Germans tighten air cargo security after foiled bomb plots

GERMANY's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has tabled a five-point plan on how to improve air freight security aboard passenger aircraft in the wake of foiled Yemeni and Greek bomb plots.

"National measures are not very effective," said Mr de Maiziere, according to Berlin's Bild am Sonntag. "That's why, at my request, the interior ministers are going to discuss this question in Brussels," he said.

The German proposal includes an evaluation of airport security in countries outside the EU. Berlin also wants to set up a blacklist of airports considered to be a high risk, with special checks on air cargo coming from such hot spots, reports euobserver.com

The plan also calls for more common security standards within the EU and that suspicious parcels, such as the printers from Yemen sent to a Jewish community in the Chicago, trigger checks in future, said Mr de Maiziere.

The report said a working group of EU interior and transport ministers are set to come up with proposals in December.

Germany has already banned freight and passenger aircraft from Yemen after a bomb hidden in printer cartridges sent from Yemen passed undetected through Cologne airport, and was later discovered in England. The bomb had a remote-control device to blow up the aircraft mid-air. An Al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the plan and for a second parcel bomb found in Dubai.

Just a few days later, the German government was on high alert after it managed to detonate a mail bomb sent from Greece and addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel. A dozen other similar envelopes were sent to embassies in Athens. One sent to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made it onboard a cargo plane to Bologne, where it was detonated by security forces.

"Panic is not the remedy. We have to come up with a proportionate response and close the potential loopholes, but security can never be at 100 per cent," said EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas.
(Source:www.schednet.com)