Call Me Crazy, But ...

... is it perhaps time we took a step back and rethought this whole anti-terrorism response thing? At least, as it applies to aviation? Last November, if one asked the TSA about ‘full body scanners’ the response would have been, ‘We’re testing them.’ Truth is, fuller implementation was the plan, but civil liberties groups and others asking responsible questions led to the program having a low profile. Then Christmas in Detroit … what a difference a day (or a terrorist gone awry) makes. All of a sudden, we can’t make ‘em fast enough. Your airport needs full body scanners? How many? Don’t worry, Congress is printing dollars to pay for them. (The same U.S. Congress that for years since 9/11 has continually tripped over itself in its responsibility to fund the security infrastructure it mandated via the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.) We had an incident at Times Square this past weekend. Sounds like we got lucky. Bigger point is, the New York police and FBI seem to have done a great job of jumping on this and getting some answers – and a suspect (on an airplane, at an airport). Almost in an instant, some six to seven individuals (per latest report) in Pakistan are implicated as well. It appears that intel works. [A caveat: My associate Frank Borelli, editor of Cygnus sister media outlet www.Officer.com, cautions that “while intel works, we need to remember that the suspect was on the plane and TSA had committed a major faux pas by allowing him to get that far.”] Let’s think this through. If the bomb had blown off in Times Square, would we subsequently have had full body scanners around every town square in the U.S.A.? Or what other draconian restrictions would we think about putting in place? In effect, this is what we have done around airports? To what end? If nothing else, the Times Square incident offers perspective (and, fortunately, no victims). I like the intel thing … it seems to work when it works. Maybe if we dedicated more resources to it, it would work more often. I’m thinking it might be time to open up the airports to free commerce again, and spend our taxpayers dollars on more intel and presence of local law enforcement at our nation’s airports. Local law enforcement actually has a history of playing a big role in airport security through the years (a fact about which the Transportation Security Administration had to be educated initially). If the Mall of America in Minneapolis is the victim of a terrorist attack, do we have full body scanners at all malls across the country? If a child day care center is the victim …. ? If … ? The intent is not to be trite. There’s a bigger picture here. Not sure we’re focusing on it. Curious what others think. Thanks for reading. jfi