The safest airline in the world, it is widely agreed, is El Al, Israel's national carrier. The safest airport is Ben Gurion International, in Tel Aviv. No El Al plane has been attacked by terrorists in more than three decades, and no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked. So when US aviation intensified its focus on security after 9/11, it seemed a good bet that the experience of travelers in American airports would increasingly come to resemble that of travelers flying out of Tel Aviv. What Israeli security could teach us by Jeff JacobyMark Alexander
Thursday, August 24, 2006
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6 comments:
I quote from the article:
Israeli airport security, much of it invisible to the untrained eye, begins before passengers even enter the terminal. Officials constantly monitor behavior, alert to clues that may hint at danger: bulky clothing, say, or a nervous manner. Profilers -- yes, that's what they're called -- make a point of interviewing travelers, sometimes at length. They probe, as one profiling supervisor recently explained to CBS, for "anything out of the ordinary, anything that does not fit."
Yet, when a bunch of British tourists were "being vigilant and bringing concerns to the authorities" - as we are always being told to do - noting bulky clothing and an odd manner in two young asian co-passengers, they have been the subject of ridicule and the accusation of "paranoia" (every report I have read has made clear that the passengers were calm, dignified and quietly resolute), while the two young asians - bloody fools at best - are almost lionised by our bloody mainstream media.
I am completely for profiling - but conducted by intelligent, highly trained profilers and not the usual PC Plod types. This is a vital job which needs to be done by high-calibre people.
Like you, Rockmother, I am for profiling. After all, it wastes a lot of time and resources to monitor people who are highly unlikely to be a threat to security in the first place. And all in the name of political correctness!
Political correctness is the scourge of our times. It is high time that we had our own 'jihad' against it!
Completely off-topic, but I am often amused by the word verification groups that appear.
The one below is "csckbut"!
Is someone watching us?
As for PC, I haven't the years left in my life to rant about this as much as I would like. I am already completely sick of the blasted nonsense about integration that we are being force-fed today...
Rockmother:
I am already completely sick of the blasted nonsense about integration that we are being force-fed today...
You and me both!
Mark - We all are suffering from airline security anxiety.
Alas, we are not as bright or tough as the Israelis. We let our insane preoccupation with political correctness and multiculturism handicap us in the "war against terror" (read jihad). What will it take to jar us out of our stupidity and naivete? Hopefully, whatever it is, it will happen soon; hopefully at the same time, it will not be as horrible as I suspect it will be. Wake up West, before it is too late. Unfortunately, we cannot count on the uniformly weak, cowardly, pandering politicians to help us with anything. They are only too happy to give away our freedoms if only they can win the next election.
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