Former head of security at Israeli airline El Al Isaac Yeffet said the United States needs more profiling by law enforcement to stop violent incidents in air travel Friday on The Cycle.
The tone of the interview became tense with the liberal hosts who were flummoxed when the aviation security expert suggested law enforcement should implement profiling strategies to detect potential threats and suspects.
Toure in particular pushed back against Yeffet, noting that the International Cheifs of Police have rejected racial profiling as an effective means of ensuring security.
Yeffet responded the reality is "people […] are coming here to attack," and there are certain queues and traits among suspicious individuals security personnel can pick up on.
Host Ari Melber criticized the broad scope of Yeffet's critique, observing that the shooting at LAX today was contained relatively quickly and was not relevant to the larger threat of international terrorism.
"[It is] a very big mistake to think like this, very big mistake" Yeffet said:
TOURE: I'm not sure how we get to reforms you're suggesting without removingtain amount of civil liberties for people who don't look a certain way. Which is not actual security, that is the illusion of security. The International Chiefs of Police say that racial profiling doesn't work and has no job in policing. But it seems you're suggesting that we need more profiling, that that's the answer.
ISAAC YEFFET: First of all, we need more, number two--
TOURE: More profiling.
YEFFET: Yeah, people that are coming to attack, they cannot be behave like you and me sitting here and talking and smiling, or angry. People are nervous. That you see that they do some signs between themselves. And you have to look at them to find out why they are nervous, why I'm walking slow when everybody is walking normal. Why [you] have to look on the side many times to find out if somebody is watching me or not. It's not complicated to train people to be able to identify somebody who looks suspicious, maybe you are wrong. I prefer him to be wrong and not to let him go without checking who he is and what is he doing in the terminal.
ARI MELBER: I think those are some of the security questions that you have a lot of experience in international context where there is grave and great security threats, on the other hand in contrast to what you have suggested, many people will look as we're early in the reporting consequence, but if these numbers stands, and we're talking about about six or seven injuries, one death and a situation that was contained in a relatively quick amount of time, many will look at this as tantamount to a domestic crime, not something that could have been far worse, not the breaching of the actual access to the airline. But we've had you on to discuss all of that, so thanks for being with us today.
YEFFET: Very big mistake to think like this, very big mistake.
MELBER: I'm saying thank you for being here.
Full interview: