Tag: terrorism

On airport security Israelification

I came across an excellent article which compares ways airport security is handled in Israel as opposed to USA and Canada.  Instead of being a yet another whine and complain about how bad things are there and how good they are over there, it does in fact illustrate the difference in approaches, as well as some of the things that people who are responsible for protecting the public have to think about.  Here is a quote to get you started:

“I once put this question to Jacques Duchesneau (the former head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority): say there is a bag with play-doh in it and two pens stuck in the play-doh. That is ‘Bombs 101’ to a screener. I asked Ducheneau, ‘What would you do?’ And he said, ‘Evacuate the terminal.’ And I said, ‘Oh. My. God.’

“Take Pearson. Do you know how many people are in the terminal at all times? Many thousands. Let’s say I’m (doing an evacuation) without panic — which will never happen. But let’s say this is the case. How long will it take? Nobody thought about it. I said, ‘Two days.'”

Another part that I sympathized a lot with was this:

“Do you know why Israelis are so calm? We have brutal terror attacks on our civilians and still, life in Israel is pretty good. The reason is that people trust their defence forces, their police, their response teams and the security agencies. They know they’re doing a good job. You can’t say the same thing about Americans and Canadians. They don’t trust anybody,” Sela said. “But they say, ‘So far, so good’. Then if something happens, all hell breaks loose and you’ve spent eight hours in an airport. Which is ridiculous. Not justifiable

So true! I’ve been thinking exactly the same a few times while watching fear-infested news coverages on mostly American TV (Europeans and Russians have it too, but to a lesser degree).  Nobody can guarantee a 100% protection.  A continuous effort should be made to ensure the best possible protection.  Once everyone knows and trusts that everything that could have been done was done, they will calm down and relax.  And even if something bad happens, people won’t overreact as they would know better.

Just when you thought your tax money were spent wisely

Cyprus Mail reports:

BY A close vote, parliament last night passed a law on combating terrorism and defining a terrorist organization.

The bill passed with 22 votes in favour from DISY, DIKO and European Party deputies, while 19 MPs from AKEL and socialists EDEK voted against. The Greens abstained.

The law specifies what constitutes a terrorist group according to the definition and list of terrorist organisations compiled by the European Council. It also stipulates terrorist offences and subsequent penalties.

It defines a terrorist group as “a group of two or more persons which has been established and operates for a specific amount of time with the purpose of committing terrorist acts.”

I just can’t help the mental picture of the heated arguments over the definition.

  • “It’s not the group of two or more! It’s a group of more than one!”
  • “Period of time, not the amount!”
  • “Now let’s vote on the purpose versus goal”
  • “Is it terrorist acts or acts of terrorism?”

And so on and so forth…

Muslims vs. Taliban vs. Al-Qaeda

Here is a useful chart for the next time you join the mass-media promoted generalization of Muslims.

As you know, I am not religious.  But even I get annoyed with all that hate of Muslims and their supposed relation to terrorism and violence.  I knew a few Muslims myself, and at least those are extremely kind and warm people.  I’ve been in their houses, ate with them, drank with them, talked with them, played with their kids, and seemed to overly enjoy myself.  So cut the stereotypical crap already.