Israel: a security partnership with Boeing

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The Israeli minister of transportation has announced a partnership between El Al, the state-owned airline, and the Boeing Co. that will provide consultancy services on air security.

Ephriam Sneh, a security-minded retired brigadier general in the Israeli Defense Forces, said his country has faced threats to its airline since the first El Al flight was hijacked in 1968. Now, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Israel is "more than willing" to share its knowledge and experience with American authorities and with U.S. airlines.

Sneh, a physician and member of the Labor Party, has served since March in the National Unity government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. From 1999 to the last national election, he was deputy defense minister in the government of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Because Barak, a former army chief of staff, was his own defense chief, Sneh had wide responsibility in the ministry. He was Israel's minister of health from 1993 to 1996.

He will be meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on Friday. In answer to a question, he said he sought the meeting on his own initiative.

"I found it proper because of the special relationship between Israel and the United States to offer this," he said.

Sneh said clients of the El Al-Boeing joint enterprise would be offered help in how to train sky marshals, organize the security envelope around and inside airports, control access to planes, secure cargo and luggage, and screen passengers.

"We believe the combination of the huge outreach of Boeing -- its marketing possibilities -- plus the experience of El Al is a winning combination," he said.

The transport minister listed a series of futuristic technologies Israel has developed to improve air safety. One is a surveillance camera that videotapes passengers both in the airport and in the cabin. Using this system, "the control tower or any other ground station can watch exactly what's going on inside the cabin of a flying airliner," Sneh said.

Israel also has developed a system that screens airport crowds and identifies faces.

"If you focus on one face, and the picture of the person is in the database because of bad behavior in the past, you can have all his data in the computer at the moment the camera identifies him," Sneh said.

"So I believe there is a sound basis for cooperation between the Israeli government and their counterparts in this country."

Boaz Raday, economics minister at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, told United Press International: "We are experts in two main subjects: hardware -- the high-tech gadgets -- and consulting."

An Israeli security expert already is employed at Boston's Logan Airport, Raday said.

Technological breakthroughs notwithstanding, Sneh emphasized that Israel's principal bulwark against air terrorism is the quality of El Al's first-echelon personnel -- a point some of the American reporters seemed slow to comprehend.

"Every passenger at Ben Gurion Airport, or at an El Al station abroad, has a short conversation with a 'selector.' They check the ticket. They ask some questions, and they have their own indications of whether someone falls into a suspected category."

They are all government employees, Sneh said. The questions, asked before check-in, are carefully targeted to "give you a clue if something's wrong."

Sneh was asked if the selectors know the level of suspicion a passenger is under.

"They define the grade of suspicion," the transport minister replied.

"The point is those who are employed in this job are of very high quality. In our country, it's very prestigious to work as a selector at the airport. It's hard to be accepted. Not everyone can earn this job."

Sneh was asked if the selectors are well paid.

"No, they are not well paid. But whom do we hire? Students. Although the salary is quite modest, it's enough for them to finance their university expenses. Most of them are in their early 20s. They do not have a big family to feed. But we keep up the quality very strictly."

Selectors must have completed "flawless" military service, the retired general said, "a full duration of two years for girls and three years for boys."

And because most of them are students, they have a high level of education for men and women their age.

Sneh said that selectors are continuously fed intelligence "from all our agencies, which accumulate it and, in one channel, distribute it to the authority which is in charge of the airport security."

The transport minister was asked how much money Israel spends on air security a year. Sneh answered $77 million, but in the same breath he dismissed any possible misperception that air security is a commodity that can be bought at the right price.

"The most important thing is there is no compromise on the quality of the people hired," he said. "The sky marshals are from the top of our young men, and so are the selectors."

What about the problem of personnel turnover? Sneh was asked.

"There is a natural turnover," he answered. "These young men and women work as selectors until they finish their first university degree." Then they are employed in the professions for which they trained.

"No one goes to retirement from the counter at Ben Gurion," he explained.

"It's the sort of work which is very comfortable for students. If you're in the night watch, you can go to university during the daytime. ... It's flexible."

What about the people who operate the X-ray screening equipment and the magnetometers?

Sneh said they must meet the same stringent standards. "All those who are in security-related jobs must have flawless military records."

El Al selectors at foreign airports are usually Israeli students studying abroad. In what has become a classic case, a selector at London's Heathrow airport foiled an attempted airline bombing in 1986. Nizar Hindawi, a Jordanian of Palestinian origins, duped an Irish woman he had made pregnant -- Anne-Marie Doreen Murphy -- into flying alone to Tel Aviv, ostensibly to meet his family. Her suitcase had been lined with plastic explosives.

"When you think about it, a pregnant woman is the least suspicious," Sneh said. "But here is an example of how a trained, intelligent person can trace even a sophisticated deception."

Sneh quoted the words of an Israeli poet that could apply to the unfortunate Murphy. "The imagination of the killer always exceeds the imagination of the victim."