference Tuesday in Nazareth. The group, a subcommittee for Arab civil liberties in Israel, has been formed under the auspices of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. The boycott call comes in protest of the screening process Israeli Arabs citizens are subjected to at Ben-Gurion airport. Aside from the airport issue, the new group said it wanted to fight...

Israel evacuated passengers from airplanes at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Thursday, after securities found package suspected to be bomb, the Al- Arabiya TV reported. Meanwhile, local daily Jerusalem Post also reported the evacuation at the airport, saying it was made after a suspicious object was found Thursday evening during the security check at Ben Gurion Airport. It said the security personnel detected the object when they were checking electrical device being loaded onto an El-Al plane bound for Moscow. The object was being sufficiently analyzed, said the report.

An El Al jet taxiing before takeoff at Ben Gurion International Airport filled with smoke on Sunday, forcing passengers and crew to flee the aircraft on emergency slides, airport officials said. The 128 passengers and crew members on the Zurich-bound 737 were evacuated after smoke began billowing out of vents on the plane, airport spokesman Yiftach Kramer said. No one was hurt in the mishap, the cause of which was still unknown, he said. "The plane started taxiing before takeoff, and while it was taxiing the plane filled with smoke and there was a burnt smell," passenger Shlomi Safran told...

BERN, Switzerland -- For centuries, this Alpine nation has successfully relied on a strict policy of political neutrality to insulate it from the wars, invasions and revolutions that have raged outside its borders. These days, a new threat has emerged: one from within. As they have elsewhere in Europe, Islamic radicals are making inroads in Switzerland. Last month, Swiss officials announced the arrests of a dozen suspects who allegedly conspired to shoot down an Israeli airliner flying from Geneva to Tel Aviv. In a related case, a North African man has been charged with organizing a plot from Swiss soil...

El-Al passengers held up after arriving from Milan. The reason: Swastikas were sprayed inside cargo hold of aircraft. El-Al: We filed official complaint to Italy Eli Senyor Published: 11.06.06, 22:24 Several swastikas were discovered Monday night in the cargo hold of an El-Al aircraft which was on its way from Milan to Tel-Aviv. The swastikas were discovered when the cargo doors were opened in Ben Gurion Airport, and all passengers were held for questioning. The incident, which caught the passengers by surprise, was discovered only after the aircraft had landed in Israel after a scheduled flight from Milan's international airport....

A month and a half after being arrested in Mumbai for carrying bullets in her rucksack, Noa Haviv is expected to gain back her freedom Monday after an Indian judge instructed authorities to return her passport. She is expected to return to Israel in the coming days. Haviv, a 28-year-old from Jerusalem, was arrested upon arrival to India on an El Al plane from Israel. A cartridge loaded with 16 9mm bullets was found in her bag, which belonged to her brother. Haviv was released about a week later, but her passport was held by local authorities and she was...

Israel's security is at risk due to the decision by several European nations not to allow El Al cargo planes carrying arms shipments to land - and therefore refuel - on their way to Israel. According to El Al pilots' spokesman Itai Regev, the decision by England, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy - whose national carrier Alitalia recently won a bid to be the preferred carrier for Israeli public servants flying abroad on official business - not to allow arms-laden El Al flights to refuel necessitates the transport of significantly smaller quantities of weapons and ammunition per flight. At a...

Confiscating hair gel and Starbucks coffee is this year’s equivalent of the banning of nail clippers and lighters. Put another way, the enhanced security measures put into place at airports across the world following this month’s disruption of a plot by British Muslims to smuggle liquid explosives onto several transatlantic flights aren’t making airline passengers feel much safer. Which is why Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has tried to reassure American travelers about boarding an airplane by reminding them of such protections as the “prohibition on liquids, gels and beverages in carry-on baggage.” The problem is that while possible liquid...

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...

The plot to shoot the plane was uncovered by Claude Kuvasi, a Swiss secret service member who worked under the codename Babylon. Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Kuvasi was planted as an undercover agent in an Islamic center in Geneva to find out if a terror cell was operating in it. In order to encourage the trust of the head of the Islamic center, Hani Ramadan, Kuvasi converted to Islam. According to reports, one of the operatives of the centers told the agent, who was dining with him, that he was a member of a cell planning to blow up...

El Al to go the Airbus route for first time By National air carrier El Al has decided for the first time to by Airbus airplanes instead of purchasing from Boeing. TheMarker has learned that a delegation of high level executives from the European consortium is about to sign a contract and financing arrangements with the heads of the Israeli airline. A series of meetings, held under a veil of secrecy, ended Tuesday night at the Ramat Hahayal offices of the Borovich Mozes Group. It was agreed that Airbus financial experts will come to Israel immediately after Passover to iron...

SEATTLE, Dec. 13, 2005 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE- BA] and El Al Airlines of Israel have signed an agreement for the purchase of two Boeing 777-200ER (Extended Range) jetliners. The airplanes, together valued at $362 million at list prices, are scheduled for delivery in 2007. The new 777-200ERs will help El Al expand service to meet growing demand for air travel in the Israeli market. El Al already operates four 777s on routes to New York and the Far East from Tel Aviv and will operate the new 777s to destinations in the U.S. and the Far East. "The...

El Al profit up despite fuel prices The airline’s revenue rose 17% to $485.2 million in the third quarter, and profit was $52.2 million. Yuval Mendelson 24 Nov 05 09:39El Al Israel Airlines (TASE: ELAL), controlled by Knafaim-Arkia Holdings (TASE: KNFM), today reported its results for the third quarter of 2005. The report can be summarized as an improvement, despite higher fuel prices. It is important to mention that, over the past year, ticket prices charged by El Al and other international airlines have risen along with fuel prices. El Al posted a $52.2 million net profit in the third...

Dutch television announced on Friday that Netherlands police arrested a youth who allegedly intended to shoot down an El Al airplane at Schipool Airport outside of Amsterdam. Samir Azuz, 19, a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested with six other co-conspirators, Israel Radio reported. According to the Netherlands intelligence service, the suspects enlisted the cooperation of two employees at an office near Schipool in order to perform reconnaissance. They also acquired weapons. Reports revealed that Azuz, apparently expecting to die while bringing down the airplane, had prepared a videotape saying goodbye to his parents. Approximately six months ago Azuz...

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - El Al Israel Airlines said on Sunday it signed an agreement with Boeing Co. for the purchase of two 777-200 ER jets for about $246 million. El Al, Israel's national carrier, expects to take delivery of the long-range wide-body jets in 2007. Each aircraft will cost between $117 million and $123 million, in accordance with the extras the company orders, El Al said in a statement.

El Al suspends all Turkey flights El Al says is trying to find alternative flights for stranded passengers Israeli airline El Al has suspended all its flights to Turkey in a row over security in Istanbul. The suspension, which started on Thursday, has left air passengers stranded in both Turkey and Israel. The dispute follows weeks of growing tension between the two countries' governments, after Turkey's prime minister criticised Israel's treatment of Palestinians. But the row is thought to be unrelated to Thursday's bomb attacks in Turkey. The flights were halted after reports that the number of Israeli guards permitted...

Israel has asked the United States to allow El Al planes to land in its airports while equipped with new "FlightGuard" devices. FlightGuard is a special system designed to protect civil aircraft from missiles. Israel Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who left at the end of last week on a trip to the U.S., will discuss the missile defense system with his American counterpart, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. An initial test of the FlightGuard system on El Al aircraft is scheduled for this coming June. Israel's Transportation Ministry intends to equip all civilian aircraft with the missile defense system; as a...

The "Flight Guard" electronic counter-measure system to protect civilian aircraft against shoulder-fired surface to air missiles will be installed on El Al planes in June, as part of an Israel Civil Aviation Administration (ICAA) test, Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday. The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), however, refuses to allow civilian planes to be equipped with the flare-based system due to the safety risks. According to Transportation Ministry spokesman Avner Ovadiah, the new anti-missile system will be installed on one El Al aircraft in June, with tests lasting two to three months. If the tests are successful, he said,...

El Al Israel Airlines is to begin testing a system to guard its aircraft against missiles, a government official said Thursday, 19 months after an Israeli civilian jet narrowly escaped being shot down by two shoulder-fired missiles in Kenya. El Al has long had one of the most intensive security systems in international aviation, but the Kenya attack - against an Israeli Arkia charter jet - underscored the need to protect its aircraft from missiles. Israeli experts said the attack failed because the missiles were old and inaccurate, and not - as had been speculated at the time - because...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is equipping its El Al fleet with an anti-missile system and the national carrier's first plane protected by the device will take to the air by June, the Transportation Ministry said on Thursday. Israeli aviation sources said they believed El Al was the first airline to install the countermeasures. International experts have said they expected other airlines to follow suit within months in response to global terrorism fears. Israel stepped up efforts to adapt military anti-missile systems for its civilian aircraft after an Israeli Arkia charter jet came under attack from shoulder-held missiles in Kenya in...

El Al places firearms in the suitcases of some passengers without their knowledge as part of a training exercise for security personnel. The practice was exposed last week after a passenger returning to Israel from Frankfurt opened his suitcase to find a pistol that did not belong to him. After alerting the police, the passenger was informed that it was a simulated weapon used by El Al security in training exercises. El Al is negotiating with the startled customer over appropriate compensation. "El Al Israel Airlines uses various measures and systems to ensure passenger safety," a spokesman for the airline...

Israel Aircraft Industries’ (IAI) Flight Guard anti-missile system for civilian airliners has passed the development stage and is currently being installed on El Al passenger jets according to a report by Globes. El Al purchased the first systems from IAI subsidiary Elta Electronic Industries in recent weeks according to the Globes report and the system is expected to be installed on El Al’s Boeing 767s within two months. The Defense Ministry, which is paying for the purchase of the new systems, has budgeted 6 million shekels for El Al’s initial purchase of the systems. The estimated cost of one system...

<p>An al Qaeda suspect in custody in Belgium told American investigators he saw members of the terror organization training snipers in preparation for attacks on U.S. soil, a source told The Post last night.</p> <p>One of the planned attacks targeted U.S. senators on a golf course.</p>

The missile threat that diverted an El Al flight from Toronto to Montreal Thursday was gaining weight Sunday as Canadian police traced the origins and destination of a German-made rocket launcher. The Calgary Sun reported that the equipment found among 14 caches of weapons entered Canada at a postal plant between April 2001 and March 2003. The rocket shoulder launcher can be outfitted with heat-seeking missiles, and officials have said that a heat-seeking missile was to be used in the attack. The RCMP, Peel police and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agents are trying to trace the locally based threatening...