Yes, in the aftermath of the attack it is understandable for the authorities to attempt to increase security by means which may begin to impinge on our convenience and our liberties. However, it is all of our responsibilities to ensure that the terrorists don't win by forcing us to change our way of life (or allowing the government to trample the Constitution). I read an interesting article in TIME about the Israeli airline El Al and their security proceedures. They have more security than any other airline, but I'm not sure that Americans would accept this stringent security model here.
quote:
Israeli airline puts security before profits By Gary Delsohn
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Dec. 3, 1996)
TEL AVIV — When Americans talk about the need to tighten airline security, they often point to Israel's El Al Airlines as the ultimate model in combating terrorism. Fly on one of its planes and you'll understand why.
For one thing, the airline uses the controversial technique of passenger profiling — singling out certain types of people for extra scrutiny and interrogation. El Al won't reveal whom it chooses for the harder look or why, but single women traveling alone, Arabs and shabbily dressed young people are among those said to fit El Al's profile of possible terrorists.
The system is used on a limited basis in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union, among other critics, has said it's an invitation to discrimination against ethnic groups and other minorities.
...
When you fly El Al, a swarm of security agents looks through suitcases, peppers passengers with questions and makes sure every bag in the terminal belongs to someone.
"Who packed your suitcase?" El Al agent Tal Mizrah politely asked two American men trying to get on a recent New York-to-Tel Aviv flight.
"Have you even been to Israel? Why are you going? Who bought your ticket? Do you speak Hebrew? Who will you visit with? Will you go to the West Bank or Gaza? Where will you go after Israel? Is that your shaver? Open that CD player, please. Did anyone give you anything to pack? We ask that because it might look like something innocent and we have found bombs that way."
If you are traveling with someone, they will often separate you and look for contradictions. After the questions, the agents may whisper among themselves for a few minutes, making you wonder what they could possibly be discussing.
After all of that, a process that can take at least 30 minutes — El Al requests passengers to arrive at least two hours before takeoff — you may finally be ready to check your bags.
Then comes a hitch. Two men leaving on that New York flight were called back by the agents.
"Where have your bags been all day?" Told they were kept in a hotel storage area for nine hours, Mizrah frowned.
"I'm very sorry but I am going to have to go through those with you again to make sure no one put anything in there you don't recognize."
Agents are cordial. They explain why they take so much care and most passengers seem to take it in stride. But by the time you board the plane, you feel like you've just steered through an obstacle course.
"I think it would be better if we did it like this in America," said Laura Doyle, an Ocala, Fla. woman who took her teenage daughter to the Holy Land in mid-October. "I don't think Americans have the patience.
"I had more than 10 rolls of film and they made me open up each little canister and show them the insides. We were in that line at least a half hour."
El Al also is known for being willing to delay a flight for hours, or cancel it outright if there is a security glitch — something American airlines are reluctant to do because of the costs involved. El Al also will not fly unless every piece of luggage is matched up with someone on the plane.
Intended to make sure a bomb isn't slipped aboard on an unattended suitcase, this is another policy not currently used on American domestic flights.
Unlike most other airlines, El Al also won't allow "interline" bag transfers, where passengers on connecting flights can check their bags all the way through to their destination on another airline. Passengers on El Al must reclaim their bags and submit them to another search.
And the airline uses the latest high-tech X-ray equipment to screen checked and carry-on bags for sophisticated liquid explosives, something just now being tested in two U.S. airports.
Although El Al will not discuss security, international terrorism experts say the airline has never had a successful attack made against it. But there is one big catch in all this.
It is a small, state-owned airline, with a fleet of only 26 planes making just 400 flights a week. That is a fraction of the traffic handled at just one major United States airport alone.
El Al, which has projected losses of between $60 million and $100 million this year due in large part to a drop in Israeli tourism related to recent terrorist attacks, also doesn't have to pay all of its own security costs. The government pays 75 percent of these bills.
So imposing El Al-style security practices on the giant American aviation industry would require a revolution costing billions of dollars. As it is, American airlines have resisted far more modest security measures recently installed by the Federal Aviation Administration after the explosion last July of Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 from New York.
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