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Howard Karger, PhD is a Professor at the
University of Houston
Graduate College of Social Work.
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By Howard Karger, PhD
August 11, 2006
Had the terrorists downed ten 747s -- planes they might have chosen since they assure maximum kill -- they would have murdered almost 4,500 people. The carnage would have been mind-boggling.
Although the police and intelligence work in arresting the would-be bombers was first-rate, we can't count on them to uncover every possible plot. There are simply too many terrorist cells and too few police to monitor them. Personally, I don't sleep any better knowing one plot has been uncovered when there are dozens more in various stages of being hatched. Plus, I suspect that in the light of the capture, Islamic terrorists will rely more on 'cleanskins' -- people unknown to British and U.S. security services. Without strong connections to radical Mosques they will be harder to track.
Because of the foiled terrorist plot, carry-ons and liquids are now banned on flights. Are we safer? Maybe for a brief time, but definitely not for the long haul. The fact that security services figured out the liquid explosive angle only challenges Islamic terrorists to come up with other, more creative ways to foil airport security. The possibilities for smuggling explosives onto planes is almost endless. Like 'mules' transporting cocaine, packets of liquid or other kinds of explosives can be swallowed in rubber bags. Even more imaginatively, explosives can be carried under patches of false skin. While the possibilities are endless, one thing is sure -- terrorists will eventually find a way around airport security. The tighter the security the greater the challenge. It's like a chess game with only check, but no checkmate.
Experts often point to EL AL's stringent security system, which I can personally attest to. I've seen EL AL security personnel refund tickets to potential travelers who did not answer questions satisfactorily, or whose reasons for traveling to Israel were vague. EL AL openly profiles passengers, forcing political correctness to take a back seat to protecting life. On the other hand, EL AL has relatively few flights compared to large airlines like Continental, British Airways, American and United. It's questionable whether EL AL's time- and labor-intensive security system could be efficiently implemented on a widespread basis.
The commitment of Western nations to democracy and civil rights means that its citizens will necessarily experience a certain degree of risk. These risks are exacerbated when the porousness of democracy and the rule of law is ruthlessly exploited by terrorist groups that play by different rules. In that sense, Western nations are held captive to their own ideology.
It's no small irony that when Islamic terrorists operating outside Western -- but apparently not Sharia -- law are caught they loudly invoke their civil and legal rights. Cynically, radical Islamicists are expert at exploiting civil society, and I have no doubt that the 24 suspects arrested will vigorously pursue their legal rights under British law. I'm also certain that regardless of their guilt, many will be released due to circumstantial or weak evidence.
But the question remains. How should government balance its obligation to civil law while protecting the lives of its citizens? In other words, how much civil liberties are citizens willing to forego for security? That might have been an interesting question to ask the 4,000 people (and thousands of their family members) who would have perished if the plan unfolded. I know what my answer would be if I were dropping into the Atlantic from 35,000 feet.
The Islamic terrorists were successful despite being caught. They managed to virtually close down Heathrow airport to outgoing flights, instill tight security procedures worldwide, hurt the profits of airlines (many of whom are struggling financially), lower the value of stocks, and raise oil prices. The terrorists succeeded in grinding air travel to crawl. In short, they hurt the West economically without ever igniting a bomb. They also made the West sit up and notice. Terrorists need the public eye like a child needs the attention of his mother. Without it, both will wither from neglect.
As Daniel Pipes has pointed out, 'not every Moslem is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Moslem.' How can we deal with this fact without enacting various forms of discrimination, including ethnic and religious profiling. We can't. Democracy requires all people to be treated equally -- something the terrorists depend on -- which mitigates against profiling. Therefore, Larry and Kitty Lister, two Minnesota Lutherans, will be inconvenienced and scrutinized as much as Habib Al Jihad, a radical Moslem from Pakistan. Kitty will not be permitted to carry her purse onboard. They will wait on long lines to get through security, despite the fact that Minnesota Lutherans pose no risk for suicide bombings. Airline travelers will suffer due to a political ideology that refuses to differentiate between those that pose a high risk and ordinary citizens. In following this policy, average citizens and the economy suffer, and the terrorists will have achieved their goal.
Profiling is not enough. The flying public must be protected by technology that can help separate the potentially dangerous from the innocent. Moreover, we must refocus from finding objects to finding threats. This may require using standardized identity cards and online registration before passengers are even issued a ticket. Passenger identities can then be cross-listed against international databases. We clearly need to shelve the ridiculous system of raising and lowering threat levels. The threat is omnipresent. While these may sound like Draconian measures, we live in dangerous times. Widespread sting operations won't significantly lower the threat if we continue to allow terrorists to hide behind civil liberties and cries of discrimination.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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