Morning Bell: Terrorism Threat Demands Smarter Security, Not More Money

Conn Carroll / December 29, 2009

Desperate to defect attention away from Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s “the system worked” comments, the left in Congress is attempting to blame conservatives for the attempted Christmas Day Flight 253 bombing. Democrats charge that leading conservatives voted against $4 billion for “screening operations” including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems. Leaving aside the fact that bomb detection in U.S. airports would have done nothing to stop a bomber who boarded planes in Ghana and Amsterdam, the left’s attack shows just how off base their approach to national security is.

The most effective means of stopping terrorist attacks is to disrupt them as early as possible. Relying on bomb detection equipment to thwart terrorism attacks allows these plots to continue far too long. The Flight 253 attack was the 28th foiled terror plot against the United States since 9/11. What is notable is that of the 28 failed plots, 26 were stopped by intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies. Only two were stopped by citizens on the scene— Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2009, and Richard Reid in 2001. In both these cases, America just got lucky—the plots were clumsy and the passengers and crew responded bravely and quickly. There are many valuable lessons to be learned from the failed Christmas attack on a Detroit-bound airliner; throwing more money at airline security is not one of them.

Lesson #1: U.S. Security Has Not Mastered Stopping the Threat of Individuals Carrying Bombs on Their Persons. This is a lesson al-Qaeda has already learned. That is why they tried the Richard Reid–style attack again—and they will keep at it until they are stopped or they figure out how to kill lots of people. (more…)