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American Morning

Interview With Rafi Ron

Aired December 23, 2003 - 07:06   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now to talk more about security at the nation's airports, Rafi Ran, the former director of security for the Israeli Airport Authority at Ben Gurion Airport. He's now the head of New Age Security Solutions. He joins us now live from Washington.
Good morning, Mr. Ran. Appreciate you joining us.

RAFI RON, FMR. DIR. OF SECURITY, ISRAELI AIRPORT AUTHORITY: Good morning.

COOPER: Where do you see the greatest danger lying now in terms of airport security?

RON: I think that first of all we have to realize that we are much better off than we've ever been before. So, in large terms, I think that the public should feel comfortable with what has been achieved until now. But I think that there is still some way to go, especially when it comes to international regulations of aviation security, because aviation is a global system. And airplanes are coming over to this country from other parts of the world, where the level of security that is being exercised is lower than the one here.

COOPER: Which brings me to my next point, which is that CNN is now reporting this morning a handful of foreign flight crew members have been stopped in recent days. I guess there are reports out there that al Qaeda members may be trying to fly for foreign carriers. Does this sound like a plausible threat to you?

RON: Well, this has been discussed as the basis of some events that took place in the past, the posed questions about the reasons why a certain flight has crashed. And this possibility was already considered as a possibility in the past. There is no reason to rule it out, since we know that the security scrutinizing of foreign crews is not exactly up to the standards and the needs to protect our targets here.

COOPER: What about cargo planes and unchecked baggage? How big a threat does that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? I mean, so much of the focus has been put on passenger safety, people bringing bags aboard the airlines. But what about cargo planes?

RON: Yes, cargo is certainly another issue that has not yet received enough attention. While TSA has focused most of its efforts during the last couple of years on passengers and their bags, cargo has not yet received enough attention. There is no question that both when it comes to cargo aviation -- these are designated cargo aircraft -- but also concerning the 20 percent of the cargo that goes on board passenger aircraft that does not receive the same level of screening that the passenger bags receive.

COOPER: TSA has -- I mean, I think it's fair to say has made great improvements in airport security, in the whole screening process, and standardizing it from airport to airport. You work very closely with airports around the country and around the world. What more needs to be done? You talked about the human factor as being one part of the problem.

RON: Well, I think that focusing solely on the detection of weapons is not good enough, because I think that the main lesson that we can draw both from 9/11 and from Richard Reid, the shoe bomber attempted attack on the American airline, is that it's not enough to look for the weapon, because attacks can be carried out even without the real weapon or can be carried out with a weapon that can hardly be detected by the technology that we are using today. And focusing on the human factor or on the people's behavior, I believe, is also critical in order to win this war.

COOPER: All right, Rafi Ron, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you.

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 December 23, 2003 - 07:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now to talk more about security at the nation's airports, Rafi Ran, the former director of security for the Israeli Airport Authority at Ben Gurion Airport. He's now the head of New Age Security Solutions. He joins us now live from Washington.
Good morning, Mr. Ran. Appreciate you joining us.

RAFI RON, FMR. DIR. OF SECURITY, ISRAELI AIRPORT AUTHORITY: Good morning.

COOPER: Where do you see the greatest danger lying now in terms of airport security?

RON: I think that first of all we have to realize that we are much better off than we've ever been before. So, in large terms, I think that the public should feel comfortable with what has been achieved until now. But I think that there is still some way to go, especially when it comes to international regulations of aviation security, because aviation is a global system. And airplanes are coming over to this country from other parts of the world, where the level of security that is being exercised is lower than the one here.

COOPER: Which brings me to my next point, which is that CNN is now reporting this morning a handful of foreign flight crew members have been stopped in recent days. I guess there are reports out there that al Qaeda members may be trying to fly for foreign carriers. Does this sound like a plausible threat to you?

RON: Well, this has been discussed as the basis of some events that took place in the past, the posed questions about the reasons why a certain flight has crashed. And this possibility was already considered as a possibility in the past. There is no reason to rule it out, since we know that the security scrutinizing of foreign crews is not exactly up to the standards and the needs to protect our targets here.

COOPER: What about cargo planes and unchecked baggage? How big a threat does that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? I mean, so much of the focus has been put on passenger safety, people bringing bags aboard the airlines. But what about cargo planes?

RON: Yes, cargo is certainly another issue that has not yet received enough attention. While TSA has focused most of its efforts during the last couple of years on passengers and their bags, cargo has not yet received enough attention. There is no question that both when it comes to cargo aviation -- these are designated cargo aircraft -- but also concerning the 20 percent of the cargo that goes on board passenger aircraft that does not receive the same level of screening that the passenger bags receive.

COOPER: TSA has -- I mean, I think it's fair to say has made great improvements in airport security, in the whole screening process, and standardizing it from airport to airport. You work very closely with airports around the country and around the world. What more needs to be done? You talked about the human factor as being one part of the problem.

RON: Well, I think that focusing solely on the detection of weapons is not good enough, because I think that the main lesson that we can draw both from 9/11 and from Richard Reid, the shoe bomber attempted attack on the American airline, is that it's not enough to look for the weapon, because attacks can be carried out even without the real weapon or can be carried out with a weapon that can hardly be detected by the technology that we are using today. And focusing on the human factor or on the people's behavior, I believe, is also critical in order to win this war.

COOPER: All right, Rafi Ron, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you.

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.