If you are traveling on Turkish Airlines, you will need an interview in Istanbul. But it should be no different that what was described above.

"Who packed your bags?" "When did you pack them?" "Has anyone had access to your bags?" "Do you have any electronic equipment? To whom does it belong? Has anyone else had access to it? Have you had it repaired recently? Do you have anything that could be used as a weapon?"

That's it.

The US carriers have a second set of questions at the gate. "Have you purchased anything from a vendor other than the airport shops?" "Have your bags been with you at all times?" Usually nothing more than that.

At the European airports I know best: Paris/Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, and Geneva, the staff are not intimidating at all. In Paris they are often charming Indian women. I'm easily intimidated by authority figures and those in uniform, but the contract security people are usually very kind.

Random (and not random) body and baggage searches occur at most airports for flights on US carriers on flights from Europe to the US. British Airways has this, and I would imagine that Turkish Airlines does as well. That's usually a matter of luck. On British Airways it is an automatic signal that beeps as you attempt to board the airplane. On the US carriers, the staff pull passenger aside on a continuous basis, or until they've met their requisite number of searches.

chx1975, sorry... I zip through security at Tel Aviv with just three or four questions.