Take Threats Seriously

Law enforcement efforts met with some derision in the recent past. When a small group of black Muslims was accused in Miami of hatching a harebrained scheme to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower, the charge became fodder for jokes. Although the allegation, did not result in convictions, it had to be scrutinized, investigated thoroughly, and if it had turned out to be an authentic threat, prevented at all costs. A terrorist does not need to have attended a training camp in Pakistan or be a military veteran to pose a real threat. Some plots become successful because law enforcement thinks they are so improbable that they only make halfhearted efforts to investigate them. Even after flight instructors became suspicious of men of Middle Eastern origin who wanted to learn how to fly large commercial jets but showed no interest in learning how to take off or land them, officials at high levels showed little desire to ascertain why and that contributed to three thousand deaths on September 11, 2001. The Washington D.C. snipers, Malvo and Muhammad seemed more like blunderers than steely-eyed terrorists but proved to be quite deadly. Every threat must be divined, evaluated, and thwarted.