Nice post

I wanted to know more about it. We got the briefing and pics on the London bombings.

ITs not special its...unusual. SSSS was in place prior to TSA. There isnt 100 laws! There are over 100 criteria. Want to know some of the things that you may get ssss for?
1. Buying a one way ticket
2. paying for a ticket with cash
3. paying for a ticket with a credit card that is different from the PNR.
4. checking no luggage.
5. Booking the flight with less than 96 hours notice
6. Random generation of the designation.
7. Having your I.D. Stolen
9. HAving expired I.D.
10. Manual placement by prior events ( discovered items, etc.)

In my experience, each criteria is given a value. When the value of the criteria that fit you reach a certain number you are SSSS.

As far as complaints that are made, the last briefing that we had showed that the number of compliments at DEN out ranked complaints by five to one.

Two questions:

1. How many of these criteria did the 9/11 hijackers meet?

2. Now that they are public knowledge, don't you think that the terrorists will be smart enough to avoid any of these pitfalls?

4

I dont know.

Add to that requesting a First Class Upgrade on line on the day of travel. It is not a problem if you do it at the time of booking or at the gate.

PS. Which 4 criteria did the hijackers meet? I thought they were all frequent flyers, educated, no criminal record, etc. Sounds like the airlines best customers to me!

"PS. Which 4 criteria did the hijackers meet? I thought they were all frequent flyers, educated, no criminal record, etc. Sounds like the airlines best customers to me!"

I recall reading that one bought a last minute, walk up, one way, first class ticket for something like $2000 cash. Visa did not even get their 4% cut.

$2000 cash for a seat departing soon on a light load flight that would probably go unsold. Best customer? You bet. All Chapter 11 airlines wish they had a few thousand more regulars like that.

The airline was too busy drooling over the windfall to have the rent-a-cop-wannabes search the pax.

Look at profiling the other way around. You are determining an appropriate amount of scrutiny to prevent someone potentially dangerous from causing damage, then you are identifying a set of people you are pre-supposing are less dangerous and subjecting them to less scrutiny.

I think this means you're against profiling ^ but I'm not sure...

And they would have found what - a pair of boxcutters?
Those were not prohibited by the FAA at the time. The search would not have stopped the hijackings. A paradigm shift has occurred. We no longer submit to the orders of hijackers.

Very true.


Once they get through the setup we have now, more changes will be made.

The airline industry, including security measures, are completely re-active. It's only AFTER an incident or crash has occurred that things are looked at and acted upon.

"Tombstone Technology" at its best. The airline industry has been following it for decades.

My ethnicity has not vowed to destroy the West in a clash of civilizations.

Dovster in an earlier post alluded to a procedure that would complement mere appearances. Sophisticated security procedures include a brief interview to give the screener an opportunity to interact the passenger to determine if the passenger exhibits behavior inconsistent with a regular traveler. This interview would add a few seconds to each screening, but would immeasurably improve the effectiveness of screening. If a young male had an obvious foreign accent typical of, say, Mid-Eastern Arabs, that person could be more extensively screened. A passport from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, or Egypt could be another cue. I realize that terrorists often obtain fake ID's, but this step is another small part of more effective screening.

Personally I don't care if foreigners are not fond of screening procedures. Better that foreigners get hassled than Americans.

Profiling, when done correctly, is a much more sophisticated process than simply looking at someone's skin color or listening to his accent.

In Israel, where it has become an art at the airport, every single person is profiled. It doesn't mean that everyone is given the same checks, it means that every person is evaluated to see if further checking is advisable.

Outward appearance plays a part. Only somebody who is purposely blind would deny that some very obvious factors can play a role in determining who is more apt to present a danger. A 24-year-old Palestinian man is, statistically, much more likely to attempt hijacking an El Al plane than is a 70-year-old grandmother from a kibbutz in the Negev.

But that grandmother does not skip her way onto the plane nor does the Palestinian man necessarily face an intrusive search. It only means that El Al Security will start the profiling process more suspicious of one than the other.

In what appears to be a simple friendly chat the Security people size up the passenger. If there is something about the way he carries himself or answers questions (and often the questions themselves are meaningless) he gets further questioning. If he tells a story which seems very far out of the usual, they will keep asking questions until they are satisfied that he is not lying. If they feel he may well be lying then, and only then, will he be sent for a physical search.

I've told this story before on this forum, but it is worth repetition because it bears out what I am saying:

Several years ago, a friend of mine -- a Black woman who is a LTC in the American Air Force -- decided to visit me. She was stationed in Napoli and took an El Al flight from Rome.

American Blacks are not high on the list of people Israel profiles. Nor are middle-aged women. Had she simply been a secretary from New York City coming here for a religious pilgrimage she probably would have passed through Security with no problems.

The fact, however, that this Black woman claimed to be an LTC in the Air Force, and was flying to Israel from Rome to visit a friend here, immediately raised some eyebrows. They asked her more questions and she presented them with NATO Intelligence credentials. You might think that this would satisfy them but it had exactly the opposite effect. How many Black, female, American Air Force colonels with such credentials do El Al Security people in Rome ever see? She was probably the first -- and thus stood out.

They asked her for my name and telephone number and she gave it to them. They then called me to ask about her. When they finished with that, they asked me questions about myself. In the end, they were satisfied. She was not sent for a physical check (very few people ever get to that point) and was allowed to board.

Interestingly, she said that during the entire time they were very friendly and polite to her. They in no way made her feel uncomfortable or like a criminal. There was none of the TSA-type bossiness which I read so often about on this forum. They simply did their jobs efficiently and well.

(Personally, I think that part of the problem with the TSA attitude is the result of the attitude of passengers. People flying to Israel, even Americans, understand the security situation we face here and because of that react well during checks. In the States, that is not always true. It is the old "chicken and the egg" question -- are TSA screeners rude because passengers treat them rudely or is the reverse the case?)

And therefore, nobody is profiled.

Thanks for sharing the story - that was great! ^

Honestly, do you think that if there were a policy enacted that people with passport's from those countries were to be subjected to extra screening, a terrorist would show up with one? Or would innocent people from those countries, without the means or motive to obtain fake documents, take up the time of security personnel?