Posted on 01/08/2010 3:05:19 AM PST by Scanian
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 airports, but what makes security there different is the human component: highly trained personnel who observe, question and understand the behavioral patterns of passengers -- and who know when something is out of the ordinary and merits closer observation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Go for quality not quantity.
Well, the solution is certainly better, but finding enough perspicacious people for the number of airports in Israel is a bit easier than doing so for the vastly larger number in the US.
Flew from Tel Aviv to Cairo on El Al five years ago with my wife. The plane was 25% full and we were stuck in the back of the plane with one young man sitting directly across the aisle from us, no one within 20 rows of us. When the guy leaned forward he had a gun in an ankle holster.
The only reason I could come up with for the arrangement was that if you took the A off the back of my very Irish name it is OMAR and the guy had to be on the plane anyway so better safe than sorry. The other giveaway was he stayed on the plane and never got off.
2. 0 and company are in complete denial about the WOT. They TRULY believe that it is and was all Bush's fault and that singing folk songs around the campfire will make it all better.
3. 0 sucks as a manager or people and processes. That would be OK if he had some deputies that were competent. Incomptano is the first. She is a blithering idiot and should be removed and driven off in a short bus. Her foolish comment about being surprised and “the system worked” are beyond the pale of incompetence.
ping
Israel also has a much smaller population from which to select these people. It's the strategy, not the size. Math works.
From my observation, most TSA people couldn't find their own posterior with two hands and a flashlight. Even if some TSA person were to notice something the politically correct system would prevent them from acting because it might offend someone. The TSA will continue to shake down little old ladies in wheelchairs, nuns and Congressional Medal of Honor winners in the name of political correctness.
Sorry, but population/airport ratio is still slanted heavily in favor of the Israelis. Israel has a popultion of ~7MM, and TWO international airports. The US has a population of 300MM and ~110 international airports (and I wasn't about to count all the regional airports). And yes, math "does" work, if you take the time to get good data.
But Israel ALSO "profiles", while we do not. It's far past time to s***-can political correctness, and crank up the psychologists and computers. I agree that having the right strategy in place is far and away better.
I'm falling for nothing. You may not like it, but facts are facts.
Where are you going to get the extra dollars to pay those theoretical perspicacious young people.
If this country can find $700 billion for bank bailouts, another $700 billion for stimulus pork and another few billion for GM and Chrysler, it should be able to find a few dollars to protect its citizenry, which is after all, its primary duty.
The Israeli screeners don't screen every passenger, they don't waste their time and only spend their time on flagged individuals.
It can be done.
I'm assuming nothing. Simply stating the fact that it will cost a great deal more for the US to do so.
"The Israeli screeners don't screen every passenger, they don't waste their time and only spend their time on flagged individuals."
See my comment about "profiling", and the need to do so. They do NOT succeed by some magical ability to pick the "bad guy" out of a crowd.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The most cost-effective security solution we could possibly employ would be to copy the Israeli model. It works. We would have to suffer the howls of the antisemitic masses, of course. How could we hire the occupiers? Those who aspire to populate the “third holiest site in Islam”? It would be a PR nightmare, but we would be safer, and the terrorists would be very upset. I have no problem with upset terrorists and outraged Euros. It works.
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