Algerian passengers face tighter checks on US-bound flights

The United States has decided to set up a second series of stringent control measures at their airports, added to those established in the aftermath of the aborted attack, ten days ago, on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. 

• The US government has announced that visitors from several countries will be subject to new airport security screening procedures.
• Beginning of Monday, all passengers flying from or via at least 14 countries, including Algeria which is on the list of risky countries along with Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, will be patted down and have all carry-on luggage searched before boarding flights bound for the US.
• The move is part of the security measure to fight against Al Qaeda on the US territories. According to U.S officials Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man, was arrested after being accused of carrying a bomb sewn into his underwear on to a Northwest Airlines from Amsterdam to Detroit.
• Abdulmutallab, who had got through security screening, was subdued by passengers and crew after allegedly attempting, unsuccessfully, to detonate the bomb on board the plane.
• The US president, Barack Obama, said on Friday that it appeared Abdulmutallab was a member of Al-Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the group in Yemen.
• The US government is investigating why its intelligence agencies failed to stop Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane but on Sunday, John Brennan, the deputy national security adviser, said that while some errors were made in tracking him, there was no one piece of evidence to help officials connect all the dots.
• The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said in a statement; “ Because effective aviation security must begin beyond borders… every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening”.
• “The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on US bound international flights,” the US agency responsible for air security measures added.
• Now, at the directive of the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), applicable from Monday, January 4, all the Algerian passengers will be subject to enhanced and full body screening as well as manual inspection of their personal luggage.
• After France, now, it is the US authorities’ turn to tighten their controls on Algerian passengers.