It must be understood that no matter their collective resolve, there’s absolutely nothing our governments can do to prevent such [9/11 and 7/7] attacks…
That said, we should still do everything possible to foil, and protect ourselves against, these attacks – even if that means installing Orwellian cameras and interrogating wannabe terrorists … aggressively…
With all of the consternation, if not derision, being expressed about these botched attempts, let us be mindful that it does not take a genius to actually pull-off a truly horrific terrorist attack….
[From New York to London, Islamists are terrorizing us to death, TIJ, July 2, 2005]
There’s a great deal of handwringing (and some finger pointing too) going on over the spectacular failure of post-9/11 security measures to prevent an al-Qaeda wannabe terrorist from nearly blowing-up a Northwest jet en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day. But I fear that, ultimately, only dumb luck will be our saving grace (as it was in this case – with all due respect to the passengers who finally jumped him after his detonator failed).
It is inexcusable of course that this close call ever even materialized; especially given all of the glaring red flags that trailed this nincompoop (his name is utterly irrelevant here) from his home in Nigeria right up to the ticket counter in Amsterdam. Consider, for example, that his own father warned US authorities over a month ago about his jihadist intent, that he paid for his $2,831 ticket in cash, and that he was even on a federal anti-terror watch list.
Never mind the fact that he managed to pass through several layers of security, including bomb-detection machines, with a syringe strapped to his thigh and explosive materials sewn into the crotch of his underwear.
Here’s to getting over prudish self-consciousness and welcoming all-seeing, full-body scans…. Mind you, nothing demonstrates what a haphazard farce airport security has become quite like the fact that, after the shoe bomber bungled his attempt in December 2001, we were led to believe that every passenger had to take off his/her shoes for separate scanning to ensure air safety. For if this made any logical sense, after this underwear bomber bungled his attempt, surely every passenger would have been required henceforth to take off his/her underwear for separate scanning…, no?
More to the point, it is patently delusional for government officials to think that preventing passengers from going to the bathroom for an hour after take-off and an hour before landing or from having anything on their laps, including blankets and books, during this same period will make us safe. A delusion, incidentally, that was made manifest when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano committed a “good-job-Brownie” faux pas by declaring on Sunday that the system worked fine.
Frankly, instead of implementing so many feckless and reactionary measures, US authorities would make flying a lot safer by properly investigating red flags, surveilling the usual suspects (according the profile of their established traits), and bombing the hell out of (known) terrorist hideouts in places like Pakistan and Yemen.
After all, far better to do everything possible to stop would-be terrorists from boarding planes than to impose all kind of silly restrictions on passengers in the vain hope of trying to foil their plans once they’re on board.
Meanwhile, the irony should not be lost on us that the mere fear of another 9/11 is causing Western leaders to turn our putative democracies into Orwellian police states. Which begs the question: Who do you think is winning the war against terrorism…?
NOTE: Our innocent Arab brothers can take some consolation from the fact that instead of focusing only on them, airport screeners and fellow travelers will now be focusing at least one of their suspicious eyes on black Africans. (And it really is a curious thing how one can easily distinguish them from black Americans and those of us from the Caribbean based solely on appearance….)
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…Islamists are terrorizing us to death
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