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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview with Rafi Ron, CEO of New Age Aviation Security

Aired August 08, 2003 - 07:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI wants airport security personnel to pay close attention now to some more common carry-on items that could be used as deadly weapons in disguise, like this hair brush with a knife hidden in the handle, or a crucifix that also becomes a dagger. They are among some 160 items that the FBI has collected and cataloged to bring federal screeners up-to-speed. But are they up to the job?
Joining us now, Rafi Ron, CEO of New Age Aviation Security.

Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

RAFI RON, CEO, NEW AGE AVIATION SECURITY: Good morning. Thank you.

COLLINS: So, what do you think about this? I mean, we had heard the other day about cell phones and about keyless entry remotes and how they could be used as weapons as well. But now, as we say, we've got this lipstick knife, you know, the deck of cards that has sharp edges. Can security screeners really look for this kind of stuff?

RON: Well, I think that this list makes the point of how difficult it is to identify the presence of this type of weapon, which is not so obvious as many people would have thought. But that goes back to the experience that was accumulated through many years of aviation security, understanding that weapon detection cannot be the only way to deal with the problem, because, as we have seen with this list, it is extremely difficult, and we haven't seen it all on this list. There is much more to it that is even more difficult to be identified.

So, obviously, there must be an effort to identify terrorists, not just the weapon, because people like Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and the people of his kind, they try to make it as difficult as possible, obviously, for the security forces to prevent them from carrying out their attack. That means that they are studying the loopholes in the system, and I think that the Richard Reid attack has just proven in the past of how easy it was for them to identify the loophole and manage to go through it.

COLLINS: Right.

RON: Because Richard Reid walked through a checkpoint with his bomb on his way to an American aircraft taking off from Paris.

COLLINS: All right, well, let's talk about -- you said this is not an easy thing to do -- much improvement to be done. But also, you say that more importantly there is a whole different set of circumstances to be considering, and that would be at Logan International Airport, they have implemented this new system, which you helped create. And what it deals with is behavior pattern recognition. Tell us what that is. And how hard is that to learn?

RON: Well, that's exactly what we are doing at the Logan airport. Yes, we have drawn some of the experience out of the Israel aviation security experience, but not try to enforce the same concept as it is, because the environment is completely different than the Israeli environment. And they will come up with a program that MASPORT (ph) has chosen to follow, which is called behavior pattern recognition that is aimed at identifying people on the basis of their behavior, which is as far as one can be from ethnicity, or racial profiling, as some people were afraid that this is heading to.

And by using this type of methodology, the law enforcement people in Massachusetts, state police troopers at airports have been picking up for the last few months people on the basis of their behavior and investigating a little further what is behind that behavior.

COLLINS: What type of behavior are we looking for?

RON: Well, basically, we are looking for people that conceal their intentions or to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We are looking for people with hostile intentions. And...

COLLINS: How do you do that?

RON: Well, the assumption is that these people are different than other people, because other people do not have those hostile intentions. They are not going to get involved in something dramatic, as some of these people with hostile intentions are going to get involved in a few minutes or a short period of time.

COLLINS: All right.

RON: So, that must have an effect on their behavior one way or another.

What we have done, we have studied very carefully -- we try to draw as much conclusions as we could from past attacks on the behavior of passengers and people that are involved in such activities.

COLLINS: Yes.

RON: And we have managed to pick up some indications that maybe it is not providing 100 percent foolproof, but security is never -- there is no silver bullet solution in security.

COLLINS: Well, there sure isn't.

RON: You need to do as much as you can, and this is one very critical part of what must be done.

RON: All right, well, it's something that the TSA is going to have to start thinking about indeed. Rafi Ron, we certainly appreciate your time this morning -- CEO of New Age Aviation Security. Thanks once again

RON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired August 8, 2003 - 07:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI wants airport security personnel to pay close attention now to some more common carry-on items that could be used as deadly weapons in disguise, like this hair brush with a knife hidden in the handle, or a crucifix that also becomes a dagger. They are among some 160 items that the FBI has collected and cataloged to bring federal screeners up-to-speed. But are they up to the job?
Joining us now, Rafi Ron, CEO of New Age Aviation Security.

Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

RAFI RON, CEO, NEW AGE AVIATION SECURITY: Good morning. Thank you.

COLLINS: So, what do you think about this? I mean, we had heard the other day about cell phones and about keyless entry remotes and how they could be used as weapons as well. But now, as we say, we've got this lipstick knife, you know, the deck of cards that has sharp edges. Can security screeners really look for this kind of stuff?

RON: Well, I think that this list makes the point of how difficult it is to identify the presence of this type of weapon, which is not so obvious as many people would have thought. But that goes back to the experience that was accumulated through many years of aviation security, understanding that weapon detection cannot be the only way to deal with the problem, because, as we have seen with this list, it is extremely difficult, and we haven't seen it all on this list. There is much more to it that is even more difficult to be identified.

So, obviously, there must be an effort to identify terrorists, not just the weapon, because people like Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and the people of his kind, they try to make it as difficult as possible, obviously, for the security forces to prevent them from carrying out their attack. That means that they are studying the loopholes in the system, and I think that the Richard Reid attack has just proven in the past of how easy it was for them to identify the loophole and manage to go through it.

COLLINS: Right.

RON: Because Richard Reid walked through a checkpoint with his bomb on his way to an American aircraft taking off from Paris.

COLLINS: All right, well, let's talk about -- you said this is not an easy thing to do -- much improvement to be done. But also, you say that more importantly there is a whole different set of circumstances to be considering, and that would be at Logan International Airport, they have implemented this new system, which you helped create. And what it deals with is behavior pattern recognition. Tell us what that is. And how hard is that to learn?

RON: Well, that's exactly what we are doing at the Logan airport. Yes, we have drawn some of the experience out of the Israel aviation security experience, but not try to enforce the same concept as it is, because the environment is completely different than the Israeli environment. And they will come up with a program that MASPORT (ph) has chosen to follow, which is called behavior pattern recognition that is aimed at identifying people on the basis of their behavior, which is as far as one can be from ethnicity, or racial profiling, as some people were afraid that this is heading to.

And by using this type of methodology, the law enforcement people in Massachusetts, state police troopers at airports have been picking up for the last few months people on the basis of their behavior and investigating a little further what is behind that behavior.

COLLINS: What type of behavior are we looking for?

RON: Well, basically, we are looking for people that conceal their intentions or to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We are looking for people with hostile intentions. And...

COLLINS: How do you do that?

RON: Well, the assumption is that these people are different than other people, because other people do not have those hostile intentions. They are not going to get involved in something dramatic, as some of these people with hostile intentions are going to get involved in a few minutes or a short period of time.

COLLINS: All right.

RON: So, that must have an effect on their behavior one way or another.

What we have done, we have studied very carefully -- we try to draw as much conclusions as we could from past attacks on the behavior of passengers and people that are involved in such activities.

COLLINS: Yes.

RON: And we have managed to pick up some indications that maybe it is not providing 100 percent foolproof, but security is never -- there is no silver bullet solution in security.

COLLINS: Well, there sure isn't.

RON: You need to do as much as you can, and this is one very critical part of what must be done.

RON: All right, well, it's something that the TSA is going to have to start thinking about indeed. Rafi Ron, we certainly appreciate your time this morning -- CEO of New Age Aviation Security. Thanks once again

RON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.