Full-Body Scanners Don't Work, Israeli Security Expert Says

[Bob Hubbard]

http://consumerist.com/2010/04/post-1.html

"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada. "That's why we haven't put them in our airport," Sela said, referring to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.

This lack of concern for safety and security in Israel is why they are having so many problems with their planes being hijacked.

 

[Big Don]

http://consumerist.com/2010/04/post-1.html


This lack of concern for safety and security in Israel is why they are having so many problems with their planes being hijacked.

Bah, the reason so many of their planes are hijacked is their insistence on racial profiling.

 

[CanuckMA]

It is not racial profiling. Last time I was there, couple of months ago, from the time I entered the airport to the time I boarded the plane, I was in contact with at least half a dozen people, each one of whom made eye contact. Even the passport control agent who was busy conversing with the agent in the next booth was looking me straight in the eyes. And the airport is full of security personel, uniformed and not, observing the crowd.

They don't rely on technology, they rely on observing human behaviour.

And every piece of checked luggage was opened and checked.

 

[Archangel M]

.....and profiling. I have attened training with Israeli security. The "profile" is absolutely PART of the system. Not entirely, but part.

 

[CanuckMA]

Of course it is, but they do traget everyone else as well.

I was part of a Synagogue trip. A bunch of Orthodox Jews. And we were still questioned.

 

[Carol]

Israel thinks technology is silly?

Well, good for them. Ben Gurion Airport has 11.5 million passengers per year.

That's about how many passengers fly out of Terminal C at Boston Logan. Logan has 4 other terminals. The United States has approx. 140 other airports with international clearance.

Just how DO you manage 1.5 BILLION people per year???

How DO you manage 33% of the entire world's air passengers???

Maybe the answer is not so simple, eh?

 

[jks9199]

Israel thinks technology is silly?

Well, good for them. Ben Gurion Airport has 11.5 million passengers per year.

That's about how many passengers fly out of Terminal C at Boston Logan. Logan has 4 other terminals. The United States has approx. 140 other airports with international clearance.

Just how DO you manage 1.5 BILLION people per year???

How DO you manage 33% of the entire world's air passengers???

Maybe the answer is not so simple, eh?

That's a really important point. There are things that Israel and El Al can do that just cannot be done here in the US, for lots of reasons. Everyone who travels on El Al is scrutinized. Everyone who flies into or out of Israel is scrutinized much more closely. But that's one airline, and one airport, in a nation that's much smaller than most US states. I don't know -- I haven't looked into it beyond this list (which surprised me!) -- but I doubt that the domestic air travel in Israel, outside of military flights, is anywhere close to what we have here in the US. And I haven't even touched constitutional issues...

Scanners, including whole body, explosive sniffers, and the conventional magnetometer, aren't a stand alone solution; they're part of the security mosaic we're trying to build here in the US. And it is VERY MUCH a work in progress. Mix them with alert, professional personnel monitoring them, and alert, properly trained people observing the passengers and crowds -- authorized & willing to make appropriate interventions ranging from a visible police/security presence through to using lethal force, and anything in-between.

Now -- a word on profiling. Profiling has gotten a really nasty name here in the US, and it's undeserved. LEGITIMATE profiling is a necessary and appropriate part of law enforcement and security. And that may indeed mean stopping someone in part because of their race, religion, or nationality. We all profile throughout our lives. I'm partial to redheads with enough bodyweight to have curves -- but not quite ruebenesque. That is a profile! It's using a profile when Bob markets his photography skills or internet hosting services to martial artists, too. In my current assignment, if I spot a Latino male, between 14 and 25, dressed in oversized clothes of certain brands and styles, especially if they've got particular haircuts... We're gonna have a chat. I'm using a profile; it's based on my training and experience to identify gang members. If I was on patrol, and I noticed a young black male (teens to 20s) wandering down certain side streets well off the beaten path, where the residents are almost exclusively white and over 60... Yeah, he's someone I'm going to chat with. You do the same thing when you call 911 about a "suspicious person" in your neighborhood; you know he doesn't fit. If my SOLE criteria were "black male" or "Latino male"... those are the profiles that are bad and wrong. The same thing applies to behavioral profiling. If you observe certain behaviors that have been documented as being related to security threats or crime... there's nothing wrong with reporting and acting on it.