Israeli Airport Security Head Says Scanners are Easily Defeated
Security specialist: New airport security scanners a waste of money
An Israeli airport security experts tells Canadian lawmakers that full-body scanners can be easily fooled, and that they will not prevent explosives from being taken on board; he recommended the adoption of the Israeli approach to air travel security, which combines good intelligence, behavioral profiling, and a "trusted traveler" system
Boasting he could easily slip through one of Canada’s new full-body scanners with enough explosives to blow up a jumbo jet, a leading Israeli airport security expert says the Canadian federal government has wasted millions of dollars to install “useless” imaging machines at airports across the country.
“I don’t know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747,” Rafi Sela on Thursday told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada. “That’s why we haven’t put them in our airport.”
Sela, former chief security officer at the Israel Airport Authority and a 30-year veteran in airport security and defence technology, helped design the security apparatus at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport. He told MPs on the House of Commons transport committee via video conference from Kfar Vradim, Israel, that he could not reveal how to get past the virtual strip-search scanners, but said he can provide briefings to officials with security clearance.
Sarah Schmidt writes in the Vancouver Sun that Sela’s pronouncements on the imaging machines come on the heels of the purchase earlier this year of 44 body scanners for major Canadian airports. Each machine cost $250,000 and is being use for secondary screening to detect non-metallic threats, unless the passenger prefers a physical pat-down.
Transport Minister John Baird announced the accelerated rollout of the scanners just days after a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day aboard a transatlantic flight.
Baird then announced a hike in the Air Travelers Security Charge, a fee added to the price of airline tickets, to cover the cost of new equipment and other enhanced security measures to be undertaken by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) over the next five years.
“You are running after the incidents instead of being in front of them,” Sela said of Canadian airport security officials.
The head of the transportation security firm AR Challenges, Ltd., also said security decisions are not being made in Ottawa, but rather in Washington. The body scanners are not your decision. That was the (Transportation Security Administration), which Canada is just following. My advice is stop the purchase, but I know they will not do that.”
CATSA, the agency in charge of screening airline passengers, declined to provide comment on Sela’s analysis of the newly purchased full-body scanners.
Junior Transport Minister Rob Merrifield, who is responsible for the agency, defended the $11-million investment in the machines. “Full-body scanners are used by dozens of countries around the world and are considered one of the most effective methods of screening,” Merrifield said in a statement, adding the manufacturer met Transport Canada’s “stringent requirements.”
Sela testified it makes more sense to create a “trusted traveler” system so pre-approved, low-risk passengers can move through an expedited screening process. That would leave more resources in the screening areas, where automatic sniffing technology would detect any explosive residue on a person or their baggage.
Behavioral profiling must also be used instead of random checks, he said. “My idea of having a random search at the airport is like Russian roulette,” said Sela, who enjoyed some support from MPs on this issue. “I agree there’s a problem here,” Brian Jean, parliamentary secretary to the transport minister.
source: CanWest
