Terrorists in our midst

Michelle Malkin is an expert on national security issues. She writes about the laser-pointer incident I referred to earlier:



"The Patriot Act makes it illegal for terrorists and anybody else to intentionally use a 'dangerous weapon' to screw around with a mass transportation vehicle or harm its driver/pilot/captain--or to do so with reckless disregard, or to attempt, threaten, or plot to do so. (Unfortunately, at least one dense judge has problems figuring out what a 'mass transportation vehicle' is. But that's another story.)

Enforcement of these provisions is not limited to terrorists. Nor should it be. If an idiot recklessly aims his new Christmas toy into a cockpit (at a time when airlines are on notice that al Qaeda may be doing the same), and if that idiot lies about what he did to FBI agents (by the way, kudos to them for tracking him down quickly), he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Read the damned law.

We are at war, fools. You really want to make this idiot a civil liberties martyr? Stop clucking and get serious."



Some of these raving liberals must think that our next terrorist attack is going to come from an aircraft carrier sitting in San Francisco bay. One of the many things we should have learned from 9/11 is that the method of attack we would least expect is the one we should most expect. These inventive terrorists have been using all sorts of unconventional methods in Iraq. What makes us think they would use a conventional method here? And why should anyone have a "right" to point a laser pointer at a commercial? Maybe this patriot was expressing his opinion regardaing the poor quality in airline service.