Lax Airport Security?

Security breaches at Frankfurt airport have been an ongoing problem for many years, according to the German police union GdP. This could be traced back to the privatization of security measures, GdP head Konrad Freiberg told German media.

"You can't really even call it security with a clear conscience," Freiberg told the Hanover daily Neue Presse on Tuesday.

He was reacting to the announcement that German prosecutors have launched an investigation into a group alleged to have planned a terrorist attack on a passenger plane at Frankfurt airport last summer.

Freiberg said tests at airports by the federal police for years had shown error margins of 30 to 50 percent. He said it was "irresponsible" that these federal responsibilities had been privatized.

"This privatization has led to wage dumping," Freiberg said, adding that the quality of personnel had declined as a result.

Security should be a federal task

Airport security was only considered under the aspects of cost reduction and returns, Freiberg said. The current hourly wage was 7.66 euros ($9.80). This wage dumping led to high fluctuation in personnel and reduced the number of experienced well-trained staff.

In addition, the working conditions were not ideal, he said.

"Many confirm that the regulations for breaks are not adhered to, and there is pressure by the airlines to process the passengers as quickly as possible," Freiberg told Die Welt newspaper.

Overtime was the rule and the personnel were overloaded, he said. But security was a sector which required responsible staff. Freiberg said Germany should take the United States as an example, where airport safety following the September 11 terrorist attacks was nationalized.

"Security must be a sovereign task of the state," Freiberg told Die Welt.

Authorities are alert to further attacks

Stefan Kaller, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said Germany had to reckon with groups planning further attacks in Germany.

"This case is encouraging insofar as our security authorities are clearly very alert, very close to possible structures and, to date at least, have managed to intervene early enough," Kaller said on Monday.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said Monday it had questioned six suspects, suspected of asking an airport employee with security access to smuggle a suitcase full of explosives onto a passenger plane.

With the exception of one man in prison for rape charges, all suspects were released again on Saturday. No further details were available, but media reports said the bomb was intended for a flight by an Israeli airline, either El Al or a charter company. The suspects are allegedly Palestinians from Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon. They had lived in Germany as asylum seekers for the past five to six years, the reports said.

An unnamed security officer quoted in the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said the fact that the suspects were released indicated that no explosives or weapons were found in police searches of the suspects' apartments.

"The authorities had everything under control, no one has to be worried," the officer said. The searches and questionings were more "a signal of watchfulness than a sign that the plans had become concrete," he said.

Germany's federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, has now begun preliminary proceedings against the six suspects for membership in a terrorist organization.