Another Attack Foiled

The first thing I saw when I arrived at work this morning was news reporting of an attempted downing of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The individual alleged to have done it is a 23 year-old Nigerian. Depending on what you read, this person either did or did not have links to al-Qaeda.

Which is it? Either he did or he didn’t. It’s that simple.

One of the passengers had the presence of mind to go after this person and get the “burning object”, as I’ve seen it referred to, out of his hands. I’ve read in a couple of different reports where it was  a confirmed incendiary device. As far as I’m concerned, that was a ballsy act, although I doubt he’d see it that way.

The other question is whether or not this was a terrorist act. Again, it’s pretty simple: was it or wasn’t it? I’m inclined to go with an affirmative answer to that one.

This brings to mind a whole other thing that seems have been pushed into the background over the past year or so, at least to me because of what can only be termed “other priorities.”

We have a real, tangible war going on. Yeah – I know – we have troops on the ground both in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re fighting in both places. But the war being waged on us is one that goes way beyond that. And it is very difficult to defend ourselves in this one because of the way it is being waged. Think about it for a second: incidents like this, when they happen, are not random events. They really never have been; every time something like this happens, or when a suicide bomber cuts loose on an outpost anywhere that we have troops on the ground, or when the same thing happens on a street in any city in Israel, these events are planned. The people responsible – namely al-Qaeda and their associates – come out and say so pretty much every time something like this happens. All because, at least in my view, they would like to see Western civilization set back about 800 years.

Yup – gotta love Wahhabism – in the eyes of the Wahhabi we are all infidels.

My friend TOTWTYTR made a very good point. He likened the new precautions U.S. airports are taking to the barn doors being closed after the horse escapes. Realizing that the flight originated from a European airport – one that historically has strong security – this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But there is precedent for this happening now, and I suspect events like this will continue to drive a security policy that is reactive rather than pro-active and driven by the needs of passengers.

Wasn’t there an episode that grabbed the world’s attention last year at this time?