That is basic terror tactic. The idea is you do something to scare the hell out of a democratic society, and cause the government to over react and attack you with enough firepower that the rest of the world feels bad and your movement garners support. And they’re successful.

It’s like if a dog runs up and bites a big guy on the ankle – then the guy kicks the dog – everyone feels bad for the dog. Only this time the dog carries a deadly germ.

Basically. We need a very large and robust intelligence service. Stopping these jerks in the act is an exercise in stupidity. We caught those guys in England with the liquid explosive with good intelligence, long before they where parading it through an airport. It didn’t matter what their plan was.

Trying to prevent the last attack is a symptom of a naïve mentality. They are simply looking at this fool’s plan and changing rules as though an identical attack will occur by someone without the sense to adjust and adapt. No pissing one hour before landing? Ok – I’ll tweak my schedule a pinch and detonate some other time. What, I can’t hold anything on my lap? Ok – I’ll pretend I’m tying my shoe. Oh – they’re checking people’s shoes? Ok – I’ll hide my explosives in my underwear.