In his article regarding the political and social implications of terrorism in the United States, Niskanen argues that the government is creating hype over a threat that he sees as being of little concern.  Between following current events and having a father who was in the intelligence community, I have to say that both his opinion and the viewpoints presented in his article are extremely close-minded.

Niskanen brings up the topics of search and seizure as a provision of the Patriot Act.  While there is room for abuse of items such as Section 215 and 218, the legislators and officials who drafted the Patriot Act had several key points in mind, the foremost being streamlining communication and collaboration of federal agencies in investigations of all types of crimes.  There has always been contention between the three branches of the government and their agencies.  The agencies have historically been opposed to cooperating and sharing intel with sister agencies.  This failure of communications have led to lapses of critical intelligence being spread around.  Knowledge of plans for numerous terrorist attacks including 9/11, the 1993 WTC bombing, and the African embassy bombings existed within an agency but the information was not made available to the other agencies that possessed related information that would have been critical for attempting to prevent the events.

The Patriot Act may be too thorough if anything, but it can certainly be seen as justified due to the fact that the intelligence community was failing to accomplish its goals.  Sweeping legislative actions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other nations has proved essential in foiling numerous attacks (especially in Europe).  What is commonly overlooked is the fact that while legislation like the Patriot Act opens the doors for the government to monitor its citizens, numerous safeguards and restrictions were written into the Act, limiting the power of the agencies.  A very strict chain of command and guidelines must always be followed.

Niskanen's argument regarding air travel security was absolute hogwash.  I realize that this article was written in 2006, but there have been numerous instances of dangerous situations averted due to improved security.  There seems to be a real disconnect with many people that terrorist organizations adapt and alter their methods based upon what current situations dictate.  There is a shift now from armed takeovers of planes to creating explosions using nearly undetectable explosives such as PETN (the explosive used in the improved toner cartridge bombs just two weeks ago on the Fedex planes).  With the arming of pilots, placing more air marshals on flights, and creating passenger awareness, it has become more difficult for terrorists to use their previous tactics.

Terrorists also realize that using conventional and homemade explosives is disadvantageous (as the Bojinka plot of 1995 showed) so they have adapted.  If you are not scared, you should be.  PETN is completely undetectable by explosive-sniffing dogs, x-ray scanners, and puts out very little detectable chemical trace.  The amount used in the toner cartridges was around 12-14 ounces.  This much PETN is able to create an explosion with a diameter of around 50 feet.  Had one of the bombs gone off, there would not have been much evidence that the plane carrying it had ever existed.

The only reason those bombs were stopped:  Intelligence.  The Saudi's intelligence agency passed information along from a double agent within Al-Qaeda's wing in the Arabian Peninsula on to the Western intelligence community.  A bulletin was sent out with  tracking numbers for the packages in question that contained the explosives.  The packages were scanned, sniffed, and had numerous tests conducted on them.  Each time, they were cleared.  American officials demanded that the packages be opened even after they had been cleared and the explosives were discovered.

There is a significant threat that is absolutely undeniable.  We have given up our some of our rights and it has (and continues) to protect us.  There are many people that want to harm American nationals and provisions like the Patriot Act are our nation's best line of defense in combating the threat with agency collaboration, ease of collecting intelligence and real-time information, and allowing law enforcement to be able to act more rapidly without red tape.  We need to more vigilant and willing to assist the government in protecting citizens before airliners begin exploding during busy holiday travel or American interests are harmed.