Bloody day job . . .
Surveillance, electronic or otherwise, works:
By late 2005, the probe had expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents. They kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters traveled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their scheme, according to interviews with U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.
The secondary and probably more drastic front in this war is the war on convenience and sense:
But here’s where today’s TSA response in airports and DHS’s raising of the alert status smacks of sense-think-and-respond (Steve DeAngelis preferred description of adaptive reactions, or ones that are dynamically re-rendered by learning in real time), but without the think part.
I mean, the parameters cited here are 1) US carriers, 2) right now, 3) liquids, and 4) carry-ons. That’s it. When the thínking part is abdicated, we’re into pure reactions, letting terrorists determine the timing, scope, venues, and methods of our response. Does that make you feel any safer? In control?
Ad hoc cosmetic sales in airport kiosks are now through the roof, but what happens when the next plot involves laptop computers?
Since it has been overshadowed by events in the UK, let’s not forget that some terrorism is local:
Two 20-year-old men arrested in Ohio were being held on Thursday on charges of money laundering on behalf of Hezbollah, authorities said.
And is it just me or is the media silence on the ethnicity or religion of the plotters some kind of plot in and of itself?
