THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Dutch government is releasing results of its investigation into the failed Christmas Day terror attack on a U.S.-bound airliner that took off from Amsterdam.
Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst is holding a press conference Wednesday to outline a probe into how 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab managed to board the Northwest Airlines flightto Detroit from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
A preliminary Dutch investigation has said that all security checks were correctly carried out in Amsterdam before the flight left and American authorities cleared the passenger list that included Abdulmutallab’s name.
Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto the plane but failed to successfully detonate them.
A majority of MPs agree with justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin that the body scan must be introduced for all passengers at Dutch airports as soon as possible, reports Nos on Wednesday.
Most of the main coalition and opposition parties support the move for the body scans following the terrorist attempt to blow up a plane on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
Nevertheless, MPs stress that the scan alone is not sufficient as a security measure. The list of suspected terrorists must also be kept up to date, they say.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane in the US, was on a list of people ‘to watch’ in relation to terrorism although he was not on the so-called ‘no fly’ list.
There has been growing criticism that advanced body scan equipment, which is present at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, is not yet in use because of European Union restrictions.
According to many security experts, including those at Schiphol, such a body scan could have detected the explosives concealed in Abdulmutallab’s underwear.
Privacy concerns
However, the left wing GroenLinks and democrat D66 parties in particular are concerned about privacy. They want to know who will have access to the pictures made by the scans and how long they will be stored.
Hirsch Ballin said on Tuesday that he expects opposition to disappear if the body scans are operated automatically. This means guards will only look at the scan if an alarm goes off.
A spokesman for the counter terrorism office (NCTb) has confirmed that the minister wants the body scans to be operational as soon as possible, reports Trouw.
Hirsch Ballin spoke to the US minister for homeland security Janet Napolitano on the phone yesterday, reports the paper. ‘The safety of passengers must be top priority,’ he is reported to have told her. He wants the body scan to be introduced on a European level.
In the short term, passengers on planes to and from the US will be controlled by the body scan, said Hirsch Ballin. But eventually everyone on all flights to and from the Netherlands will have to go through the body scan.
At present tests are still being carried out with 15 body scans at Schiphol but the minister’s spokesman was unable to say when these will be used as a regular part of security controls, says Trouw.
