Scare In the Square

The recent arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the by a naturalized American citizen of Pakistani birth who attempted to plant a bomb in Times Square in New York City, could have been foiled by the federal government's own missteps in handling he case. Shahzad's name was immediately placed on the no-fly list when information about the sport utility vehicle parked in Time Square with a bomb inside it linked him to the vehicle, but he was able to buy a ticket on Emirates Airlines to Dubai. EA somehow failed to check the list, but federal authorities managed to stop the plane from taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport and arrest him. As far as I'm concerned, the system worked.

Nevertheless, right-wingers are complaining that the Obama administration should be held accountable for the fact that Shahzad still got on the plane or that a bomb was ever planted there. Do they really expect Obama to micromanage the New York Police Department? Or do Emirates Airlines's job of checking no-fly lists? Anyway, Shahzad proved to be rather incompetent in his execution of the plot. The bomb was poorly made, the timers were haphazardly installed, and the SUV was a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder bought off Craigslist. Why would anyone want to buy a seventeen-year-old SUV - a Nissan, no less - with cash and with no bill of sale?

The bomb didn't have to work, apparently, to have an effect. The fact that it was planted in one of the busiest urban intersections in America was enough to scare the Shinola out of everyone. By that criterion, the plot was a success. Similarly, it turned out that terrorists didn't have to launch an attack anywhere in America during the 2004 presidential election campaign to make us elect George Walker Bush to a second term and give Osama bin Laden a recruiting tool for four more years. All bin Laden had to do then was make a tape of himself.