Airport Security: Is Israel The Answer?

[Mr Lee]

Seems they sure have a handle on airport security and maybe every other type of security, so while the US and other countries have many more airports, it would seem to reason that trained people questioning fliers might be a better solution then all the bs they are putting us all through. What do you think?Despite facing dozens of potential threats each day, that airport's security has not been breached since 2002, when a passenger mistakenly carried a handgun onto a flight. The kicker: There aren't even long lines.You can read the whole story here

[Mik]

An Israeli company already manages security at many airports in (and outside of) the US. I think we'd be safer if there were no security checks at all. Any passenger should be able to carry a firearm if they can legally do so in their home state. At the beginning of each flight a flight attendant will review firearm safety with the passengers. The first movie on the flight will show how to disarm or stop a terrorist. CIA, MI5, MI6, and Mossad agents and their assets must be disarmed and body searched before they can fly..

[Mr Lee]

An Israeli company already manages security at many airports in (and outside of) the US. I think we'd be safer if there were no security checks at all. Any passenger should be able to carry a firearm if they can legally do so in their home state. At the beginning of each flight a flight attendant will review firearm safety with the passengers. The first movie on the flight will show how to disarm or stop a terrorist. CIA, MI5, MI6, and Mossad agents and their assets must be disarmed and body searched before they can fly..

While I am very pro gun and while I think you are probably joking, guns and cabin pressure just do not mix and I would hate to get caught in a cross fire. I would think everyone naked might be better. :SugarwareZ-037: :SugarwareZ-034:

[Matt]

I went to Israel a few years back and have been in and out of that airport, and i must say it will be the last time i go their. On the way in i had no problems what so ever, i was off the plane and out of the airport in about 15mins, but leaving the country was a totally different scenario. I got to the airport and was lining up with others, when i was pulled aside by security. They unpacked all my bags and swab every item for traces of explosives. I was then taken to a side room where i had to take all my clothes off for examinations and my shoes taken for x rays. After this ordeal i was led to another room where i was questioned about my stay for over an hour. They had taken my passport away from me and also my tickets. They kept asking what i had been doing in the country, who had i visisted, who had i stayed with, wanted reciepts to prove my story and kept going over and over with the same questions. Until they finally asked me how i had managed to pay for this stay in their country, which i replied with my military pension. Once this was said their attitudes changed, i was thank for my time, rushed through the terminal with a security agent so i could catch my plane on time, which i did with only 10minutes to spare. Never again will i fly to that country and being made felt like a terrorist for nearly 2 hours. Being stripped searched was one step to far. Being interrogated was not great, but it can be dealt with. If i had not mentioned my military pension, i would have missed my flight and had more expense on getting home. They may be good at preventing things at airports, but if you are one of the unfortunates that they take a keen interest in, then it is no fun what so ever.

[Mr Lee]

I went to Israel a few years back and have been in and out of that airport, and i must say it will be the last time i go their. On the way in i had no problems what so ever, i was off the plane and out of the airport in about 15mins, but leaving the country was a totally different scenario. I got to the airport and was lining up with others, when i was pulled aside by security. They unpacked all my bags and swab every item for traces of explosives. I was then taken to a side room where i had to take all my clothes off for examinations and my shoes taken for x rays. After this ordeal i was led to another room where i was questioned about my stay for over an hour. They had taken my passport away from me and also my tickets. They kept asking what i had been doing in the country, who had i visisted, who had i stayed with, wanted reciepts to prove my story and kept going over and over with the same questions. Until they finally asked me how i had managed to pay for this stay in their country, which i replied with my military pension. Once this was said their attitudes changed, i was thank for my time, rushed through the terminal with a security agent so i could catch my plane on time, which i did with only 10minutes to spare. Never again will i fly to that country and being made felt like a terrorist for nearly 2 hours. Being stripped searched was one step to far. Being interrogated was not great, but it can be dealt with. If i had not mentioned my military pension, i would have missed my flight and had more expense on getting home. They may be good at preventing things at airports, but if you are one of the unfortunates that they take a keen interest in, then it is no fun what so ever.

Wow Matt, that sounds like a horror story. I wonder what it was that set that into motion? I would guess you had also visited some of the countries that are enemies of Israel and those were also stamped into your passport? Or maybe you fit a profile by your looks. Or maybe it was because you were a single male traveler with little of no luggage? I had almost the same experience with my wife in Fort Lauderdale airport right after Sept 11th but luckily not as severe. When my wife and I got up to the counter the people treated me like a pariah and backed away and told me not to put my suitcases up on the counter and to just take them over to another place and pointed at a metal counter with a machine next to it that was about 100 feet away. Little did I know what was about to go on since nothing like that had ever happened to us before. My wife and I walked over to the other counter and were told to stand next to our luggage and carry ons and I had to put them up on that counter one at a time and the woman there first tested each case in different places with a small cloth and put each cloth into the machine and then after I opened them she did the same thing and then put each swab into the machine. She then went through the cases and rubbed the swab in different places inside the suitcase and put those into the machine. Since I am an avid target shooter I guess it was good that I stored those suitcases and carry ons in another room or it might have been a real problem and may have lead to more extensive searching but they did not strip me or my wife because nothing showed up in our cases and I was friendly smiling and joking since it was the start of our trip, but had it happened when I was already tired or had I stored my cases in the same place as my shooting case had been stored, then I suspect things might have turned out differently, so people make that a lesson for you all, make sure to keep things like that totally separate and I guess I was just lucky enough to have a spare bedroom closet that we stored suitcases in or who knows what might have been next. I know many people store their suitcases in their garages and do reloading in their garages and I would bet that might end up a real problem. Also I believe I know what set the whole event in motion for us, I was on my cell phone talking to my business partner in a gun and pawn business I partly owned about an alarm event that was going on in the third store that we only used for storage and I would bet something I said or my talking too loud made someone behind the counter uncomfortable.Matt I am really sorry to hear of what happened to you and I know that I sure would not wish to go through what you went through but maybe you can try to think of what made them single you out? I know that I often used to fit the drug profile years ago when I had a beard, long hair, wore a gold chain and blue jeans and used to get stopped and checked by police all the time to see what I was up to and I got stopped in LAX coming back from visiting my wife the first time just because I was talking to a guy who sat a few seats away from me on the plane while waiting for our luggage and he fit the drug profile at that time and they must have been watching him, so little things we do can often end up making us targets for law enforcement people. Maybe think back and see if you can think what it was that put you in their sites?

[Matt]

Honestly i do not know why they pick me out of a line with so others their. I was travelling on my own, but many others do aswell, i had a short hair cut back and sides, well shaven, and i was polite with them all the way through the procedures. I was getting a little irratated towards the end of the interogation as i could see i was going to miss my flight, but i never let on that i was concerned with that, i just kept politely answering their questions, even though they had been asked many times before. I will never visit their again and be treated as a terrorist, even if the country was a nice place to visit. Their are many other places, like here for example which are much better. My friends who i visited over their totally agree with my decision and were amazed of my treatment. No one should have the right to expect you to strip totally naked in front of them. I have nothing to be ashamed of, but you do deserve some privacy. Even in this world of terrorism. I just wonder how many others have experienced that, at that airport. Anyway very good point made about not having your suitcases near where you re arm your guns, as you can imagine with reality that it would come up and as you say you would be in a huge amount of problems. Also be warned if you ever going to visit UAE, do NOT eat a sandwich with poppy seeds on it. There one was Swiss national who flew from Heathrow, where he brought a sandwich, and 3 poppy seeds dropped of in to his clothing, and when he got there, they were discovered and is now serving 4 years in prison. Here is the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7234786.stm

[Jollygoodfellow]

I wonder how many people travel to a foreign country with out doing some research first,I bet in some of Matt's examples above the people just don't take the time to understand the laws or culture before heading off into the unknown.I hear of so many case where someone had a bit of marijuana on them and wonder why they have 5 years to sit in jail.Personally I would not travel anywhere overseas without spending time to get a good idea of what to expect.:SugarwareZ-037:

[Mr Lee]

Honestly i do not know why they pick me out of a line with so others their. I was travelling on my own, but many others do aswell, i had a short hair cut back and sides, well shaven, and i was polite with them all the way through the procedures. I was getting a little irratated towards the end of the interogation as i could see i was going to miss my flight, but i never let on that i was concerned with that, i just kept politely answering their questions, even though they had been asked many times before. I will never visit their again and be treated as a terrorist, even if the country was a nice place to visit. Their are many other places, like here for example which are much better. My friends who i visited over their totally agree with my decision and were amazed of my treatment. No one should have the right to expect you to strip totally naked in front of them. I have nothing to be ashamed of, but you do deserve some privacy. Even in this world of terrorism. I just wonder how many others have experienced that, at that airport. Anyway very good point made about not having your suitcases near where you re arm your guns, as you can imagine with reality that it would come up and as you say you would be in a huge amount of problems. Also be warned if you ever going to visit UAE, do NOT eat a sandwich with poppy seeds on it. There one was Swiss national who flew from Heathrow, where he brought a sandwich, and 3 poppy seeds dropped of in to his clothing, and when he got there, they were discovered and is now serving 4 years in prison. Here is the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7234786.stm

Wow, poppy seeds from a sandwich getting someone some jail time, that is too weird. Similarly Philippines has a law on medications I read about that said a person must have a doctors note for each, and only bring in a quantity large enough for their stay and no more but I have never been checked, always keep all my meds in their original bottles and have a prescription for anything odd but I also never use narcotics and I would guess that a person might run afoul of the law should they check them. As Tom Boss Man said, it is always better to check the laws of the countries we will be going to and after your account of your ordeal in Israel I am pretty sure that I will never be going there either unless we were to find out what set them off on you, and then be able to avoid being targeted. Anyway Asia is enough for me and there are plenty of places to travel around the Philippines and other parts of Asia that should keep the wife and I busy for many years to come so other travel is unlikely anyway.

[Mik]

Too many laws and too many officials acting out a power trip..