Have a 'pat down' this holiday season? Don't be afraid to invoke the "P" word for better security.

As the holiday travel schedule ramps up, so does the fervor and objections over pat downs and invasive screenings at airports in the United States. People recently subjected to these "love pats," as a Senator from Missouri innocuously (and ridiculously) referred to them, are in for quite a shock if they fly anywhere where else in the world except, say, Cincinnati or Des Moines.

 As any frequent international traveler can corroborate, very intense and 'hands on' searches occur in almost every other international airport in the civilized world. Try flying through Frankfurt and not be subjected to a body search that even your family care doctor would find comprehensive. And these are not new procedures; I can remember the same thoroughness in place at Frankfurt, Heathrow and every Indian airport I have flown through for the last 5 years.

Why are Americans so indignant about the new procedures? Since when is flying a constitutional right? This is not healthcare; if you don't like the scrutiny you are subject to, you are welcome to use a car, train bus or boxcar. Inconvenient? Sure. But so is political correctness, it appears.

In this country we are so terrified to offend any person of any race, creed, religion or origin that we will go out of our way to inconvenience an almost total majority to show how fair and even-handed we are to any minority. This approach to security is 180 degrees different than the one the Israeli's take. You won't see any nuns, 80-year old grandmothers or 4-year olds being body searched. What you will see is a laser focus of their resources on the most likely and foreseeable risks to the safety of their citizens and the airlines. As I love to say, every decision you make is a microcosm of risk management.

 In American and European airports, in particular significant volumes of traffic moving through them have required their associated security procedures to rely mainly on technology for screening luggage and detecting passengers with ill intent. Israel’s security philosophy, however, is based on a blend of advanced detection devices and personal interaction with the passengers. Granted, the primary airport in Israel, Ben-Gurion International, handles only about 12% a year of what U.S. airports handle annually, yet here are still some lessons we can learn.

Passengers are questioned from the time they drive up to the airport, until they are ready to board the plane. Usually, each person is questioned two or three times by different security agents, to ensure the story is consistent. Arab or Muslim passengers get extra-thorough screening, as do non-Jewish tourists. The Israeli method does not limit itself to only the profile of the 'typical' terrorist (if they exist anymore), but instead spend time questioning or searching anyone who appears nervous, flustered, inconsistent or just not right.

No airplane has ever been hijacked from Ben Gurion since the Israelis are not shy about deploying the "P" word - profiling. In the U.S. that word is such a hot button since it is typically associated with another taboo word - 'racial.' So when you add 'racial' and 'profiling' together, you have the most volatile term in the American lexicon - racial profiling.

For very good reasons, racial profiling is wrong, and more importantly for security and safety reasons, it is inefficient. Terrorists are not stupid; they have started recruiting other willing accomplishes who are not the once, tried and true terrorist profile: young, middle-eastern, Muslim males. If we continue to focus efforts solely on this cliché of a potential threat, we will always be chasing yesterday's news - with disastrous consequences.

Ironically, since early January of this year, the United States has in fact introduced new requirements based on a travelers’ country of origin or citizenship. Citizen's from 14 countries — including Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria — are now required to undergo an extra search before getting on planes bound for the U.S. America. Profiling? Probably. Racial profiling? Definitely! I would argue that even enunciating and singling out these 14 countries is short-sighted and will ultimately be unproductive. If I was Al Qaeda, I would make sure that all of my next 100 recruits did not have passports from any of these countries. How easy would that be?

So what are your options this travel season? You can subject yourself to the patdowns or get your revealing full body scans (with you assuming the "I surrender" hands position), and "Say nope to the grope." Or, you can start to demand that we drop the inefficient, ineffective and politically correct way of American security screening: treating every traveler as if they were a possible terrorist. And instead, start to incorporate better and more efficient techniques from others who have learned and incorporate the art and techniques of risk management.

India Gets Into The Identity Race

I have spent the last 10 days in India concluding my 12^th visit in 7 years. I have seen quite a noticeable  progress in the rickety infrastructure each and every time I go, as India walks away from the past and races to the future. However, this time I saw progress in a different, less obvious way.

Last month, the Indian government rolled out the first country-wide AADHAAR ('foundation' in Hindi ) to an Indian resident. This will be a unique 12-digit identification number, like a social security number that ultimately all Indians will possess. The government hopes to complete and issue at least 600 million IDs to its 1.2 billion citizens by 2014.

Currently, there exists a limited quasi-social security number in India, however the government is intending to reach out to the rural and less connected masses as part of the program. Formalizing and documenting the 'official' identity of millions of the rural poor will, among other things, help them bypass more expensive money-lenders and tap into the formal banking system. What is unique about this initiative though is the format and approach to the effort, and how it dramatically differs from the similar process in the United States.

In the US, as you know, all babies at birth are issued social security numbers, along with a snappy little bluish-white paper card (that some people still bizarrely carry around with them!?) printed with a unique nine-digit number. As easy as it is to counterfeit or replicate it, some places, believe it or not, still ask for the card as some legitimate proof of identification – think of the DMV as you try to renew your driver's license. No surprise there.

The AADHAAR, however, will be printed on a smartcard or other official document that will include 3 factors of identification unique to the person: an iris scan, a photograph and all ten fingerprints. To get a number, Indians will have to physically go to an enrollment agency and submit their credentials that will ultimately be collected in a central repository.

Orwellian fears and privacy concerns aside, what this will mean to the Indian economy is monumental. Soon, millions of Indians who are otherwise prevented from participating in the growth of the sizable economy will now be plugged into the system and able to leverage money and services that were never available to them before. In turn, millions, maybe billions of rupees in revenue that would have gone to the black market or otherwise unreported (and untaxed) can now be put to better use. Think of the number of new jobs that will be created to both implement and support this system once it is effected.

These new jobs won't all be the classic government-teat-sucking positions that you might think they'd be. Software has to be developed and supported; card readers will have to be created and deployed. All areas of the private sector will be prodded to build new ways to accommodate and authenticate their customers across a number different mediums. The US should take note here as the rest of the world moves to smartcard technology, while we stick with traditional magnetic strip technology and easily forged driver's licenses.

India will face many challenges as it attempts to implement a process like this, as it does with almost everything else that happens in that country. What will be most interesting to watch is how and if it is  ever able to play catch-up and issue every citizen an AADHAAR.  With a target rate of 10 million cards issued every four months, and a population growth of 4 million new people every quarter, it will be a very tough race to win.