Alas so, even though on the great Toner Cartridge Plot, Dan Drezner gets it right:
Quite so. International terrorism is hard and these guys are finding it difficult to match past “glories”. It’s a long way from 9/11 to stuffing explosives inside a couple of toner cartridges.Al Qaeda failed… again. Seriously, if al Qaeda is ostensibly the New York Yankees of terrorism, the Steinbrenners would have fired the GM and coach years ago.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a threat but it is posssible to be both wary of the security lobby and recognise that the security services have a tough but vital job. Contrary to what Melanie Phillips suggests, I don’t know many libertarians who think there’s no terrorist threat. That plots are foiled evidently often owes much to police and security efforts; that doesn’t mean that every security “precaution” is justified.
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