Looking For My Keys Under The Street Light

Anyone over the age of five has heard to joke about the man who seemed to be furiously searching for something under a street light.  Another man stopped him and asked what he was looking for.  The first man replied that he had lost his car keys across the street and was looking for them under the street light.  When asked why he was looking for his keys on one side of the street instead of where he had lost them, he replied that the light was better under the street light.  The story seems incredibly stupid, but think a minute.  That’s what we have been doing with national security in the war on terror. 

The New York Post posted an article detailing the history of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with attempting to blow up Northwest Flight 253 on Friday.  About six months ago, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father reported to the US Embassy in Nigeria that he was concerned about his son’s extremist behavior.  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on the US National Counterterrorism Center watch list in November.  Evidently no one chekced the watch list, and the airports in Nigeria and in Amsterdam did not sufficiently screen for explosives.  Any one of these measures, which are supposedly routine, would have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from getting his explosives on that airplane.  The only things that saved the people aboard that airplane were a faulty detonator and the quick actions of the other passengers.  What is the reaction of homeland security?  Instead of looking at the actions that failed–the lack of follow-up on a report of a potential terrorist and the insufficient screening of passengers overseas, they are going to futher restrict the actions of the fellow passengers!  There are reports that passengers will not be allowed to use the bathrooms or have personal items or blankets on their laps during the last hour of any flight.  Great!  So the terrorists will plan their activities for one hour and fifteen minutes before the flight ends!  This is the national security equivalent of looking for your keys under the street light when you actually dropped them across the street!

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