Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

Virgin Islanders regularly travel from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the US mainland. In November, the Chairman of the US House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul, stated that Puerto Rico was vulnerable to having bombs placed on board aircraft. This very concerning fact was owing to corruption and drug dealing that was rampant on the US Overseas territory.

At Puerto Rico’s Luis Munoz Marin Airport, drugs are regularly placed into aircraft bound for the US mainland, according to the Congressman. “That air safety matter would not be helped by Puerto Rico’s present economic recession,” he concluded. Airport workers, especially those with access to aircraft will now have to be profiled, vetted, and screened, even more thoroughly than passengers, the world over, the politician asserted.

Now, air travel remains the safest from of transport. In fact flying is incredibly safe. There are over 100,000 commercial flights daily. That works out to nearly 37 million flights per annum globally, flying billions of people around the globe. A plane crash from this colossal number of flights remains a very rare event.

However, there is vulnerability still, sitting in an aluminum tube, flying hundreds of miles an hour, up to 40,000 feet above the earth’s surface. When something goes “badly” wrong up there, there is nowhere to go but down. However, when a bomb explodes onboard, death is almost certain, and frequently instant, especially at 30, 000 feet.  

Any air traveler, especially one travelling to and from places such as North Africa, the Mid East, and parts of Asia such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, better understand that the chances of them getting killed in an air disaster caused by terror are higher than if they were flying within the Americas. It remains more likely however, minute by minute, and all things being equal, that one gets killed in a car driving down a road in suburbia, than in an air crash. 

Terrorism has touched every one alive today. And even these Virgin Islands lost citizens in 911. Air travel has become a cocktail of security delays and inconveniences. And even then, the experts state that air travelers remain vulnerable to terrorist attack, especially in the USA and Northern Europe. These two regions are a focus for terror organisations. 911 and Lockerbie come to mind. Then, recall the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber. It was providence alone that prevented those bombs going off in the aero plane.

And the terrorists are ahead. There are a number of explosive devices that are undetectable by the average security apparatus at the average airport. In fact, it is indeed providential that many more planes have not been downed by terrorists in the past 30 years, according to experts. Is that fortunate metric about to change for the worse after the Russian Metrojet disaster of October 31?

Daniel Wagner is CEO of Country Risk Solutions. Wagner wrote an article on March 17, 2014 in the Huffington Post titled, “What Israeli airport security can teach the world.” Wagner stated in the story that no country in the world faces more terrorist threats than Israel, and no airport in the world faces more such threats than Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

The Israelis have of course been the gold standard for establishing and maintaining security in all its forms. Much of Ben Gurion’s security protocol is achieved through a combination of comprehensive due diligence, common sense, and consistency, which, one would think, would be the objective of airport authorities throughout the world. At Ben Gurion, highly skilled and diligent human effort is the key to effective security. Yet very few other airports have achieved the level of security that exists at Ben Gurion.

All vehicles that arrive at Ben Gurion must first pass through a preliminary security checkpoint where armed guards search the vehicle and exchange a few words with the driver and occupants to gauge their mood and intentions. Plain clothes officers patrol the area outside the terminal building, assisted by sophisticated hidden surveillance cameras which operate around the clock.

Armed security personnel patrol the terminal and keep a close eye on people entering the terminal building. If any persons seem suspicious or anxious, security personnel will approach them and engage them in conversation in an effort to gauge their intentions and mood. Interrogations are complex and pervasive, and designed to trap the terrorist into giving himself away. Vehicles are subject to a weight sensor, a trunk x-ray, and an undercarriage scan.

Departing passengers are questioned by highly trained security agents before they reach the check-in counter. These interviews could last as little as one minute or as long as an hour, based on such factors as age, race, religion and destination. Computers at Ben Gurion can swiftly scramble together a steady narrative about a suspect from information garnered from scores of organisations such as The FBI, The CIA, Interpol, Scotland Yard, and a host of global organisations. 

Agents also pay close attention to the parts of the airport that passengers do not frequent, such as fences around the airport's perimeter, which are monitored with cameras at all times, and radar systems that check for intrusions when weather prevents cameras from effectively broadcasting. Vigilance is the name of the game at Ben Gurion.

Ben Gurion airport does not sub-contract its security to private companies. Given their priority in ensuring safety and preventing terrorist attacks, the personnel on duty at Ben Gurion are highly trained army graduates who have specialist skills in detection and interrogation. They leave nothing to chance and are able to monitor most minute details. Officials think of passenger security as a series of 'concentric' circles, with increasing scrutiny as individuals arrive closer to the plane.

The Israelis focus on the human factor over and above the use of sophisticated technology, even though Ben Gurion has the best in technology of any airport. Intuition and gut instinct play a major role in Israeli airport security. The system is effective and efficient, and focused on human behaviour.

In the western hemisphere, the system is very inefficient. Terrorists come from a specific demographic that is well known. However, everyone is treated the same: from the golden haired grandmother from Missouri, to the newly arrived student from Somalia. This is ineffective and inefficient. But above all, refusing to profile travelers is dangerous. Political correctness has no place in aviation security.

Better focus scarce resources on the demographic most likely to plant an explosive device in luggage, or place a device on their person, than 60 year old Uncle Joe from Quebec, or 50 year old Aunt Maureen from Dominica. If profiling was the norm, then both the underwear and shoe bombers would have been identified through a forensic search. Both men were of a specific age group, ethnicity, and religion.

One idea from security experts is to ask persons from the terrorist demographic, and specific travelers flying into western capitals from certain countries linked to terrorism, to submit luggage and carryon bags for spectral and sub atomic analysis, at special centers controlled by certain global airlines, and specific international organisations, up to 48 hours before flight. That time will also be used to carry out special checks on the backgrounds of these travelers. Then, these travelers, if they pass the test, will be allowed to travel, collecting their carryon bags on board the plane.

Yes it sounds draconian. But in a world so difficult to detect bombs, it may become necessary to adopt ‘near paranoid’ measures to save lives, notwithstanding the inconvenience to the traveler.

MI 5 and 6 are British Intelligence Services. The downing of the Russian airliner over the Sinai was first determined to be terrorist activity by British Intelligence. Despite past years of self injury and treachery- the Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby, and Donald Mclean Scandal- within the British Intelligence community, MI 6 remains the finest in foreign intelligence. MOSSAD is Israeli intelligence. Israel is also “top notch” when it comes to human and technological intelligence. The Israeli’s probably knew the October 1 tragedy was the result of terrorist activity, even before the jet exploded.

Intelligence is not the “JAMES BOND” romance much loved by movie goers, and avid readers of John Le Carre. Intelligence is painstaking work. The intelligence officer, far from being Ian Flemming’s dashing man of violence, is an “unassuming plodder.” Seated behind a computer screen, he or she uses a universe of data that has been amassed over decades to infiltrate the terrorist’s network, or act proactively to foil that evil and catastrophic plot. Intelligence is detailed and focused work that sits upon a culture of super vigilance married to technology.

In a world where terrorists are making bombs that cannot be detected by the current technology available at airports, the lesson from Ben Gurion is this one. Airport security is all about vigilance and intelligence. It is about being proactive. It is staying ahead of the terrorist who only needs to succeed 1% of the time to kill hundreds. To save lives, the intelligence and security services must get it right 100% of the time. 

The moment the terrorist decides to place a bomb in the cargo hold of an airliner through someone who works within the ‘secure perimeter’ of an airport; that is the best time for security to know about it. That will only happen through the very best intelligence available, and the most rigorous security protocols and measures at airports that are vulnerable.

The job of the intelligence officer is “making sense out of nonsense.” He or she must find that critical needle in a haystack the size of a football field. Then find a second and third needle in other equally massive haystacks, linking them together, to obtain a narrative capable of saving thousands of lives. This involves a complexity of tasks and skills. It also means swift action when evaluation of information points to an imminent threat of attack.

Had that critical needle been found before 911, or in Egypt before October 31, and then used to build a narrative that led to the apprehension of the terrorist, before the tragic event, many more people would be living today, than otherwise.

Years ago, it was a vigilant policeman on the beat, who observed suspicious activity in a house in a London suburb that prevented a series of terrorism driven airline catastrophes over the North Atlantic. The plan was to place these explosive devices under passenger seats at critical parts of the planes’ fuselages for maximum effect.

Nothing beats the human factor in fighting crime and terror.

Connect with Dickson Igwe on Twitter & Facebook