Moxie,

I think it is a bit scary to read about all the cancelled flights. Some time ago it was chatter about a female "version" of the "shoe bomber." That must be a nightmare scenario!

Why shouldn't we look at the core of the problem and attack the HQ of terrorism? Tomorrow starts a terrorist gathering in Iran.

Best Premises,
Martin Lindeskog.
Gothenburg, Sweden.

I dunno, Mox. If we take as given that the bad guys are not idiots... doesn't it seem just as reasonable to assume that the good guys are not idiots, either?

Example: Much has been said in the past year or so about the sheer number of Arab terrorists who have crossed the various borders into Iraq for the sole purpose of attacking Coalition forces and Iraqi "collaborators" there.

So why haven't we done more to secure the borders?

The best answer I can come up with is that we don't mind having Iraq sit there in the middle of the Middle East and act as a big honeypot for terrorists, terrorist weapons, and terrorist money.

Likewise, if our guys are telling (ordering? I don't know the precise dynamics of the relationship) BA and Air France to cancel flights, I think it's safe to assume that they've thought through the implications of the media coverage of doing so.

Consider this hypothetical situation: say LAX really does stand for EWR. We know, because we broke the code, that chatter about a flight bound for LA really refers to a flight bound for Newark. What do we do? Why, we make a huge deal out of shaking down or even canceling all the LA-bound flights, of course! Meanwhile, we take a very close and very, very quiet look at Newark-bound passengers.

Intelligence and counter-intelligence is a complicated game. Sometimes it's important to make a large-scale, overt act that you know to be pointless to further the illusion that you have less information than you actually have.

I dunno, maybe I have an excess of faith. But I believe that the people who are running our intelligence and security operations are smart cookies.

Back atcha, Mox. Though not quite sure what this liberal is doing to earn your love lately. :)

Hear! Hear!

Why people are always bringing up that their civil rights are being violated.

I certainly would rather have a little less of that( I mean, what is that really? That I have to wait in line longer at the Airport, or that I am not getting the 'complete' news) Give me a 'brake'(no typo).

Let's have less information leaked to the Media if it means better security. What's the problem? Isn't that a no-brainer?

mox, have a little faith in our intel services. they won the cold war and broke japanese codes prior to the outbreak of hostilities. they aren't perfect, but it suits their designs to let the public think they are inept. true that 9-11 happened, but if you read the reports, the intel community actually did have a little bit of a heads up, they just couldn't believe the ludicrousnous of the report.... and i would have been suckered by the same thought.

jeff makes some good points.

it's a whole new game out there now.

in God we trust, all else are monitored.

this is the smartest thing ever to come out of this blog.

nice work

arf

coyote