Israel: Terrorism: Can you really stop a bomber by asking, 'Are you terrorist?' - by David Rose

The security checks at Ben Gurion, Israel's main international airport near Tel Aviv, are intense. But they are surprisingly discreet. There are no groups of armed police patrolling through the concourses (though if necessary, of course, they will appear very rapidly).

The new intrusive body scanners that reveal naked bodies beneath clothing - recently introduced in America amid passenger resentment - are not in use. Instead, Ben Gurion's critical line of defense consists of polite, highly trained agents, most of them women. Fluent in several languages, they will speak to every passenger while they wait to drop their luggage or check in. 'We operate on the principle that it's much more effective to detect the would-be terrorist than try to find his bomb,' says a senior Israeli o fficial.

Ben Gurion's system is costly and labour-intensive. 

Last month, I waited more than hour queuing to see a selector; and while Ben Gurion handles about 11 million passengers per year, to introduce it at Heathrow in Britain, which has six times as much tra ffic, would bring the place to a halt. On the other hand, it works. The last attack at Ben Gurion - the juiciest airport terrorist target in the world - took place in 1972, and that was in the arrivals area, when three members of the Japanese Red Army armed with grenades and machine guns killed 24 after getting off a flight from Rome. No plane leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked or blown up. >Until very recently, Ben Gurion's terrorist, not the bomb' approach has required human beings to operate it. But now, using machines that at first sight seem straight from science fiction, it can be automated - and in the process, greatly speeded up.

'The system you have in Europe and America is bull****. Unless you adopt an approach that actually works, whatever technology you care to use will make little difference. The terrorists will always be one step ahead,' says Rafi Sela, a top Israeli security consultant. Through his firm, AR Challenges, he is in charge of marketing the automated Israeli method to Europe and America as a complete package - what he calls Trust Based Security, or TBS. 'How many times in the history of aviation have the scanners and security procedures that currently cause such huge anger and inconvenience actually found explosives in baggage or on a passenger?' Sela asks. The answer, shockingly, is zero.

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