Airport security

Wolfgang Bosbach, the chairman of the parliamentary Internal Affairs Committee told the Berliner Zeitung daily on Monday that the recent attempt to blow up a Northwest/KLM flight from Amsterdam to Detroit should not result in the introduction of new security procedures at German airports.

“The attempted attack is not a reason for us to change the security laws,” said Bosbach.

He said that in recent years many loopholes in security had been closed, but that legislation could not eliminate human error.

Bosbach said, however, that European Union plans to relax certain restrictions, such as on bringing liquids onto aircraft, should probably be put on hold.

Speaking to the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, he said “the searches we have now are not a result of security hysteria, rather a necessary step.”

A key opposition figure, the Green Party's Hans-Christian Stroebele, echoed Bosbach's assessment. He said that last week's attempted attack was made possible by a failure to correctly assess existing intelligence, not a lack of security.

Germany wary of stepping up security

The failed bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was on a US watch list of people with extremist ties, and his father, a prominent Nigerian banker, had contacted US authorities to say that his son may have travelled to Yemen to meet with Islamists.

Since the attempted bombing of the transatlantic flight, security has been stepped up at German airports, using the means already at the authorities' disposal. Over the weekend, Germany's Federal Police warned passengers that they could expect longer waits to get through airport security.

But experts remain divided over using more intrusive search methods at airports like the much-debated full-body or "nude" scanner.

The head of a German police union, Rainer Wendt, said it would be a mistake to use the technology.

That device would allow security personnel to observe a computer-generated reproduction of the contours of a passenger's body, where well-hidden weapons or explosives might be visible.

That would go “too far” in invading people's privacy, he told the Berliner Zeitung, and called instead for a heightened police presence at German airports.

Holland in favor of new, microwave detectors

But on Monday, Dutch airport authorities said they would make new, microwave scanners mandatory after the attempted attack.

Ad Rutten, the chief operating officer of Schiphol Group, told a news conference the airport would introduce the more sensitive detectors pending approval from European authorities.

The microwave scanners are not as powerful as the see-through full-body scanners that allow security staff to see passengers virtually naked and detect items swallowed or concealed inside the body. But they can spot unusual objects on the body and hidden under clothing.

Ron Louwerse, security director for Schiphol Group, said he was confident the new microwave scanners would get EU approval.

"The machine so far gave indications of the body shape and it was also possible to detect whether it was a man or a woman. This violated certain privacy rules. We've now made some changes and we think this will get approval from European authorities," he said.

Louwerse added that Schipol airport could probably fully implement the new scanners within a year.

mrh/sp/dpa/APD
Editor: Chuck Penfold/Susan Houlton