[Infowarrior] - Thwart Terrorists With a High-Tech Aircraft That Snoops

[Richard Forno]

Europe Hopes to Thwart Terrorists With a High-Tech Aircraft That Snoops
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501
048_pf.html

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; A16

PARIS -- Imagine stepping aboard Europe's anti-terrorist plane of the
future.

At the door, a hand-held electronic nose reputedly 30 times more sensitive
than a dog's snout sniffs passengers for dangerous chemicals and vapors.

After takeoff, computers monitoring cabin conversations pick up suspicious
words in Seat 9B, fingernail-size video cameras detect nervous facial tics
on the passenger in 21F, and a hidden microphone records questionable noises
from the passenger in the rear toilet. Buzzers or flashing lights on a
computer screen warn the crew and pilot of potential trouble in each spot.

If a hijacker manages to bypass the fingerprint-activated locks on the
cockpit door and grabs the controls, an internal computer takes over and
diverts the plane from high-rise buildings, a nuclear plant or any other
pre-programmed no-fly zone.

The SAFEE project -- Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment
-- is the first coordinated international effort to create an airplane
system capable of thwarting hijackings and terrorist attacks. It is under
development in classified laboratories in 11 European countries and Israel.
Much of the technology is in advanced stages of development, though systems
for accurately analyzing facial expressions remain problematic.

The director of the $50 million program, Daniel Gaultier, works in a
modernist, mirrored building overlooking the Seine River, where entry to his
office is controlled by the same kind of fingerprint lock that the plane's
cockpit would have. He describes the system -- being developed largely in
secret by the European Commission (the European Union's executive arm) and
31 aircraft, avionics, computer and security companies and university
research centers -- as "a last defense against attack" in a post-9/11 world.

The project faces serious opposition. Human rights officials are concerned
about passenger privacy, pilot groups are fearful of computers usurping
their authority, and airline marketers wonder about the eventual price tag.

"The eavesdropping is incredible," Sophia in't Veld, a Dutch member of the
European Parliament, said in a telephone interview from Washington, where
she was meeting with members of Congress on anti-terrorism and privacy
issues. "We have to sacrifice some privacy and some freedom, but people have
to have the proper means of redress to defend themselves against unnecessary
invasion of privacy or abuses of data by public authorities."

"The trade-off between technology and human rights is a tricky and tough
area," Gaultier agreed. "When there's a crisis, everyone will accept it. Six
months after the crisis, everyone will forget. You always have to be careful
how you deal with passenger rights."

The use of potentially intrusive monitoring systems -- such as those that
would record passenger movements and facial expressions and eavesdrop on
private conversations and toilet visits -- is a particularly sensitive issue
in Europe. Watchdog commissions here have engaged in transatlantic battles
over U.S. rules requiring airlines to report personal data about incoming
passengers to U.S. authorities.

Testing of most of the technologies in simulators is to begin this fall and
continue through early next year, Gaultier said.

The package of systems found to work is unlikely to be available on
commercial aircraft for as long as a decade because most would need to be
incorporated into the airframes of planes under construction. The cost of
retrofitting existing aircraft would be prohibitively high, according to
Gaultier.

None of the systems is more controversial than the onboard video and audio
sensors designed to detect erratic or suspicious behavior. Some critics
argue that the systems could be prone to false alarms or prove unrealistic
for commercial use.

Researchers at Britain's BAE Systems are attempting to compile a database of
algorithms to allow computers to differentiate between the
"micro-expressions" and facial tics of a person nervous about flying and a
person nervous because he's about to detonate a bomb.

Researchers at the University of Reading in England, meanwhile, are working
on the system that would quickly analyze such data and deliver it to the
crew and the pilot. "Airlines are afraid of this product," Gaultier said.
"They have to face marketing it to passengers."

As to whether this technology can be perfected to operate as envisioned,
Gaultier said: "We're just getting started. It needs a lot more research."

Gaultier said crew members would not monitor actual videos but would respond
to computer-generated signals warning of a potential problem in a specific
seat or other location. He said the video images could be destroyed at the
end of each flight.

As for other intrusions, "No video in the toilet," he said, "though they
would have microphones in the toilet." The monitoring devices could also be
used for detecting drunken or other unruly passengers, he said.

Gaultier's company, Sagem D?fense S?curit?, is developing technology to
improve security in communications between pilots and control towers and to
prevent cyber hacking into airplane systems, especially when commercial
aircraft begin introducing onboard Internet services.

Another French company, Thales Avionics, is testing a new
collision-avoidance system that would build on existing short-range systems
that warn a pilot when a plane is in imminent danger of crashing. The new
system could be programmed to avoid not only dangerous terrain such as
mountains, but tall buildings or cities hosting vulnerable events such as
the Olympics or political summits.

Gaultier refers to the system as "never again the twin towers." He added,
however, that "pilots will think that's an intrusion" because the system
would take control out of their hands in the event of a hijacking or other
emergency and allow the aircraft's computer system to guide the plane.

Other pieces of the SAFEE system would detect gases from a bomb being
assembled on a plane and use laser beams to detect potentially dangerous
chemicals that had evaded airport security checks.

But even with the new protections, Gaultier acknowledged, the system cannot
guarantee an end to terrorist attacks. "Security level zero never exists,"
he said. "It's crazy to say, 'I have a system that provides 100 percent
security.' "