Editorial: Terror plot recalls 9/11

Friday, Aug. 11, 2006 | 7:47 a.m.

Travelers moving through airports were the first to think back to 9/11 early Thursday as word spread that British authorities had broken up a plot to bomb as many as 10 U.S.-bound planes.

Airport authorities, responding to Homeland Security Department directives, increased security at all checkpoints. For flights arriving from the United Kingdom, security was at red alert - the highest - for the first time since the 2001 attacks.

Lines began backing up, and guards with rifles stood ready at many airports. At least three states ordered National Guard troops to patrol their largest airports. Travelers were ordered to place any tubes or jars containing gels or liquids into bins before proceeding through the checkpoints.

Reports of canceled flights and passengers missing their flights because of the long lines became common on Thursday.

But it was all necessary. British authorities had been briefing President Bush and other top government officials for days on their investigation of the plot. After they made 24 arrests of people described as "British radicals," they went public with the news, triggering drastically heightened security measures throughout the United Kingdom and this country.

The plotters, apparently, had planned to bring chemicals disguised as shampoo, nail polish, contact lens fluid or other common products aboard various flights, combine them into volatile mixtures and ignite them with common electronic devices such as cameras.

U.S. intelligence officials said the plotters may have been just days away from carrying out their attacks. The close call reveals that the U.S. remains vulnerable to terrorism, and will be for a long time, despite the federal government having committed hundreds of billions of dollars to overhauling the nation's intelligence services and airport security.

We believe Thursday's scare should lead the Bush administration and Congress to rethink how the war on terrorism should be fought. While we are inordinately engaged in Iraq, which had no role in 9/11, plots against this country are taking shape elsewhere.

And as this reassessment gets under way, the White House and congressional Republican leaders should stop labeling anyone who offers alternative views as unpatriotic.

The Republican campaign rhetoric about their party having a superior commitment to national security and the war on terror is false and trivial, and a waste of time that we do not have.