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Updated 1.05 PM
AUTHORITIES AT DUBLIN Airport say they are aware of increased security at a number of airports, including the UK, but are continuing to operate as normal.
US authorities have said they are bolstering security at some airports in Europe and the Middle East that have with direct flights to the US amid concern that terror groups are developing new explosives to circumvent airport security.
US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced unspecified steps that would be carried out in “coming days,” without saying which airports would be affected.
A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority has said they note the comments but that passengers travelling through the airport will not notice any changes.
Passengers flying to the US go through the usual security checks in Dublin but are also checked for a second time by US officials. It is here that passengers may experience tighter security but it is up to the US authorities to decide at what hubs they will implement them.
After an assessment of security threats, Johnson said he had directed the Transportation Security Administration “to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States.”
Johnson said that “we will continue to adjust security measures to promote aviation security without unnecessary disruptions to the travelling public.”
The airports were located in the Middle East and Europe, according to an official at the Department of Homeland Security, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The announcement came before the US Independence Day celebrations on Friday but officials would not say whether authorities had uncovered a specific threat or plot.
“There will be enhanced security measures in certain airports that fly non-stop to the US,” the DHS official said.
“We’re targeting certain airports abroad… based on real time intelligence,” the official added.
The new measures would be designed in a way to avoid creating major hassles for travellers, without signaling to potential terrorists what those steps would be, officials said.
“Information about specific enhancements is sensitive as we do not wish to divulge information about specific layers of security to those who would do harm,” said a second DHS official, who asked not to be named.
The official said authorities “may require some additional screening of persons and their property, so travelers should always arrive at an airport with plenty of time for screening to be sure they do not miss their flights.”
Media reports said the additional screening could apply to shoes worn by passengers and electronic devices.
In the UK, the Department for Transport (DfT) said late Wednesday that it would “step up some of our aviation security measures” following the warning from US security chiefs, the Guardian reported.
“For obvious reasons we will not be commenting in detail on those changes. The majority of passengers should not experience significant disruption,” a spokesman told the BBC.
US counter-terrorism experts in recent months have said there is cause for concern that extremists have come up with new tactics to avoid detection at airports.
Just Sunday, US President Barack Obama warned that “battle-hardened” Europeans who embrace jihad in Syria and Iraq threaten the United States because their passports mean they can enter the country without a visa.
“We have seen Europeans sympathetic to their (militants’) cause travelling into Syria and may now travel into Iraq, getting battle-hardened. Then they come back,” Obama warned in an interview that aired Sunday on the US broadcaster ABC.
These combatants “have a European passport. They don’t need visas to get into the United States,” he told the program “This Week.”
“Now, we are spending a lot of time, and we have been for years, making sure we are improving intelligence to respond to that.
“We have to improve our surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence there. Special forces are going to have a role. And there are going to be times where we take strikes against organizations that could do us harm.”
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Other than beef producing, what do we do competently?
@Chutes: We have excellent engineering capabilities in this country. We need better ways of encouraging startups and support them. Enterprise Ireland and the likes are outdated and put people off using them.
@David Corrigan: Totally agree! I’m sure we’ll export the talent instead though as per the usual FFG playbook.
@David Corrigan: Shame there’s nothing to build.
@thesaltyurchin: Yeah, you right! It’s not like we have a housing crisis or a (insert crisis here) now is it.
May I ask why the comments on the article about refugees have been turned off?
@Paul Furey: No not hate, a concern by many that others are been preferentially treated over Irish people.
@Paul Furey: There was no hate in any comments on that report Paul. People were just discussing the report in a mannerly way.
@Dave Huston: Uhmmm, sure, let’s go with that! LOL!
@Dave Huston: Some people are preferentially treated over others, such is life.
@Clark Hetherington: Probably an indication to those posting ignorant comments that enough is enough, idk tho!
@thesaltyurchin: “the poor will always be with us”
Not only are we avoiding regulating these big tech companies, we allow them set up data centres that offer no tangible benefits to the state. We give them cheap electricity and tell the ordinary plebs to conserve their power.
@James Groden: hmm I wouldn’t always be first to defend our approach to big tech – but I’m not sure it’s quite as bad as you claim – the data centres aren’t just given free lower and offer Jo direct benefits for the country – these are the engines for our largest Foreign Direct Investments into Ireland – there are literally hundreds of thousands of jobs created in the past 20 by tech , not to mention the billions in tax take for Ireland from these digital services for Europe/Mid East /African markets / its grands ya want to rant away but a bit of perspective on the actual benefits please / in the 80s there was chronic unemployment and need to emigrate / if building data farms and attracting billions investments into Ireland is the solution they far far far outweigh the challenges
@James Groden: You wont find a ‘private-sector peg’ big enough to fill the endemic incompetence of successive Irish politicians.
Back door censorship
@Dave Huston: You don’t like the back door Dave?
We have elevated the establishment of toothless, incompetent regulators to a high art in Ireland. GSOC, the DPC, An Bord Pleanala, The CPCC, the CRU, and so on and so on. If I were a cynic, I’d say that it’s almost as if the state is captive to so many powerful lobbying interests that it doesn’t want to intervene at all. Given how shamelessly the country has pimped itself out to big American tech companies in exchange for corporation tax and a few jobs here and there, could it be that these companies have set up their European headquarters in Ireland precisely because of how accessible our politicans are, and how weak our regulatory institutions seem to be?
@Eric: big tech are one some of the biggest amount of lobbying for all governments in a massive scale – probably even surpassing pharma in the states and mainland Europe – we are small beer by any measure in the lobbying stakes / even the most recent A.I. Inititatives are watered down at eu level by excessive amounts of lobbying
Oh no, Leo and his cronies are going to upset one of their two daddies. If I was a betting man I’d say they’ll upset birth daddy EU by doing absolutely nothing but uttering a few hollow words in this particular situation, leaving step daddy Tech pleased, but then they’ll appease EU daddy by promising them that they’ll take a load more migrants in to help further their plan to prop up the European economy and use their subservient media to crank up the finger point and accusations of racism at any natives that don’t just play along with it all.
@Zim Zimma: Daddy issues Zim?
All big companies, are untouchable in Ireland and only the small guys get screwed in all industries. Ask Joe and Mary citizen, they get screwed daily and no justice for them either!
Not aligned to any party but something has to change. That been said sf may bankrupt us given power and a lot of people are reluctant to give them a go given their origins. But we need to get elected officials that really care about the people. I’m only 30′s but I have never seen so much of a divide in this country criticise immigrants and your branded far right defend and ur total establishment. We go on about how divided the US is but we are well on our way to that. The vast majority of Irish people have no probelm helping genuine people in need of help. It’s the unknowns that is rightfully striking fear amongst people that combined with the fact we have our own citizens living homeless or in emergency accommodation. This boom of non Ukrainian refugees is due to UK not having it anymore so they come here. We need to start to find solutions soon otherwise the country will be so divided there may be no way back to been a united population never mind getting a full united Ireland.
We are trying not to rock the boat with the big tech companies that are here in Ireland providing jobs for the masses!
Which side are the ICCL on anyway? They appear to support the agenda of foreign governments, who covet our success with FDI, rather than our own. Then some scaremongering about chatbots taking over the world. Eimear! Are you ChatGPT?
@chutes: My father is dead, so no can’t say I have. Anything else?
@Zim Zimma: Yeah, there’s always the chance of such a reply. Not right now Zim but I’ll keep ya posted if stuff rocks up ya’know!
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