A new Quarterly Opinion was posted 4 January.

 

 

The attempt by a Nigerian Muslim to bomb an American jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day illustrated, yet again, Global Jihad’s fixation with striking at commercial aviation, which it correctly sees as the circulatory system of the global economy.  The failed attempt is replete with lessons for US counterterrorism officials, who, if they fail to change their ways, will bear responsibility for the tragedies that surely are in store.

 

One thing we need to do is expand dramatically our no-fly list, which currently is understood to number about 10,000 and our selectee list (list of people who bear intense scrutiny when they fly), which is believed to number about 14,000.  Our government has to abandon its apparent belief that entry into the United States by Muslim militants is a right that can only be abridged through a kind of due process.  Suspects simply must be kept off aircraft bound for the United States.  There is no technological quick fix. 

 

We also need to begin immediately to make more extensive use of profiling techniques to screen US-bound passengers.  Granted, profiling is not politically correct, and, certainly, not all young Muslim men are jihadists.  But, overwhelmingly, jihadists come from this demographic, and persons fitting this profile should be scrutinized closely.    

 

Pending a serious program by the US government and its Western counterparts to improve intelligence/security efforts and make much more extensive use of profiling, corporate travelers’ only recourse is to select airlines from relatively neutral countries for flights inbound to the United States—the flights that bear the greatest risks.

 

 

Mike Ackerman’s book, Counterterrorism Strategies for Corporations, is now available at $15 per copy (price includes shipping).  Please contact Yolanda Merced at 305-865-0072 to order signed copies.