Posted on 05/31/2002 5:15:12 PM PDT by vannrox
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| from the May 29, 2002 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0529/p01s03-wome.html
A few tips on how the experts spot a terroristIsraeli security specialists say US system looks for the weapons while Israeli system looks for the terrorist.By Ben Lynfield | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
JERUSALEM - For years, a T-shirt has been on sale in downtown Jerusalem that reads: "Don't worry America, Israel is behind you."
It is a slogan whose time has come – at least for the Israeli government, which is translating American post-Sept. 11 security concerns into closer ties with the US, and for Israeli businessmen, who see an opportunity to market their army and secret-service experience.
Israel's Shin Bet security service last week instructed a delegation from the New York Police Department on how to deal with suicide bombings. On Monday, eight senior law enforcement officials from Georgia arrived for a week of lectures, seminars, and scrutiny of an Israeli paramilitary border police unit. The bomb unit of the Los Angeles Police Department was here earlier this month. And Israeli police superintendent Shlomo Aharonishky met two weeks ago in Washington with Chief of Police Charles Ramsey and FBI agents to discuss how to handle suicide bombers.
"There is no question the ties have gotten closer," says Gil Kleiman, an Israeli police spokes-man. "No other law enforcement agency has the experience we have in dealing with terrorism within the constraints of a Western system of law and court systems."
By year's end, Israel will host a convention of police commissioners from across the US, Mr. Kleiman says.
While Israel's security forces are widely reputed to be among the best in the world, not everyone in Israel agrees that the country offers a model of how to reconcile security measures with democracy.
"Palestinian civilians need to prepare for their graves when they approach Israeli checkpoints," says Hashem Mahameed, a member of the Knesset for the left-wing Hadash Party. "I don't think the practices in the West Bank and Gaza are something Americans could take pride in."
But Israeli security specialists say that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which began in 1967, as well as securing Israeli facilities in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, have accorded decades of experience which can benefit the US.
For example, they say, Israel has been grappling with how to stop suicide bombers since 1987, when the Iranian-inspired Hizbullah group began bombing Israeli targets in Lebanon.
"We met with people from the World Trade Center who told us that they thought of everything except for an airplane crash," says Shlomo Dror, a security specialist who works with American clients. "I told them that we began thinking in 1983 about the possibility a plane could be hijacked and crashed into the Shalom Tower [in Tel Aviv]."
Mr. Dror was spokesman for the Israeli defense ministry and before that the spokesman for an Israeli government agency responsible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He joined the Shin Bet 23 years ago, after his army service, and has been in charge of security for embassies and El Al airline on three continents.
He was watching television in his office in the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sept. 11. "When I saw the second plane crashing I knew it was a terrorist attack. It made me realize that the United States is really in need of advice from Israeli professional people."
"Israel has been some kind of laboratory to check how the suicide bombers work, and all the conclusions from our experience can be brought to bear in the United States," he says.
Together with American partners with experience in the marines or CIA, Dror and two Israeli colleagues in January formed New World Security, a New York-based company to offer advice ranging from securing buildings to training travelers on how to protect themselves from kidnapping or abuse.
No figures are available for how many Israelis have gone into security consulting for American clients since Sept. 11, but Zeev Schiff, defense correspondent for the daily newspaper Haaretz, says they are carving out niches in computer security and airport security. "These people have a lot of experience and know the tricks of the other side," he says.
Dror says his company's clients include Wall Street firms and a municipality, but declines to be more specific.
Israeli specialists have a low regard for American security searches. They say they tend to cause unnecessary discomfort for travelers, while being prone to missing potential assailants. "The United States does not have a security system, it has a system for bothering people," Dror says.
"The difference between the Israeli and American systems is that we are looking for the terrorist, while the Americans look for the weapons," he adds.
At the heart of the Israeli system is the questioning of the passenger, which Dror says is done not only to get answers, but also to gauge the passenger's behavior. "The reason we open the suitcase is to have another few minutes with the passenger, to ask some more questions," he says. The questioning also serves as a way to quickly decide who to send to the plane without probing more thoroughly, he adds. Dror advocates Israeli-style security clearances for all workers at the companies for whom he consults. They entail checking a person's history by interviewing acquaintances and family "We check the man himself, not documents."
But Dror adds that Israeli methods, even if fully adopted, will not stop all attacks. "There is no 100 percent in security. If you want 100 percent security on flights, every passenger has to take all his clothes off, have his suitcase checked, and be handcuffed and tied to his seat. For sure this can never be. The idea is to enable people to continue their lives while making an attack less possible."
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Some grannies are more versatile than others. Golda, for instance, was reputed to be as good at baking cookies as at commissioning the assassination of Black Septembrists all across Europe!
Going through a airport checkpoint in the U.S., which one of the two will be waved through and which one will be body cavity searched?
My money is on number 1 being waved throufh and number 2 getting the body cavity search.
The remaining folks would be a mix of Hollywood movie stars, gullible folks, and terrorists.
Then I'd offer free ice creme to the remainder and narrow it down to Hollywood movie stars and terrorists.
Wahl-lah !!!
(a) IN GENERAL- That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements-
(1) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION- Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution.
(2) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER REQUIREMENTS- Nothing in this resolution supercedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.
War Powers Resolution
SEC. 5. (b) Within sixty calendar days after a report is submitted or is required to be submitted pursuant to section 4(a)(1), whichever is earlier, the President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces with respect to which such report was submitted (or required to be submitted), unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by law such sixty-day period, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States. Such sixty-day period shall be extended for not more than an additional thirty days if the President determines and certifies to the Congress in writing that unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of United States Armed Forces requires the continued use of such armed forces in the course of bringing about a prompt removal of such forces.
SEC. 8. (a) Authority to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations wherein involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances shall not be inferred--
(1) from any provision of law (whether or not in effect before the date of the enactment of this joint resolution), including any provision contained in any appropriation Act, unless such provision specifically authorizes the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into such situations and stating that it is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of this joint resolution; or
When I was in Frankfurt, Germany, two years ago, I received this treatment going through security. The screener held my passport and began asking me questions regarding my trip. He held the passport opened and occassional glanced at it, but most of the time he just looked me directly in the eye. Do you know how uncomfortable that is? Germany takes airport security very seriously!
Yep.
Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.
In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.
But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................
Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.
Well said and right on target. What should we as citizens be doing to protect ourselves and our families now (given the fact the government has not and will not)?
This needs repeating over and over again!
Anyone who believes in America fits their description of a potential terrorist.
Defenders of the Constitution against the federal government
Anyone who refers to the Constitution frenquently
Loners
Certain religious groups.
You really have to watch out for those extreme Christians you know.
That's right the FBI is watching them, we don't have anything to worry about.
Just a side note. You notice how when you read replies sent to you that after you open them they change color so you know you have already seen them. For over a year now many of the replies sent to me, have already been read.
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.
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