Security: overconfidence; thing that guards or guarantees...

"This is a stupid game and we should stop doing it", scoffed Bruce Schneier, a security expert. Referring to all the slapped-on security band-aids countries anxious to comply with U.S. air travel security are succumbing to - and more specifically to the reactive new security steps taken within his own country, the United States. Authorities in the field of security and the U.S. administration taking these urgent paste-on steps to assure the public that they are in total control, and there will be no further slip-ups on this file.

It's tough taking that kind of hit from those malign forces focused on imposing terror in the U.S. - and throughout the world, as an after-thought. And let's face it, it takes nothing more than a little bit of intense planning to execute even a failed caper to ensure that a certain level of barely contained panic ensues, building on the general impression of al-Qaeda and affiliates languidly and inexorably unfolding their arsenal of dread attacks against civil society in the West.

That, in a nutshell, is what their agenda is, is it not? And haven't they succeeded admirably. Emblazoning their intent on just about every public mode of transportation, but above all, on the mechanics of flight, the very means by which an international community travels and communicates. Using the very technological advances pioneered and utilized by the West and available everywhere - particularly inclusive of the Internet - as tools of their deadly trade.

So we see a frail white 4', 10", 90-lb., 85-year-old woman at Ottawa International Airport travelling from Ottawa to Toronto no less, suffering from osteoporosis, singled out for 'random' special scrutiny, asked to unzip her trousers and bare her stomach for close examination by a female security officer. This is seriously impartial is it not? Just about as remote from ethnic or religious profiling as you can get? Extremely useful.

Which explains to a great degree precisely how and why we are such easy targets.

There is, for another example, Israel's much-vaunted airport security system, a progressive analytical regimen for an embattled country with the highest-threat airport in the world. Whose multi-layered protocol of security has ensured it has had over three decades without violent incident. Their response is intelligently proactive, focusing largely on the human factor; professionally scrutinizing individuals for clues to identity and intent. And giving short shrift to the absurdity of evading ethnic profiling.

And then there is the vast smorgasbord of security as measured by the needs of other countries of the world, most of which rely on technology, with scant needed attention to suspicious behaviour through monitoring 'micro expressions'. Ironically, a spin-off Israeli security firm, Pro-Check International - using a system based on profiling and assessments of potential threats (age, name, origin, behaviour), plus allied technology - was being used at the airport where Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded his flight to Detroit.

Despite his age, name, illogical travel route, last-minute high-priced one-way ticket and absence of luggage, the security supervisor passed him through to the flight. But not to worry; lesson learned. Full-body scanners are now being put in place in airports around the world. Scanners that experts doubt would have detected the explosive material that this Nigerian would-be suicide bomber had sewn into his under-drawers. Nor would they detect lethal materials held, say, within the rectum. Ah, those enterprising bombers...

Coincidentally, and it is purely coincidence, Israel has upgraded its own international travel security, introducing a new biometric screening system, a high-tech system that will speed up security processing and check-ins, according to Israel Airports Authority. In any event, the real story of the real difference between Israeli security and that undertaken elsewhere, is that the protocol initiates prior to airport entry, and along every step of the way; inside and outside the terminal, on through to check-in and departure.

Whereas elsewhere, security is undertaken through checks in a more cursory and less thorough manner from airport check-in at the airline booth, to customs, and finally x-rayed, metal-detectored, and showing of boarding passes, representing the new, upgraded security systems. Where a new, albeit slight emphasis is being given to scrutinizing individuals for tell-tale symptoms of ill intent.

And squeamishly paying especial attention to obvious tip-offs like gender, age, ethnic origin, religious accoutrements, nervous tics, and unusual circumstances. Here's hoping....