Let’s talk about airport security. Back in November Middle East Online carried a story about Israel’s secret profiling at airports in South Africa and allegedly around the world:
South Africa deported an Israeli airline official last week following allegations that Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, had infiltrated Johannesburg international airport in an effort to gather information on South African citizens, particularly black and Muslim travellers.
The move by the South African government followed an investigation by local TV showing an undercover reporter being illegally interrogated by an official with El Al, Israel’s national carrier, in a public area of Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport.
The programme also featured testimony from Jonathan Garb, a former El Al guard, who claimed that the airline company had been a front for the Shin Bet in South Africa for many years.
Of the footage of the undercover reporter’s questioning, he commented: “Here is a secret service operating above the law in South Africa. We pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. We do exactly what we want. The local authorities do not know what we are doing.”The Israeli foreign ministry is reported to have sent a team to South Africa to try to defuse the diplomatic crisis after the government in Johannesburg threatened to deport all of El Al’s security staff.
Mr Garb’s accusations have been supported by an investigation by the regulator for South Africa’s private security industries.
They have also been confirmed by human rights groups in Israel, which report that Israeli security staff are carrying out racial profiling at many airports around the world, apparently out of sight of local authorities.
So you can click through to read how they accomplish this profiling, and who they target.
Mr Garb commented on the show: “What we are trained is to look for the immediate threat – the Muslim guy. You can think he is a suicide bomber, he is collecting information. The crazy thing is that we are profiling people racially, ethnically and even on religious grounds … This is what we do.”
…The former staff also accuse El Al of smuggling weapons – licensed to the local Israeli embassy – into the airport for use by the secret agents.
Nooooooh.
Check here for connections between China, Nigeria and Israel. Perhaps Nigeria has been getting a little too cozy with China, since 2006, for some people’s comfort?
In 2008 Nigerian lawmakers debated the wisdom of accepting an offer from Mossad to “train the country’s security operations under a secret security pact.”
Also speaking to Daily Trust in a telephone interview, Senator Aliyu said the presence of Mossad in the country does not in any way pose threat to the internal security and sovereignty of Nigeria. He said “as one of the best intelligence agency in the world, Nigeria stands to benefit a lot from the training arrangement between the Mossad and her security agencies….On whether the training agreement has any link with insinuations by some foreign countries that terrorists groups exist in Nigeria, the Senator said, “I don’t think so. Really I want to say that there is no link between such intelligence report and what is going on now. They are only here to impact on our intelligence agents. There is no way it will affect our national security negatively.”
Yes of course. Famous last words.
Finger pointing has ensued over the glaring mistakes which allowed the crotch bomber to get past multiple layers of security, in multiple airports. Nigeria and Ghana have traded accusations.
On Friday, on the continent, Ghana and Nigeria also got locked in an argument over where the suspect began his journey to Amsterdam. As this evolved, a report monitored on British Broadcasting Corporation on Friday also said that the State Security Service and the National Intelligence Agency were also trading blame on the incident.
Could it be? After accepting Israel’s “help,” the Nigerian intelligence community has fallen into “disarray?” Just like the United States intelligence community?
The State Security Service has blamed the Nigerian Intellingence Agency for failing to share key information two months ago about Umar Abdulfarouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who allegedly tried to blow up a plane on Christmas day over the United States with nearly 300 people on board.
If the charge is confirmed, it could highlight the disarray within the Nigerian intelligence community which parallels the mistakes President Barack Obama said had been made by US officials, reports the BBC.
…The two senior DSS officials said the agency that Mr Abdulmutallab Snr. had briefed had been the NIA. The DSS officials went on to claim that although their agency was responsible for maintaining airport “watch-lists” of people under suspicion, the NIA had not shared the father’s information with them.
AbdulMutallab, according to an official statement from the Federal Government last night, came into the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from Katoka International Airport Accra, Ghana, via a Virgin Nigeria flight on December 24 at 20.08 hours and immediately went to check in at the KLM counter by 20.35 hours.
…“Security screening at airports are carried out by airport authorities at the airports. In Accra, Ghana Airport Authority carried out the screening. In Nigeria, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) carried out the screening; the same with Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam,” Ayigbe said, adding that authorities in Amsterdam are not indicting KLM rather, the government of Netherlands has ordered for the more sophisticated machines for more comprehensive screening of passengers, especially those going to the US.
Well, actually, we know that an Israeli company, ITCS, handles security at the Amsterdam airport, among others, like all the airports involved on 911. So he wasn’t whisked through security there. See how good they are? No, in that case he had a personal escort.
