Counter Terror Gazette

Counter Terror Gazette’s first issue

AIRWATCH

Zamboanga City: 2010’s Daallo Airlines Moment?

On 13th November 2009, the world paid scant attention to the arrest of a 35-year old Somali man, Abdi Hassan Abdi, who was the last passenger in line wishing to board a Daallo Airlines flight from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, with onward connections to Djibouti and Dubai. In his possession was a syringe with a green liquid inside, a plastic bag containing 600 grams of ammonium nitrate and half a litre of concentrated sulfuric acid in a plastic bottle; allegedly, when they were discovered at security screening (a notably impressive find in my view), the passenger then attempted to pay a bribe in order to be able to continue on his way. Although the African nation’s authorities recognised that this was innovative, yet potentially effective way, of infiltrating an explosive device onto an aircraft, most of the rest of the world were either oblivious to the occurrence or readily dismissed it as being of little relevance to the global aviation industry.

Cabin Baggage Screening: best practices and effective technologies

In spite of virtually every terrorist attack against civil aviation since Pan Am 103 – the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 – being initiated via the checkpoint, the world’s authorities and airports have focused the vast majority of their financial and technical resources on checked baggage screening enhancements. Advances in explosive detection technology and the use of alternatives to standard X-ray, such as computed tomography and even Advanced Technology (AT) X-ray have only recently been applied to the far more difficult challenge of cabin bag screening.
Steve Wolff looks at the challenges surrounding the screening of cabin baggage, regulatory issues and technologies as well as processes being implemented today and what approaches, might, in the future, be applied to better protect against the loopholes that exist in the screening of carry-on bags at the checkpoint

The 2nd Intifada: ten years on

As we mark the passing of the tenth anniversary since the second Palestinian uprising, Anna Costin looks at the extent to which the Arab-Israeli conflict has impacted on aviation security in the past decade and, in doing so, reviews the extent to which the region’s conflict has become intertwined with and hijacked by those with a different set of goals.

Air Mail: cleared to fly

Whether the package was simply dropped into the local post box or sent by courier, it might well end up on a commercial airliner carrying passengers and crew. Amy Laboda looks at what screening processes and security practices can be deployed by the postal services and airlines to ensure that air mail is safe to fly

Industry Leaders: in search of opinions

Technology is fundamental to the provision of an effective security system. As those we aim to guard ourselves from go increasingly hi-tech, so must we respond in kind; ideally we should be ahead of their game. Having technological capability is one thing, using it in the right manner something altogether different. Philip Baum asks some of the industry’s leading lights in the area of technological development and solution provision their views as to how we ought to strike the correct balance between technology and human factors, how technology can respond to the threats of the future and how we can improve our current system using available solutions.

A Personal View – expressed by Omer Laviv

Many of my friends and colleagues ask me whether I now feel better about the standards of the security checks taking place at airports. “Why should I?” I respond. “Because for many years now”, the answer goes, “you aviation security guys have been preaching that metal detection gates are not suitable for passenger screening any more. It seems that, because of recent events, everybody finally agrees with you.”

Gauging the Terrorist Threat: a webinar

Since 9/11, the world’s counterterrorism and homeland security authorities have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to enhance security at airports and on aircraft. But despite these vast investments, is the flying public actually any safer? To address these issues, Aerospace & Security Media conducted a webinar on 30 June entitled: “New Solutions for Airport Security: The Risks and Rewards”. The event was sponsored by ARINC and John Persinos, the webinar moderator, outlines the insights this yielded into the omnipresent threat to aviation security.

Volcanoes & Flotillas: from Eyjafjallajökull to Gaza

As we pat down bodies, X-ray bags, verify identification, effect random vehicle searches and swab a variety of hand-held items that might just have come into contact with explosives, we believe that we are doing all that we can to prevent the next terrorist atrocity taking place. Laudable efforts, implemented by underpaid individuals in one of the most bureaucratic of labour environments.