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HEATHROW RAID RAISES SECURITY FEAR A multi-million-dollar robbery has raised questions about the effectiveness of efforts to strengthen security at Heathrow airport after September 11th. Police and airport authorities were trying to find out how two robbers entered a secure cargo loading area near Terminal 4 with security passes believed to be genuine. The men escaped with $6.5 million cash in various currencies after holding-up a British Airways security van at London's main airport and overpowering its driver. The money had come in on British Airways flight 124 from Bahrain and was due to fly to JFK Airport in New York when the robbery took place. The 187 passengers had just disembarked and the plane was refueling. Within five minutes all airport security gates were closed, but the robbers had fled, police said. Details on who owned the money have not been released. The two men, described only as Asian, drove off in a BA van, which was later found burned out about two miles from the airport. The 35-year-old BA employed driver had been overpowered and left with his hands tied, suffering from shock. Eight red cargo cash boxes containing the currency were transferred from one van to the other but were not found in the abandoned vehicle. Labour Member of Parliament John McDonnell whose constituency includes Heathrow called for an independent review of security at Britain's airports. Efforts to boost it in the light of previous breaches, including people getting on to runways with weapons has failed, he told the BBC. "There is an element of frustration setting in now. There have been a whole series of reviews after each of these incidents and another range of clamping down on the mechanisms yet still there is a problem" the MP said. "What we have got to do is to be completely ruthless about this, bring in external advice on security matters". Mr McDonnell added "we have got to reassure people, we can't keep having incidents like this". CNN/AP Ken Luck
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SECURITY SCANNER SEES THROUGH CLOTHES The fight against terrorism may be moving towards a clash with the right to privacy. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking at a number of airport technologies that will effectively strip people of their clothing. ABC's TechTV recently reported that one system being studied is a holographic scanner capable of producing 3D computer-generated, fully nude images- of people who pass through the device. The report said a circular holographic imaging system has been in development at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Kennewick, Wash. since 1989. The FAA is considering the scanner as a next generation replacement for magnetic scanners now used in U.S. airports. Although it can't produce a skeletal image the way an X-rav does, the scanner would produce images that would leave little to the imagination. "While effective, the technology raises major privacy concerns. Even at low resolution, an operator can see not only concealed weapons but also the entire surface of the naked body, according to TechTV"s report. It is safe to assume that most people would object to a virtual strip-search every time they traveled on a plane. Source: Globe and Mail News Articles -11/02/02- -20/03/02-
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