LOD, ISRAEL — Israel's top airport security official will make periodic reviews of anti-terrorist measures at Los Angeles International Airport under an agreement signed Friday during a visit here by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The pact, formalizing an arrangement begun nearly two years ago, will send the Israeli official, Nahum Liss, and two colleagues to Los Angeles for regular inspections as $1,000-per-day consultants. The officials work for the authority that operates Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Calling Ben-Gurion the world's safest airport, Villaraigosa said the agreement "is going to put us in a position to learn . . . to implement state-of-the-art technology and other measures to help us secure our airport."
Starting in the fall, Liss and his team will visit LAX about twice a year and provide additional consulting by e-mail, officials on both sides said. The team made a preliminary examination of LAX in October 2006.
The deal is part of an effort by city officials to upgrade security at LAX, which is considered the state's No. 1 terrorist target and has been singled out by the Al Qaeda network.
City Councilman Jack Weiss, who arranged the Israelis' 2006 visit, said the agreement is believed to be the first between a U.S. airport authority and a foreign government agency.
In the United States, federal authorities are responsible for security inside airport terminals.
But Gina Marie Lindsey, who signed the agreement as executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, said her agency wants to learn from Israel how to fortify the perimeter of LAX and how to incorporate anti-terrorist strategies into plans for expanding the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
In particular, she said, she wants to learn to apply Israel's system of electronic scanning of automobile license plates to identify terrorist suspects as they approach the airport.
During a walking tour of Ben-Gurion's 4-year-old international terminal, Liss pointed out to Villaraigosa and a large Los Angeles delegation the security features of its design. Bollards protect the building from wayward vehicles and its tempered, shatter-resistant glass facade is reinforced by vertical cables about a foot apart.
The terminal handles 55,000 passengers a day, about the same as the Bradley terminal.
