International Herald Tribune Editorials - The right way to fight terror and Lagging on homeland security/Unprotected air cargo

International Herald Tribune Editorial - The right way to fight terror
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: September 10, 2007

From all the available reports, the German police did a great job breaking up a terror plot against American targets. The plotters were said to have amassed more hydrogen peroxide than was used in the London bombings in July 2005, as well as military detonators. The arrests came a day after the Danish police nabbed eight people in another, apparently unrelated plot.

Thinking about what might have been is always frightening, but the lesson of the European arrests is that sound police work is capable of combating terrorism without resorting to extra-legal or unconstitutional measures.

That isn't the only important lesson. The German plot is another reminder that hatred comes in all nationalities. The two suspects are Germans who converted to Islam and, acting out of a pronounced hatred of the United States, went off to Pakistan for training. They were identified as members of something called the Islamic Jihad Union, a radical group that purportedly split away from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

To some officials, all this demonstrated the recruiting prowess of Al Qaeda. But it is more likely that the two Germans, and their Turkish accomplice, were seized first by a pathological hatred of the United States, and then sought out the rhetoric of Islamist extremism, just as their predecessors in the Baader-Meinhof gang had affected the trappings of radical Marxism.

Once again we are reminded that terrorism does not always have a mountain hideout or an infrastructure that can be wiped out by a smart bomb. And the sad news is that hatred of the United States has grown, not abated, in the six years since the inferno of 9/11, due in part to the arrogant and misguided policies of President George W. Bush's proclaimed war on terror.

Certainly the hunt for potential terrorists must go on, with more and better international coordination. The struggle can be effective only if the authorities waging it remember that the enemy is not necessarily a single group, or an ideology. It can arise anywhere, and the hatred which feeds it must be attacked at the roots.

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Lagging on homeland security
Copyright by The nternational Herald Tribune
Published: September 10, 2007


In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government began the most sweeping bureaucratic overhaul in half a century. The result was the creation in 2003 of the Department of Homeland Security - a behemoth designed to consolidate 22 separate agencies and 220,000 employees into a ready shield against terrorists and natural disasters.

Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina glaringly and shamefully demonstrated the unreadiness of that shield. Now a new assessment by nonpartisan congressional investigators says that the department has failed thus far to meet even half the performance goals it set for itself when it was created. The only area of significant improvement was in maritime security, according to analysts from the Government Accountability Office.

To be fair, experts say the difficult task of consolidating the many rival bureaucracies will likely require two to three more years, and there has been moderate progress in some target areas.

The agency has proved far better at developing security plans than at implementing them. Even so, it has yet to meet Congress' demand for a comprehensive, national plan to respond to another major terrorist attack or Katrina-size disaster. Critical barriers remain in such basic areas as emergency communications, computer integration, border defense and an effective program for information sharing among the various intelligence-gathering agencies.

These failings were at the heart of the 9/11 disaster. And there's no reassurance to hear Homeland Security officials defend their slow progress, arguing that there has been no similar attack since. As another grim anniversary approaches, the GAO assessment is an urgent reminder of how much more still needs to be done,


International Herald Tribune Editorial - Unprotected air cargo
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: September 10, 2007


The 9/11 Commission warned that terrorists may try to place explosives in the cargo holds of passenger planes and urged that more be done to guard against such attacks. Congress recently passed a good law requiring that all cargo carried on passenger planes be screened, the way carry-on luggage is. But the Bush administration appears poised to ignore the clear language of the law and allow some shippers to inspect themselves. That would be a lawless move, and it would put air travelers at risk.

The new Democratic-led Congress, keeping a promise to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, passed a law to upgrade the lax security in the cargo holds of passenger planes. It requires that air cargo be screened at a level of security "commensurate" with the level of security for screening checked baggage. Congress left the screening method open, but it made clear that there must be an actual search.

Disturbingly, the Transportation Security Administration is talking about allowing sealed boxes sent by approved shippers to be loaded onto passenger planes without being checked. The TSA seems to think it will be able to determine that some shippers are inherently trustworthy. But that makes no more sense than deciding that employees of a particular company can board passenger airplanes with carry-on luggage that has not gone through metal detectors. The rule has to be: If it goes on a passenger airplane, it gets checked under government supervision.

Congress has passed a good law that would make air travelers safer. Now, the TSA needs to enforce it.