European Airports Chided on Security

[afang]

BRUSSELS -- Europe's airports used to be held up as models of efficiency and security, capable of moving huge numbers of people while protecting them against local terrorist threats from such groups as the Irish Republican Army and Germany's Red Army Faction.
That esteem took a hit in 1988, when a terrorist bomb blew up a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Airport authorities point to the bombing as one of the seminal events spurring Europe's antiterror efforts.

Fourteen years later, however, critics say those efforts haven't gone far enough -- a complaint underscored when Richard Reid got past French police on Dec. 22 with a sophisticated bomb hidden in his athletic shoe. "There is a lot of talk about improving security in Europe," says Moshe Cohen, a former security executive at the Israeli carrier El Al who now advises airports through London-based Renful Aviation Security Ltd. "But so far it is not effective."

Mr. Cohen and others say most European airports were slow to respond to the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings in the U.S. and complain that some made cosmetic changes, posting a few uniformed guards to make travelers feel better.

Critics find fault with European politicians, too, pointing to the U.S. Congress's relatively swift passage of a bill forcing American airports and airlines to adopt a number of practices, such as matching all checked luggage with passengers on board each flight and installing upgraded explosive-screening equipment. Congress also set aside $1.5 billion to help airports pay for the changes.

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/...0931717280.htm

[afang]

BRUSSELS -- Europe's airports used to be held up as models of efficiency and security, capable of moving huge numbers of people while protecting them against local terrorist threats from such groups as the Irish Republican Army and Germany's Red Army Faction.
That esteem took a hit in 1988, when a terrorist bomb blew up a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Airport authorities point to the bombing as one of the seminal events spurring Europe's antiterror efforts.

Fourteen years later, however, critics say those efforts haven't gone far enough -- a complaint underscored when Richard Reid got past French police on Dec. 22 with a sophisticated bomb hidden in his athletic shoe. "There is a lot of talk about improving security in Europe," says Moshe Cohen, a former security executive at the Israeli carrier El Al who now advises airports through London-based Renful Aviation Security Ltd. "But so far it is not effective."

Mr. Cohen and others say most European airports were slow to respond to the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings in the U.S. and complain that some made cosmetic changes, posting a few uniformed guards to make travelers feel better.

Critics find fault with European politicians, too, pointing to the U.S. Congress's relatively swift passage of a bill forcing American airports and airlines to adopt a number of practices, such as matching all checked luggage with passengers on board each flight and installing upgraded explosive-screening equipment. Congress also set aside $1.5 billion to help airports pay for the changes.

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/...0931717280.htm