Aviation Security Conference Closed to Undesirables (such as the media)

[Ian David]

A bleary eyed reporter could be forgiven for wandering into the wrong government conference in the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center at 8:15 on Monday morning. The Hilton Alexandria is an infernal labyrinth just west of the Pentagon. It abuts a highway, charges exorbitant rates at its snack shop and, over the next two days, will host nine jargon-filled conferences.

The one I was trying to get into was the eighth annual Airport Security Summit, co-sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and organized by the World Research Group (WRG), a company that makes much bank putting together conferences like this. Price to attend the two-day summit: $1795.

But WRG promised to deliver. The company had assembled a brain trust of experts from airports, airlines and government agencies to talk about travel and security issues such as the registered traveler program, RFID luggage tagging and ways to stop bad men from shooting shoulder-launched missiles into planes. Rafi Ron, the former security chief of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, would chair the summit. Ron, who now works as a private contractor and has done business with Logan Airport in Boston and San Francisco International Airport, has been instrumental in bringing Israeli-style profiling to aviation security. Check out an NPR interview with Ron here and the conference agenda and downloadable brochure here.

Too bad this very public conference suddenly became very closed to the press. This about-face occured precisely as I showed up. I'd hoped to listen to John Sammon, the assistant administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, kick off the summit with a presentation on "current and future aviation policies and regulations." Although I hear Sammon underwhelmed, I wouldn't know. I was barred from entering the conference by WRG-coordinator Pamela Masselli, a nice enough woman who has no business playing gatekeeper to an open conference where government officials discuss issues that affect all Americans (If the government wants to hold a meeting behind closed doors, no one's stopping it).

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And why is The Wall Street Journal's name plastered all over the conference literature? Any Journal reporter worth his salt would look sideways at having his paper's name bandied about by a for-profit government security meet-up that locks out the media. According to Masselli, The Journal isn't co-sponsoring the conference (despite what the brochure says). The Journal merely offers a discounted rate on subscriptions to conference attendees. I'm still waiting to hear back from The Journal on their exact relationship with WRG and the security summit. Masselli also told me that no other reporters were admitted to the conference.

More:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/02/aviation_securi.html