If you travel frequently then you surely on many occasions stumbled upon airport security. This form of control is supposed to aid in preventing nefarious characters with malicious or dubious intentions from entering or leaving countries. Airport checks arose since the 70’s due to the fact that rising forms of terrorism have been a problem for air travelers and air companies as plane hijackings and bombings became a method of choice for various militant organizations. Although security at airports has always been tight the 9/11 attacks brought about the realisation that airport security isn’t without flaws. Apparently there are numbers of ways and practices to pass through the security at airport checks, other than the regular ways an ordinary tourist would go through.
When thinking how many people use air travel, is airport security tight enough?
It happens that WikiLeaks released into the wild two internal CIA documents about how airport security measures can be bypassed or evaded, I guess that this knowledge is now available for everyone to “research”. The said documents teach CIA agents what to do and how to do it with the goal of being able to fool airport security checks while in transit from country to country by employing fake passports and not blowing their cover in the process. These documents reveal other facts such as tricks and tactics used for preventing secondary and sudden checks that can occur at times and pass them when they occur. The examples depicted in these documents are taken from CIA field work designed to help operatives prepare more efficiently for such trips, as well as other examples depending on the visited countries.
Devices are also mentioned in the documents, highlightning the fact that smartphones, iPods and MP3 players increase the vulnerability factor when the border control officials can establish a link between these devices and the true names of the travelers that use aliases. I guess it poses a pretty high risk if say, a smartphone is under subscription under one name and the subscriber that’s using it presents the passport under the alias. The documents mention in such cases that agents maintain their cover stories by acting according to the roles they play. Basically, put a complete show by dressing, talking and even packing according to the character they play. The EU Schengen space which CIA agents also have to infiltrate is also mentioned in these documents.
Although rather old(2011 and 2012), these documents offer an insight over the extent of how much effort CIA devotes into making sure its covert affairs aren’t put at risk by airport security checks. But at the same time, one is left to ponder: Because the public status that WikiLeaks has now given these documents, will they provide fugitives, dangerous militants or travelers with hidden agendas of malicious nature a textbook on how to maintaing their cool during airport checks?