Yet Again, Israeli Airport Security Firm ICTS ‘Fails’

One outcome from the terrorist attack at Brussels’ airport is it awoke even the comatose to the potential that such events are staged in some manner. As with Brussels, Israeli firm ICTS was involved with security at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Therefore, in the very least, you may to route your travel away from locations where ICTS handles aviation and general security, especially if you believe these terrorist attacks are real events.

ICTS, a firm founded by “former” Israeli intelligence operatives, also handles security the airport in Larnaca, Cyprus, where a hijacked airliner landed in April. In fact, the firm has a significant presence at major airports around the world.

The company offers a system based on a computerized algorithm called APS (Advanced Passenger Screening) that analyzes passenger information procured by airline companies and determines the potential risks posed by a given passenger. APS is used by most of the large airlines in the United States.

The chairman of the supervisory board at ICTS, Menachem J. Atzmon, is a former Likud Party member. He was indicted and convicted in 1996 in a fraud and embezzlement case relating to the misappropriation of funds raised by charities. Atzmon owns more than 60% of ICTS Intl. via a family trust.

The company has experienced more than its share of bad luck and strangeness. ICTS provided security services to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and to United Airlines and US Airways during times of tragedy. It even somehow allowed “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to “slip through” and board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit with explosive materials on Christmas day 2009. Curiously, he was allowed to board his flight with no luggage and without a passport. The particulars of this strange event can be examined in this interview with eyewitness Kurt Haskell.

In December 2001, ICTS somehow managed to let deranged “shoe bomber” Richard Reid onto his Miami-bound flight in Paris. This was after ICTS had cleared Reid through security at Amsterdam airport on a flight to Tel Aviv in July 2001 for what was apparently an all-expenses-paid, week-long trip to the Israeli city. What precisely he did there remains a mystery.

Reid later said that ICTS/El Al had failed to detect that he had explosives in his shoes on the flight to Tel Aviv, an amazing revelation considering the Israeli airline supposedly had extra-tight security.

ICTS also handled security for London’s bus network during the July 7, 2005, “suicide” bomb attacks. In fact, two of its subsidiaries, ICTS UK and ICTS Europe Systems based at Tavistock House at Tavistock Square in London, were handling security at the scene of the London Stagecoach bus bombing on that day.

To top it all off, ICTS also somehow missed several of the 9/11 hijackers, who allegedly flew out of Boston’s Logan Airport.

ICTS’ Eagle X-Ray is used in Istanbul and the Israelis have access to train screeners. Nothing to see here, move along?