"Canada needs to rethink airport security, warns Israeli expert"

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Canada needs to rethink airport security, warns Israeli expert
By Glen McGregor
CanWest News Service


OTTAWA - In the five years since the 9/11 attacks, Canada's air security
system has become fixated on screening passengers and their baggage at the
expense of a more targeted approach aimed at detecting terrorists, says a
leading Israeli security export.

The intense focus on trying to closely search every traveller for weapons
has created too much reliance on airport screeners while creating potential
security hazards in long lineups, says Rafi Sela, a former member of the
Israel Defence Forces and a security consultant who works with Tel Aviv's
Ben-Gurion International Airport.

"In Canada, your first and last level of defence is the line where they
check your hand luggage," Sela said. "You stand in line between half an hour
and an hour to be checked for 15 seconds - and you feel secure?"

Sela says Israeli airports would never allow large numbers of passengers to
queue up for security checks because the lines themselves would be
attractive targets to terrorists.

A bomb going off inside an airport is just as terrifying as one that goes
off on an aircraft in flight, he says.

At Ben-Gurion, check-in lines are limited to a handful of passengers at a
time, and baggage is typically searched in blast-proof enclosures.

The passenger screening emphasized in North America is inherently unreliable
because even the best screeners are prone to mistakes, Sela says. Even if
they properly search 99 per cent of passengers, the high volume in busy
Canadian airports means hundreds of passengers can pass through without full
screening.

The Israeli approach, Sela says, is to make the security check point just
one stop in a broader security net that begins when passengers enter the
airport terminal. Passengers checking in at Ben Gurion are greeted by an
Israeli Airports Authority agent who looks directly into their eyes and asks
seemingly benign questions intended to reveal signs of nervousness or
stress.

"They know what to look for. They know how suicide bombers act, how they
look, how they walk," Sela said. "The interaction between the security
trained person and the passenger at the entrance to the terminal is 90 per
cent of the security. The rest of it is the safety net.

"If you make a mistake at the interrogation, you do it at check-in and you
do it at the baggage screening and you do it at border immigration." Even
staff at duty-free shops are trained to detect suspicious behaviour.

The Israelis are confident enough in their approach that, while other
countries raced to ban liquids after the terrorism scare at London's
Heathrow Airport last month, no such changes were made at Ben-Gurion.

Had the 19 terrorists who hijacked airplanes in the United States in the
9/11 attacks from Ben-Gurion, Sela says, they would have never succeeded.

"They wouldn't have got on the plane. They would have been stopped at the
first stage where they entered the terminal and they probably would have
failed the questioning."

No such screening exists in Canada, however.

Indeed, earlier this year, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon proudly
announced airline passengers would no longer be asked the question, "Did you
pack your bags yourself?" The reason: Canada now screens 100 per cent of
checked luggage using electronic explosive detection systems.

Sela says the reliance on electronic equipment is a mistake because the
machinery is notoriously unreliable and results in frequent false-positives,
which slow baggage handling. By dropping the question, another opportunity
to question passengers and observe their behaviour is lost.

He says the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority does well given
constrained resources and notes that its president, Jacques Duchesneau, has
expressed interest in techniques used by Israeli security.

But a report last month that the authority was looking at behavioural
analysis drew condemnation from civil liberties groups, who warn the
techniques are not responsive to cultural differences and could lead to
racial profiling.

Sela says the process used in Israel does not profile based on race because
Islamic Jihad and other terror groups recruit members from Norway and
Germany in the hopes they can evade detection.

Sela was in Ottawa last week to consult with senior officials from Transport
Canada and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

His other suggestions for improving aviation security:

   - Redesign Canadian airports to avoid long lines of massed passengers.
Start the security process at the entrance to the airport, not outside the
boarding gates. Constantly vary the procedures and layout of security
points. Terrorists plan their attacks carefully and will show signs of
surprise if thrown off by unexpected changes.

   - Constantly test the efficiency of baggage screeners using software that
electronically inserts images of potential weapons into the X-ray machines.
This prevents boredom among screeners and helps managers identify areas of
weakness. When recruiting new screeners, test them for visual acuity and
colour blindness - the machines use colour-coded images to reveal potential
threats.

   - Create a "digital envelope" of information on each passenger that
tracks his progress through the airport, itinerary, and ticket-purchasing
pattern, to better identify unusual behaviour.

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