And what if it went off?

That is the question I want to ask Janet Napalitano and others who algebra skills some how leads them to deduce that Mutallab’s failed attempt is a sign that Al Qaeda is weak and our security measures can protect us on airliners. Would they be saying the same thing if providence had not caused his failure or if passengers of flight 253 had not overpowered him? Of course not. No… they would be crafting a different way to bury their heads in the sand.

I don’t understand how anyone can look at this failed attempt as some form of a “policy victory”. The evidence hardly supports such a conclusion. Look at what we know. Mutallab is well educated, he attended a university in London; obviously not a moron. He holds radical views even though dozens of people were “surprised” by his actions; so he was hidden in plain sight. He was on the terror watch list but not the “no fly” list even though his own Father reported his radical beliefs 6 months ago to US authorities; once again our ponderous federal agencies and bureaucrats missed the warning signs.  And he was able to smuggle 80 grams of PETN onto an aircraft in his underwear; revealing that soft spots still exist in airline security. All of these tell one thing to me; we will always be vulnerable to “radical” as long as the “radical” exists. And our bureaucratic system of airline security is doing little if anything to dissuade their plans.

If we really wanted to impede them, we would adopt security policies like the Israeli El Al airline, but we won’t. No they are too intrusive, the ACLU would have a field day litigating all the “violation of rights” cases that arose.

Instead a “new” security measure will be instituted to make us all feel better. What will it be this time?  “Shoes” were the sacrifice of the day in the wake of Richard Reid, However, I’m not sure they will find as compliant a traveler this time if asked to render forth their “underwear”.

Threat containment has never worked 100% of the time. For every security measure there is a method to abate it. As is demonstrated by this latest incident. If we want to stop 100% of the threat we have to stop every “Mutallab” long before he gets on the aircraft. It would require us to employ measures that are contradictive to prevailing political correct attitudes… and unfortunately, it looks like it is going to take more than what we have been through on 9/11 and since to change those attitudes.

 

Thomas The Paine