Posted on 11/20/2010 12:49:22 PM PST by bsaunders
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 answers, body language, conflicting information given at different points and other time proven methods. Though it would be wonderful if we could train and utilize a similar method in the United States, there are many reasons that make the Israeli method pretty much workable for their unique situations.
I have often heard people make the argument that following the Israeli methods here in the United States would be difficult due to the vast number of passengers that would need to be passed through the system each day. That, for the most part, is a valid point, which could be overcome with sufficient numbers of well-trained interviewers. Another point is that nobody would take such a momentous job requiring a large skill-set unless the salary was commensurate with the level of expectation and responsibility. Again, true but not insurmountable. But most of these arguments miss the most important differences between the United States and Israel.
In Israel, somebody getting onto a plane is definitely leaving the country. Nobody flies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Part of leaving the country you have to present a passport. Passports list all your previous international travel destinations and thus present some very important information about the traveler. This is not true for most flights in the United States. Israel has one, and only one, airport. This airport was designed to suit the Israeli method of staged interviews as the means of identifying potential risks. Most American airports would require significant remodeling to facilitate this method. In Israel, there is one major carrier that accommodates the majority of those flying. This is not the case in any major metropolitan airport in the United States. Add to that the number of local carriers who service a smaller subset of airports and the problem gets that much more complex. America also has many small airports that may only see half dozen or so flights on an average day. With only Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, with approximately the same volume of flights per day, planning is far easier to tailor to the needs.
So, what could we do differently that would allow us to use a more efficient and less intrusive system. The answer is to take one of two routes. We could have each airline company be responsible for their own security.
By going this route, the airlines would all take different approaches and could learn from each other to iron out the method best suited to each. The other route would be to have each airport be responsible for security. This would make sense as then the airports with the least traffic would not require the mega-million dollar scanners and could use a system more suited to a small town where the passengers are mostly visiting relatives. With each airport using their own systems, once again they could learn from each other.
Something different has to be done, as the government method is obviously not working out. As usual, the Federal Government is, true to form, trying to hammer the nail with a jackhammer, not a normal hammer. As long as we leave this problem in the less than capable hands of the Federal Government, we can expect a continuing elevation of one overkill idea after another. My prediction is sooner or later the government will issue sheer pajamas or equally skimpy and embarrassing approved clothing for all air travelers.
An interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
Instead of profiling potential terrorists, we should profile people who clearly are NOT terrorists. Give these groups of people the "pilot pass," too.
Examples of groups profiled OUT of enhanced screening are:
"You give these people a clearance where they don't have to go through the process at all. So now you have to deal with the population that's left -- occasional flyers, people who recently visited certain countries, people originating from foreign countries..."
So there is a profiling system that doesn't profile the terrorist, leaving us open to charges of racism; it profiles people who are NOT terrorists (a group not likely to complain about it), and leaves the rest for enhanced screening.
-PJ
We should be profiling until we no longer have a reason to profile. The way it looks right now that could be a very, very long time. So be it.
Thanks for the post.
I don’t belong to those groups - But I still want the equal protection of the constitution as them...
Gee, I guess there isn’t anyway to bypass THAT system. Sorry, but your idea is dumb.
It's the reason why rail works in Europe and not in America.
It’s interesting. When I read “It can’t be done here,” though — I never let “can’t” be the last word in a solution.
Profiling is the common sense approach to airline security. Must get rid of the TSA and let them go back to Walmart.
30 years ago a friend of mine,a burly 20 something NY Jew, was chasing a girl he’d met in Paris through Europe and the Middle East. She’d gone from Athens to Tel Aviv and he followed. He was in a rush so when he packed he’d left one shoe behind. When the Israeli customs saw the single shoe and his passport stamps they detained him in private, forced him to strip and quizzed him 3 hours while they did a background. At no time were they anything but civil but they were dead serious. When they were satisfied, he was allowed on his way. Never caught up to the girl
I agree rail doesn’t work so well in the US, but it does work well on the east coast..where NYC and Dc have well defined subways systems, mass transit.
I still think, even with the difficulties in the US with the Israeli system it is workable.We first to need to compare costs of what we are spending now, to what we would spend with an Israeli-like system. They also use their former military, which is a great idea and these veterans need work.
the article is good in that it points out some major differences and areas that aren’t just a ‘simple” switch, yet we still need to check out the feaseability of the Israeli system or a modification of sorts.
And still we dance around the real issue. Who has actually tried to, and/or succeeded in blowing up air planes?
Good article, but I think you mean "major international passenger airport" or something like that.
Google lists a variety of domestic airports, and an airport in the Negev which is also technically an international airport.
Me too!!! This is criminal behavior by our government, plain and simple.
Cheers!
Second level, once over by better trained profiler with some questions and a dog inspection.
Third level, a nose down by a pig.
Pass those get on the plane.
I also think that an air marshal on every flight is imperative.
After all of that he didn’t get the girl?
Life can be cruel.
a) unless absolutely every airport in the US, for example Richmond VA, Jacksonville FL, Billings MN, Medford OR, has scanning and groping, how scanning and groping at selected limited airports makes any sense whatsoever. Terrorists can't board commercial airplanes in Billings?
b) the methods used heretofore in US airports have sufficed,
c) every NFL and College football game, or any mass assembly with no scanning and groping, has orders of magnitude more target rich potential than a commercial airplane,
d) Amtrak carries denser or larger passenger assemblies every day than the airlines, without scanning and groping,
e) scanning and groping millions of normal innocent taxpaying citizens who are subjected violates explicitly every possible interpretation of the intent of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, (written with full awareness of the tragedy of mass fear),
f) how Janet Napolitano, (apparently) one of the stupidest most disrespectful bitch appointments of Barack Obama, can sit in a high level meeting proposing scanning and groping and not ask the very questions we have asked here,
g) Michael Chertoff, the Rabbi's son, is invested in airport scanners (not certain of this),
h) there are dozens of more respectful alternatives, like the airlines exercising the responsibility themselves, or passenger pre-clearance, or uniformed security on board the aircraft like every other mass assembly?
Please get back to the Suntrade Institute, because we are forwarding the same questions to our arrogant self serving Senators, and there might be reasonable answers.
Johnny Suntrade
Dangerous people can have forged passports or can get new ones. I doubt the Israelis depend too much on what they see in one.
ML/NJ
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