Posts Tagged ‘Airport Security’

As 2009 draws to a close the UK and indeed the World is no better place than when the Year began. We have reported in the last 2 weeks that London Business was briefed by SO15 (Counter Terror Command) that there was a threat of a Mumbai style attack in London in the New Year. On Christms Day Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a trsatlantic flight as it came in to land in Detroit. He had evaded airport security with PETN in his underwear.

A Somalli man is in custody in Mogadishu for attemting to take explosives onto an aircraft in November. The style of attack was similar to that of the detroit attack and targeted a Daallo Airlines plane flying to the northern Somali City of Hargeisa then on to Djibouti and Dubai.

Airports in Somalia are one area that the fragile Government still has control of with help from the African Union peacekeeping force. With much of Somalia in the hands of radical Islamist groups it is the first reported attempt of such an act.

In the wake of the Detroit attack calls have been made for improved airport security on transatlantic flights. Why only transatlantic flights? In our opinion security improvements should me made accross the board and the Mogadisu attempted attack highlights that the targets of Islamist groups are not just American and British.

Installing electronic measures is fine and there are some fantastic products on the market but with every electronic system there needs to be effective human intervention to interrogate and investigate what the electronice device has detected. Whereever Humans are involved there will always be the chance of failure.

One way of limiting the chance of failure is to provide a robust well planned and well executed training programme and not the run of the mill packages currently available. I have travelled from UK airports and can spot weaknesses in security at every level.

If we can spot these weaknesses then so can terrorist operatives engaged on Hostile Reconnaisance, and be under no illusion that Hostile Reconnaisance will be taking place all the time.

Spain has just incresed their terror alert level as it prepares to adopt the EU Prsidency on Friday. Raising threat levels is fine but what do they mean? Ask most people involved in physical security what the UK threat level and responses are and they wont have a clue. Give the same people information and training as to what it means wont defeat terrorism but it will reduce the risk.

Not a plesenet way to end 2009 but it is reality.

We wish you all a safe end to 2009 and look forward to providing information to help keep you safe in 2010.

A suicide bomber who was detonated in the same room as a Saudi Prince who is in charge of counter terror is believed to have had the explosive device inside himself. The device is believed to have been detonated by mobile phone.

The bomber, a Saudi Al Qaeda fugitive said he was ready to give himself up but would only give himself up to the prince. The prince agreed and the fugitive was given safe passage to a rendezvous in Jeddah. Once in the same room he was detonated. The prince was unharmed and only the bomber died. The device left a considerable crater and its believed the saving grace was that the blast went downwards.

Security and Intelligence chiefs are extremely worried at this turning point as it renders airport security metal detectors useless.

Peter Neuman of Kings College London says the case will be studied intensively, and that there are “tremendous implications for airport security with the potential of making it even more complicated to get on to your plane”.

“If it really is true that the metal detectors couldn’t detect this person’s hidden explosive device, that would mean that the metal detectors as they currently exist in airports are pretty much useless,” he said.