Terrorist Plot Thwarted; Improving Airline Security

Thanks to excellent counterterrorism and surveillance, America and Britain narrowly avoided what looked to be a horrendous terrorist attack. Details are still surfacing, but signs point to Al Qaeda as the likely plotters.

We should all applaud the efforts of the CIA, British intelligence, and other parties who played a role in exposing the would-be jihadists. Thousands of lives likely were saved due to their collective action. At the same time, this should greatly quiet the leftist voices clamoring against counterterrorist measures such as the Patriot Act. Of course individual rights must be protected, but not to a complete libertarian extent that thwarts all efforts at preventing mass murder. Wiretapping and intelligence gathering clearly works, and the Western world has become resultingly safer.

On a related note, though, I strongly disagree with the new safety measures just implemented by the major airlines. Not that the new measures (no carry-on luggage whatsoever allowed in Britain, and no carry-on liquids allowed in America) won't work. But they turn flying into an extreme hassle, whereas a much easier and far more effective terrorist-prevention method indeed exists: profiling passengers for jihadist tendencies.

Let's face it - for non-jihadist travelers, very few security measures are actually needed. There could be no security checkpoints, no identification needed to fly, planes with fully open cockpit doors, and plenty of plastic knives in cabin service, and yet non-Islamofascists would still present almost no terrorist risk whatsoever. Why? Because jihadist beliefs are essentially the sole catalyst.

So instead of wasting time screening the carry-on luggage of people with virtually zero chance of committing attacks, the airlines could prevent terrorism simply by identifying jihadists via targeted pre-boarding questions. Of course, no system is perfect, and hence additional safety measures are needed. But there are plenty such procedures that add significant security without ridiculously inconveniencing passengers: X-ray baggage screening, locked cockpit doors, shoe inspections, passenger bag matching, and the like.

But to create major traveler difficulties by banning carry-ons, all while avoiding the much better tactic of profiling jihadists due to PC concerns, is a very poor way to respond. America needs to follow the lead of Israel's national airline, El Al, which has profiled potential terrorists for years with outstanding success. For truly safer skies, airlines must ignore political correctness and simply choose a strategy that works.