By now, everyone knows about last week's attemped bombing aboard a flight to Detroit that originated in Nigeria.
The event is already being framed as an issue of airline security. I'm reading headines announcing that full body scanning machines are on their way to airports, that TSA will be hiring more agents trained to detect behavioral cues that a passenger may be dangerous, and of course, tighter security screening and longer lines for everyone.
What's become apparent is that this could have been prevented. It's being reported that our intelligence agencies knew about the alleged bomber and had also gathered information that an attack was pending.
Sound familiar?
Nine years after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and we are back to square one. Our security services again failed to process information that increasingly looks obvious in hindsight.
After the Patriot Act, Warrantless Surveillance, Guantanamo, Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the waste of billions of dollars that could have been spent on something that would save thousands of lives (healthcare), we're still not safe.
But we're a lot less free.
The answer? It's not full body scanning machines.