for what it's worth
al quaida have made a point of attacking symbolic governnent and commerical targets associated with the u.s. government:
the world trade center in new york, the pentagon in washington, the the u.s. embassies in tanzania and kenya, the american warship in yemen, (commerical) military housing in saudi arabia.
so far, they have not targeted american "civilians" in the same way hamas has targeted israeli ciitzens, or the indigenous british muslims targeted their fellow citizens in loundon. however, al quaida is thought to have mounted attacks on civiians in saudi arabia and jordan.
this does not mean that al quaid will never attack non-government people in the u.s., but they have not done so yet.
furthermore,
it seems reasonable to believe that if al quaida could have attacked another symbolic target in the u.s. after sept, 20-01, they would have done so.
my suspicion is that they are far too weak and have had their operations too much disrupted by american, european, and asian policing efforts, to be able to conduct operations against american citizens and non-symbolic targets.
they may still succeed in targeting american "civilians" here, or, more likely, american tourists abroad.
but so far they have not demonstrated any inclination or capacity to do so.
that being the case, it seems reasonable for police and other public safety and surveillance organizations to be watchful, but i doubt there is much use in engaging in extremely detailed search techniques such as going thru peoples handbags as they enter the subway, as was done in new york revcently.
it seems to me there is a kind of "risk calculation" here that needs to be done by public security agencies.
one suspects, though, that the cost of a mistake on their part would be so damaging to their organization and their careers that no public secruity organization would dare take a chance on not checking suspicious things or people.
test
Posted by Tester at February 27, 2006 02:29 PMHere is a blog where they not only claim that opposing the Iraq War = anti-Americanism, but they claim to be able to beat progressives in debate.
If you have time, please help me go there and pound these right-wing nuts..
The MSM has it's corporate ratings hand in this also, with headlines like "Bird flu fears" and "Rison scare".
After 911, locks should have been put on cockpit doors, government agencys ordered to talk to each other, funding to terrorists stopped, and people told to keep their eyes open.
This monumental over-reaction has made things worse.
Posted by TIKI AL at February 27, 2006 07:40 PMThese alerts in Los Angeles are being pulled by someone in charge. They are timed too well. After all, any time in the last 220 years an explosive package bomb, or lookalike, could have brought things to a standstill.
"After 911, locks should have been put on cockpit doors,"
WHY are there cockpit doors? Why don't the pilots get in through their own door in the fuselage? Anyhow, pilots' union wanted locks on the doors in the 1960s, and were ignored. Why?
Same reason all the time. It costs $6 to inspect a container. Inspect millions of containers, and it comes off the bottom line.
Blow a half trillion on an oil scheme, and save the $6 that saves civilian lives. That's Bushery in a nutshell.
Posted by Paul in LA at February 27, 2006 10:20 PM