El Al Tells TSA That It Will Screen Its Own Baggage

"This was strictly at the request of El Al, and we want to be sensitive to the security threats they face in their particular part of the world," said Amy von Walter, a TSA spokeswoman.

The arrangement, which also allows El Al Airlines to use its own screening personnel, points to a continuing problem in the U.S. government's ability to safeguard commercial airliners. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, undercover tests at U.S. airports, including Newark Liberty, have consistently shown that TSA screeners miss a significant number of fake explosives.

"El Al knows our security isn't worth a hoot," said Michael Boyd, an aviation industry consultant from Colorado and a longtime TSA critic. "It's a heck of an indictment for the TSA when a foreign airline says they want to screen their own luggage. It says they don't trust us."

Aviation experts agree El Al has the toughest airline security system in the world, including intensive training of its personnel, extensive luggage searches, tough questioning of passengers and armed guards on board every flight.

U.S. aviation officials have repeatedly said passengers' privacy rights, as well as the sheer volume of planes, make it impossible to operate security as rigorously as El Al, which runs far fewer flights.

"I'm sorry that they're not doing our bags," said Steve Elson, another TSA critic and former member of the Federal Aviation Administration's investigative Red Team that discovered pre-9/11 aviation security lapses. "Israelis are very serious about security. They have to be."

Much of the billions of dollars spent on the TSA have not done anything to improve airline security - only to give the appearance that security has improved. That's a crucial difference and one that security experts any anyone paying attention would recognize. Israel's predicament is no different than that of any other country facing terrorist threats - except its national airline engages in real security measures designed to ferret out potential terrorists. It uses profiling and short interviews to determine whether individuals deserve further scrutiny.

And it works.