"Israeli Airport Experts Advise on LAX Security"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Israeli Airport Experts Advise on LAX Security
By Jennifer Oldham
The Los Angeles (CA) Times


Israeli security experts provided local aviation officials with
recommendations Thursday for further fortifying Los Angeles International
Airport against terrorist attacks. 

A trio of security officials from the authority that operates Ben-Gurion
airport, near Tel Aviv, gave a preliminary assessment of vulnerabilities at
LAX to local experts after a 3 1/2 -day tour, during which they examined
terminals, the airfield and the perimeter. 

Officials said details of the report would not be made public for security
reasons. 

"They had a half-dozen suggestions; some of them are very low tech, some of
them are very high tech," said Airport Commission President Alan Rothenberg.
Ben-Gurion International Airport serves as many passengers annually as the
Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, he said. 

Some suggestions would be easy for the city's airport agency to implement
itself, he added, but others would require assistance from the Federal
Aviation Administration and the federal Department of Homeland Security. 

The visit represents the latest effort by city officials to upgrade security
at LAX, which is considered the state's No. 1 terrorist target and has been
singled out by the Al Qaeda network. The city's airport agency picked up the
tab for the three officials to come to Los Angeles.

City Councilman Jack Weiss invited the delegation to Los Angeles after
attending a homeland security summit in Israel earlier this year. 

Nahum Liss, head of the security planning division at Ben-Gurion airport,
and Hadas Leviaton and Alon Brown, security experts in the authority, toured
LAX with police and fire officials, and received a briefing from the
Transportation Security Administration, which manages screeners at security
checkpoints. Local team members will present a formal report to the city
after the security experts return to Israel, officials said. 

"It's unprecedented to see a team from Israel and a team from the United
States sitting down together and sharing knowledge," said Ehud Danoch, the
consul general of Israel in Los Angeles. 

Israeli airport security is recognized throughout the world as the gold
standard, known for employing fortification and behavioral recognition
tactics to keep terrorists off balance. 

"These people are very open about the fact that they're always reevaluating
their own systems," Weiss said. 

They "are trained to truly think like terrorists, and the fact that we have
the best minds available helping LAX officials do that will make us more
safe."

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