Aviation and Airport Security : Terrorism and Safety Concerns
- Book Review,
by Kathleen M. Sweet
From the Back Cover
This book seeks to present not just a historical analysis of the development of airport security, but also to convince the reader of the importance of commercial aviation to the world economy. Legislation enacted since September 11, 2001 is analyzed and the reader is provided with a critical review of the ongoing efforts of the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. Some of the procedures are praised and others are criticized, leaving the reader the opportunity to make their own decisions as to what will improve security as it relates to their practitioner goals or student development.
About the Author
Kathleen M. Sweet, Lt. Col., Ret., USAF, JD, is currently on the faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, in the Department of Global Intelligence and Security Studies, where she teaches courses in strategic intelligence, security, and terrorism. She was retired from the US Air Force in 1999. While in the military, she was an instructor at the Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and an Assistant Air Attache to the Russian Federation, an Intelligence Officer, and a Member of the Judge Advocate General's Department. Additionally, she was assigned as a Military/Political Affairs Officer to the 353rd Special Operations Wing located at Clark AFB, Republic of the Philippines. She is also presently a Consultant with International Risk Control Ltd, London, England. She is President and CEO of Risk Management Security Group, a transportation security consulting film.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
As I sit down to write these introductory words, in the peace of the English countryside in spring, the war against Saddam Hussein is probably hours away from its opening. Many of my friends and former colleagues in the British and American armed forces will be involved. I shall have to sit this one out and experience it only vicariously. The overall operational commander of the British forces is a former student of mine—the first one I ever launched on his first solo flight thirty-five years ago when I was an instructor pilot. I have had this strange feeling of closeness, yet remoteness, during many previous conflicts: I was just completing training as a conscript back in 1956 when the Suez conflict ran its short course; I was on exchange duty at the USAF Air War College when my British colleagues fought to regain the Falkland Islands in 1982. But at least I knew what the airmen, sailors, and ground troops were engaged upon, and what their equipment could deliver. For the vast majority of the population of Britain and the United States, that kind of knowledge has for a long time been out of reach. The all-volunteer force, and reducing numbers of men and women in uniform, have combined to make the business of war a very specialist subject. Until 11 September 2001. From that day on, when the terrorist threat brought bloodshed into the workplace, violence and death were transferred off the in-flight entertainment screen and right into your face—permanently and finally. We are all at risk. There is no sure hiding place. Lt Col Sweet (Ret.) provides the templates for dealing with this acute challenge to our normal freedoms. She is ideally qualified to do so. She is certainly motivated to do so. I first met her when yet another conflict was claiming lives as I stood on the sidelines. We were both in Moscow in the mid-1990s, working as attaches in our respective embassies. Kathy was a mould-breaker. The Russians were not entirely at ease with the idea of a female attache, let alone one who seemed to know her way round aircraft. So they gave her more freedom than any of us poor mere men could ever hope for, and as a result she was let loose inside a Sukhoi fourth-generation jet fighter while the rest of us wondered if we could even get a photo of it! She demonstrated resilience and resourcefulness throughout a long tour of duty in Moscow, deploying all her manifold skills and talents: as intelligence gatherer and analyst, as linguist, as jurist, but above all as a woman of considerable energy and determination. Thus, it comes as no surprise at all to me to be asked to write this Preface to her current examination of the terrorist threat to commercial airline and airport security. Her previously published review of the topic was thorough and—of its day—timely. But not even she is immune to fate. As the book went to print, the events of 11 September struck their grievous blows against the international community. The present volume takes the reader, amateur or concerned professional, through the history of air terrorism and the ways in which counter measures are developing. It reveals the dynamism with which international and national agencies are responding to the challenges of terrorism. It must surely be required reading for any air service operator, and will be invaluable to the traveling member of the public as well as the responsible legislator. In short, it is a key contribution to the current campaign against the terrorist. Phil Wilkinson Air Commodore, Royal Air Force (Ret.) Hampshire, England
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