Omniscience would be handy in a law enforcement system, but we have to work with what we have, which is an intelligence network that until recently had to work with one hand tied behind its back and both feet in buckets. The cops made a call on this that seemed reasonable and cautious at the time. If investigation clears these guys--and the whole thing still smells rotten to me--then the system works, right?

We have to make up our minds whether we are going to try to prevent terrorist acts, which is always going to involve a lot of difficult calls on evidence, civil liberties, etc., or do we decide to just sit on our hands and wait until someone actually blows something up? The latter is a lot simpler from a legal standpoint, but tends to be kind of hard on the populace. This is, of course, the Iraq question too.

Judging from the number of people squalling that Bush and the authorities should have Done Something to keep 9-11 from happening, I guess we're stuck with the former course of action. Naturally, all the same people are also squalling about profiling and violation of rights, but consistency was never their strong suit.