Word: plotting
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Here's another lesson from London. Human intelligence routinely trumps fancy and often legally problematic surveillance techniques. The key to discovering the plot was apparently a citizen from Britain's diverse Islamic community who, in the days after last summer's bombings in London, overheard something troubling. He contacted authorities. An investigation took root. Imagine: a Muslim man sitting across from a British intelligence official at a café, off hours. They have little in common. Some would say they are natural opponents. But a thread of shared interest leads to the passing of information and, a year later, to saving...
...should be feeling safer right now. British officials appear to have foiled a plot to blow up as many as 10 U.S.-bound passenger jets with liquid explosives hidden in carry-on luggage. Another batch of alleged operatives has been discovered and taken out of commission. Several thousand men, women and children did not die ghastly deaths over the Atlantic Ocean. "This," said Republican Congressman Christopher Shays when the arrests of 24 suspects was announced last week, "was a good...
...understanding of terrorism. Do we continue to react reflexively to each new scheme, regardless of the probability of the threat and the feasibility of preventing it? Or do we have an honest discussion about risk and the costs of safety? After the discovery of the liquid-bomb plot, does it make sense to funnel billions more dollars into new machines that can detect liquid explosives, even though the past three sizable attacks pulled off by Islamic terrorists in major metropolises have been on trains in Madrid, London and Bombay? Banning cologne from planes and testing bottles of baby formula...
...clear-eyed equanimity about how to best manage risk is exactly what gets lost every time a new, harrowing plot is uncovered. The U.S.'s response to the London arrests is already drifting toward overkill, as men with badges ask moms to taste the baby formula and women hide lipstick tubes in their bras. Two days after the arrests, British authorities, who have decades of experience dealing with terrorist bombings, were complaining to DHS about an excess of caution. More than one plane from London was turned back, and at least seven British Airways flights had to be canceled because...
What's lost in the hand wringing about the vulnerabilities and security holes exposed by the London plot is how much the counterterrorism community got right. Over a year ago, Britain's MI5 launched an investigation that spanned at least three continents. Pakistani officials helped track the British suspects, and U.S. intelligence provided intercepts of the group's communications. "It was really a joint effort, the kind of cooperation you probably wouldn't have had before Sept. 11," says a U.S. official who is regularly briefed on terrorist threats...