Israeli-Style Airport Security Coming to U.S.?
America is finally showing interest in adopting Israel's approach to airline safety which looks for bombers, not bombs — and won't confiscate your tiny bottles of shampoo.
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At a recent news conference in Jerusalem, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Michael Chertoff announced that the U.S. had signed a landmark agreement with Israel to share information about airport security.
Israel is considered to have the most effective airport security measures anywhere in the world. So convinced are they of the benevolence of people they allow to board their planes, first class passengers are given steak knives with their meals.
No doubt, Israel’s airport and airplanes are among the highest-value terror targets in the world — yet terrorists haven’t managed to penetrate Israeli aviation security in 36 years. Chertoff’s announcement coincided with the anniversary of the event that explains why: the Lod Airport massacre of 1972. In that attack, 16 Americans were killed.
By all accounts, airport security guards at the airport in Tel Aviv were on the highest possible security alert on May 29 of that year. Just three weeks earlier, four Palestinians had hijacked a Belgian airliner and forced it to land there. The terrorists demanded the release of 312 Palestinian prisoners — or they’d kill the passengers and blow up the plane.
Instead, a team of 16 Israeli commandos boarded the aircraft parked on the tarmac at Lod. Disguised as airplane technicians, they killed two terrorists and captured the remaining two. Three passengers were injured and one bled to death. (The elite hostage rescue unit was led by future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; another one of the commandos was future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was shot in the incident.)
The hijacking had been organized by a man named Abu Hassan, leader of Black September, which back then was the deadliest terrorist organization in the world. To avenge the killing of his hijackers, Abu Hassan planned a successor attack. Three weeks later, they struck the airport again. Only this time, Hassan outfoxed Israeli security. Instead of using ranking members of Black September, Abu Hassan contracted out “ideological mercenaries” in the form of three young Japanese kids — two of whom were students at Kyoto University. Hassan knew that Japanese terrorists would be far better positioned to penetrate Israeli security than Arab-looking ones.
Takeshi Okudaira, Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Kozo Okamoto were suicidal members of the Japanese Red Army, willing to kill for the Palestinian cause. After being trained by Abu Hassan’s group in Lebanon, the three men were dispatched to Lod.
Okudaira, Yasuda, and Okamoto ostensibly drew little attention when they arrived at the Lod Airport on an Air France flight from Paris. Dressed in business suits, the college-aged kids carried musical instrument cases as a disguise. Inside the cases were semi-automatic machine guns, which once retrieved from the baggage claim were used in the attack.
The Japanese terrorists fired into the crowd, cutting down a group of Puerto Rican tourists visiting the Holy Land and killing sixteen of them. They threw grenades into packs of terrified people seeking shelter. One of the gunmen ran out onto the tarmac and began shooting passengers coming off a flight.
When it was over, a total of 26 people were dead. Eighty were injured. Israel changed the airport’s name to the Ben-Gurion International Airport and began a security system based on behavior profiling.
The system works. Fourteen years later, the case of Anne Marie Murphy — prevented by Israeli security agents from boarding an El Al flight with seven pounds of explosives — makes the point. The pregnant, fair-skinned Murphy, who is Irish, was profiled and deemed suspicious. During secondary screening, agents discovered Semtex concealed in the lining of her bag. Without knowing it, the former chambermaid had been given a bomb by her terrorist boyfriend, a Jordanian named Nizar Hindawi, who was not on the flight. Hindawi was the father of Murphy’s unborn child.
Security experts familiar with Israel’s behavior profiling system have long since criticized U.S. airport security for its approach. The lion’s share of TSA’s $4.9 billion annual budget is spent looking for bombs, not bombers. This is why TSA agents insist on confiscating your five-ounce bottle of shampoo at the security checkpoint and why Israeli agents will give you a steak knife once you’re in flight.
Chertoff made the right move.
Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation security and homeland security for a variety of newspapers, magazines and blogs. She is the author of the book, Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again.
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41 Comments
Texicon:It’ll never pass. You used the “P” word…Profiling. The left will knock it down in a heart beat. After all if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck it might be a …. FREEDOM FIGHTER.
Jun 7, 2008 - 3:59 am Alex:How was Anne Murphy profiled as suspicious? She counldn’t have been acting suspicious if she didn’t know that her bag contained the semtex. Does the security look for the most innocent, or naive, looking person they can find? If so it sounds a bit sketchy to me but if did work then good for it. Maybe the Israely intelligence agency had gotten some kind of tip about her instead and, not wanting to reveal the source of the tip or even that there was a source, said the system succesfully profiled her.
Jun 7, 2008 - 5:20 am Chuck:MS Jacobson did not go into enough detail to make an intellegent
Jun 7, 2008 - 6:44 am Katie:decision about this. But from the results it must work.
Alex, Go to the link in the 2nd to the last paragraph about the Jordanian Nezar Hindawi. There was no tip to the Israeli intelligence agency…it was because she was questioned by one of the agents, as part of the security protocol, and her answers raised suspicions.
Jun 7, 2008 - 6:48 am Jaibones:Who is this imposter, and what have they done with the real Michael Chertoff — handwringing liberal nitwit, horrified at the prospect of profiling, open-borders enthusiast, more concerned with political correctness than actually making anything safer.
Jun 7, 2008 - 7:08 am Chris:The real shame of it is that the second the NYT or TIme or Newsweek can interview a disgruntled TSA agent (my prediction is that it’ll take less than 1 month), the protocal/methodology will be splashed all over the front page. Game over! 36 years of Israeli intelligence will be worthless.
Jun 7, 2008 - 8:16 am Shivv:Annie, are you at all familiar with the Behavioral Detection Officer program being implemented by the TSA? It uses visual cues to select individuals for additional screening. If I had to guess I would say that it’s similar to what the Israelis have used for a long time
Jun 7, 2008 - 8:19 am Gringo:There may be a logistical problem: Training all those agents for interrogation. As currently there appear to be a very high percentage of nitwits in Homeland Security, where are we going to get the people? When you profile, you have to be very competent.That being said, better to profile than to have the massive intrusions we have now.Anger the people who SHOULD be angered.
Jun 7, 2008 - 8:20 am Karen:From what I remember about Anne Marie Murphy was that during her interview with security, she was asked if she packed her own luggage. She said no and that was key to them finding the explosives and saving a lot of lives.
Jun 7, 2008 - 8:31 am Ward:The major concern I would have with this is the required training. As has been pointed out here, many of our screeners are less than efficient and one disgruntled employee could create more havoc than we are ready to deal with. Before leaving the states I flew frequently. Working for an electronics firm, I was surprised at how many components were never even questioned. While I speak four languages, I was likewise amazed at the number of screeners I had who had no noticeable capacity to communicate effectively in any of my secondary languages, much less English. I think the primary difference may be in the fact that the Israelis responsible for such security take their jobs seriously and are not there just for a government check and pension. As we have seen, making these screeners federal employees and putting them in a union has not had any real impact on their ability to do their jobs well.
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:13 am Alex:Katie -I ready the article and youre right but further on it says that retaliations for an american bombing in Libya were expected and that M16 (I guess) had intercepted communications for for assistance for Hindawi’s operation so airports were put on high alert. If Anne had been coached a bit harder or even been an IRA member who knew about the plot she probably would have made it through. Anyways her bags would probably have been checked at almost any airport if she said she hadn’t packed them herself.
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:13 am John:If I recall correctly, Chertoff expressed interest only in Israeli technology, not procedures and practices. The Feds are not going to give up looking for bombs instead of bombers — looking for bombs makes much better theatre and insults and inconveninces far more people.
I’m convinces that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of people working for TSA in DC whose job it is to come up with new procedures — there is NO ONE working for TSA whose job it isto make these procedures actually work FOR the traveling public.
The former head of El Al security said it best ‘you don’t have a passenger security system, you have a passenger annoyance system.’
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:55 am thebronze:We can’t even get the TSA idiots at the airport checkpoints to use common sense when it comes to the simple things, so how are we going to get them to be able to do this?
Jun 7, 2008 - 10:28 am mjk:Alex,
I’ve gone through Israeli security at airports. It’s hardcore. They ask some very unusual questions and can gauge your answer and whether they think you are lying. That’s what they did with that lady. It’s behavioural and ethnic profiling.
Trust me, being asked where you are staying in Israel, how long, why you are going, any other country you are going to, what do you do for a living, what are your parents’ names, do you know anyone in Israel or any other Middle Eastern country is fairly disconcerting, but it gets the job done.
Jun 7, 2008 - 10:47 am Mikeretiredpilot:Not to diminish El Al’s procedures & success but they have [according to Wikopedia]
Jun 7, 2008 - 11:08 am Dawnfire82:34 planes & 10 on order. Their security problem is simpler by immeeeeeeense exponential numbers than we have in the USA and other countries.
That said, I agree they do a better job and wd. We absolutely should study & learn from them.
This article seems to have drastically confused the Lod Airport Massacre with the Entebbe Raid in Uganda. (in which Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother was killed)
Seriously, you need to rewrite this article.
Jun 7, 2008 - 12:06 pm olad:I think it will be new world order to takle irrisponsible ,die hard way to face any one who looks suspecious , whether he or she is disappled like deafs , absent minded , as well as soft talking people . or religius discriments .
Jun 7, 2008 - 12:06 pm David J. Rusin:I disagree 100% their security is better then ours they absolutely learn from us the risponsebilty and stop human killing of
every second in this world.
Dawnfire82:
The author did not confuse the facts. Please see this link.
Jun 7, 2008 - 12:25 pm Warren Trout:Why are we ALWAYS behind the times. I was in Israel in 1986, and they were checking for shoe bombs then. Yet almost 20 years later, our security had not even heard of such.
Jun 7, 2008 - 12:54 pm Ben-David:There is a fundamental difference in approach here:
American “burger flipper” mentality - let’s make a machine that will find the bombs, then hire idiots to run the machine. This solution has the advantage of scalability - if you could invent such a machine. But you can’t.
Israeli approach - real live humans are the best evaluators of other real live humans. So we will invest in training real live humans to spot atypical behavior in others.
Then we will cross that info with bag scans and other information sources, to identify security risks. Sure, some of that is automated, but it also relies on human judgement.
Jun 7, 2008 - 1:21 pm lgkick:The ends do not justify the means. The Israeli airport security system works but what is the price that they are paying? The government has unlimited power in limiting the freedoms of its citizens. USA is not Israel and does not belong to a specific religion or race. If we apply ethnic profiling in this country, then the terrorists have won big time.
Israel may have secured its airports, but that has not brought security to its citizens. A home-made rocket fired into its deserts even if it is once a month is enough to shatter that false security. Is that the path that we are willing to take?
Jun 7, 2008 - 2:47 pm retiredpilot:lgkick, if you look at the entire world, practically all current terrorism comes from one single group, the suicide bombing in Sri Lanka yesterday being the latest example.
Why would profiling be a limit on our freedom and why would the terrorists win if the ethnic and religious group they come from is profiled? It is just common sense, instead of the politically correct checking of the proverbial old Swedish lady.
And rockets fired into cities have nothing to do with airport security, for goodness sake!
Jun 7, 2008 - 3:28 pm brooklyn red:retiredpilot, I agree with you so don’t take this the wrong way, but when the rockets fired into our cities are in fact our own aircraft then it has everything to do w/airport security… look for the bombers AND the bombs says I.
Jun 7, 2008 - 4:52 pm JimBob:“How was Anne Murphy profiled as suspicious?”
No doubt her sincere answers during her pre-check-in interrogation sounded suspicious. El Al gives new passengers about a twenty minute questioning with two interrogators before check-in. Let’s see … Why are going to Israel? To get married. To whom? Nezar Hindawi. Is he Israeli? He’s Jordanian. Is he travelling with you? No, he’s waiting for his visa.
It’s kinda suspicious after the second question. After the 4th question, it was obvious.
Jun 7, 2008 - 4:56 pm lgkick:retiredpilot, limiting our freedoms starts with limiting the freedoms of a small group of us and then extends to larger and larger groups. First we will make it hard for arab-looking people to travel, then for persian-looking people, then for those who sympathize with them, then for everybody who disagrees with our policies.
For those of you who are a fan of Israeli airport security, have a good look at the recent case of Normal Finkelstein who was banned from traveling to Israel for security reasons! His only guilt, I would argue, is that was against the Israeli government’s policies in the occupied territories. The end of an empire begins when it becomes intolerant of dissenting views and I said above such intolerance begins with intolerance towards a minority.
First they came for the Jews
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:18 pm I.M. Copper:and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
American courts, thus rights, will be major obstacles to having American air security be as successful the Israelis. I fear, in general, Americans are not interested in completing the very necessary, hard-corps security measures that Israel has possessed for years. We are more interested in individual rights rather than security, liberty, and above all-political correctness. In a country like America that possesses the shortest memory in the world, I fear people will never stand for longer lines, more scrutiny, and in-depth investigation/interrogation into their so-called private lives. Not until religious fanatics hate us so much they will stop at nothing to see us destroyed will we change our values significantly. Oh wait, the time for change is now, thanks to radical fundamental Islam!
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:48 pm OrdC:Did anyone else see this quote?
“Inside the cases were semi-automatic machine guns, which once retrieved from the baggage claim were used in the attack.”
A “semi-automatic machine gun”???
By definition that is an oxymoron.
As an old US Army Ordnance officer, I always thought the reason one made a machine gun was so it would NOT be semi-automatic; & the only reason to make a semi-automatic weapon was so it would NOT be a machine gun.
Well, at least the author did not call it a “semi-automatic assault rifle”, which is another oxymoron, since by definition an assault rifle must be fully-automatic.
Jun 8, 2008 - 8:41 am newton:“So convinced are they of the benevolence of people they allow to board their [El Al] planes, first class passengers are given steak knives with their meals.”
Of course. Thus, if one or two thugs still sneak in and use the steak knives on someone else, everyone else will fight back with the same weapon!
And yet, we don’t even have that option on our own flights nowadays!
Jun 8, 2008 - 10:11 am bill cook:Judging by the quality of the average TSA screener, I wouldn’t want to put my safety in the judgement of one of them, no matter how well the underlying system works.
Jun 8, 2008 - 2:15 pm dman:Before boarding El Al flight
get asked series of questions
So may seem inane - Did you pack
your own bags?
Others - Where are you going?
How long intend to stay?
Where are you staying? The
questions are designed to elict
answers which give profiler a
feeling - if not comfortable
will ask new series of questions
If not getting right answers
will be pulled aside and given
3rd degree - which is how
caught Anne Marie Murphy
As for LOD airport massacre -
Jun 8, 2008 - 6:04 pm tim stevens:weapons used were Czech made
VZ 58 automatic rifles
won’t work in the us. look at the educational level of the ‘tards we have working the airports right now. couldn’t pour pi$$ out of a boot.
besides, does anybody believe for one second that once we have these incredibly useless yet so time consuming searches in place we will give them up for some homer simpson-type announcing “he looks suspicious - arrest him” security expert?
no we’ll get them both and also the new Thz “see through clothing” scanners and whatever else those “trust us, we’re from the government” jerks can dream up.
Jun 8, 2008 - 9:22 pm M. C. Ridge:Article was right on … until the last line. Michael Chertoff is the most clueless, mindless bureaucrat in the world. We should have been learning from the Israelis and the Germans since day one. We’ve spent billions on a less than effective, intrusive security system.
Of course, I blame the airlines first. The airline management has not had the fortitude to take on the security problem themselves. Instead they use the government to shield themselves from liability and blame. My response has been to never again fly commercial. If I can’t fly myself or drive, I don’t go.
Jun 9, 2008 - 5:10 pm Mal:Security officers became suspicious because of discrepancies in Anne Murphy’s story. This is what trained Profilers at airports look for: “Things that don’t add up”. Anne Murphy claimed not to know anyone in Israel (because her boyfriend told her to lie). So she was travelling alone to a country she had never visited before, didn’t know details of her hotel accommodation in Israel, had very little money, claimed she had a credit card which turned out to be a bank card just for taking cash from a ATM in the UK, didn’t know the details of her air ticket. So she was selected for enhanced screening and the semtex was discovered when her packed bag was emptied and found to be unusually heavy.
Jun 10, 2008 - 4:25 am Fred:I have no faith in the quality of the people who are hired for airport security and screening. Furthermore, it is very likely that the ACLU and the Party of Jackasses will object to profiling. After all, the ACLU considers the mujahadeen to be freedom fighters against the imperialist, capitalist pig dogs. I agree that the Israeli method works and they are very competent at it. Another issue raised: what to do about disgruntled Homeland Security people who are either fired or are politically-compromised and go to the NY Slimes to spill the beans about how the work is done. Leaking is a specialty of The Party of Defeat.
Jun 10, 2008 - 8:43 pm peter:“Use the israeli system” has come up in many articles/blogs, and in the comments I ALWAYS see someone point out the number of planes EL AL has or the size of ben gurion airport. Actually I believe the Israelis check out every passenger on every flight that lands in Israel, eg a Continental flight out of NYC, or Egyptair out of Bangkok (assuming a direct flights).
That’s alot of agents.
I used to do some sort of work in Ben Gurion back in the late 80s, and used to speak to the security guys. They were in general smart, motivated guys, absolutely nothing like your TSA monkey.
For example I asked one of them (who used to wander about acting like a bored passenger) about a certain trash recepticle mounted in the wall that I thought may be a place to put an explosive. He knew exactly the object I was talking about and explained why it was considered OK.
(btw, I don’t have any opinion if the israeli way is practical, or if it will work or not, for the USA)
Jun 11, 2008 - 9:08 am AirdaleABH4:OLAD & dman , did you attend public schools ? One might think so by your spelling .
Jun 11, 2008 - 1:05 pm nedarc:When are we going to get rid of P.C. and start to protect ourselves and live like normal human beings again, or do we have to completly surrender to the people without common sense?
Jun 11, 2008 - 6:12 pm Kay:Putting all this effort into extensive passenger checks is a waste of time. A terrorist doing the same exact thing would make it much less effective in the first place, not to mention the chance of passengers not taking action the ‘next’ time around are nil. If they were obsessed with planes for some reason, its not hard to get a job at an airport, use a much less but just as dangerous cargo aircraft, or simply shoot them down(to name a few out of 1000 ways to terrorize the air industry). Its all a false sense of security. The fact we are now so paranoid yet feel secure because of the extensive security at passenger checkpoints is an act of self-maintaining terror in itself. If you were a terrorist, it would be laughable to look at how paranoid a population becomes.
Jun 13, 2008 - 12:57 pm