Monday November 1, 2010

I've Been Thinking:

The ink cartridge bombs on UPS cargo planes out of Yemen that were discovered in Britain and the United Arab Emirates should raise concern and remind us that our security apparatus must be on constant alert.

Honestly, this was to be expected.

Within the world of security the literature has discussed this very situation for years. In this instance, intelligence was passed on to the United States via the Saudis. Cargo planes have always been a weak link and only recently have security and screening been shored up.

The vast majority of cargo leaving foreign countries travels on commercial planes - not cargo planes. That seems to have been exactly what happened in this case. Very little of that cargo is subject to inspection and what inspection there is, is not standardized. An envelope leaving Israel is not checked like an envelope sent from Dubai.

In this style of attack dry runs are always the precursor to the real thing. That is exactly what was happening here. Terrorists were testing us.

The other weak point is sea ports - security in the ports must be improved. This is an alarm, this is a wakeup call.

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