Skirmish in the 'war on terror'

ON Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit ended in a deep trauma. It is a mark of the world we live in that this, in some ways, can be considered a blessing.

Among the 278 people aboard the plane was a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, an alleged Islamist fanatic and a self-confessed associate of al-Qaida in Yemen, who had a bomb hidden in his underpants. He had escaped detection by airport screening in Nigeria, where he had begun his trip, and again at the airport in Amsterdam where he boarded the flight to Detroit.

The only thing that prevented the trauma of Flight 253 from turning into the tragedy of Flight 253 was that the bomb failed to detonate. When Mr. Abdulmutallab attempted to set it off, all that resulted were flames and smoke and he was overpowered by passengers and crew.

Western and Yemeni security officials cannot or will not affirm Mr. Abdulmutallab's connections to al-Qaida in Yemen, where he says he acquired the explosives and was trained in their use, but the exercise does bear the stamp of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. Indeed, it is almost a carbon copy of an attempt to blow up another airliner in 2001 by Richard Reid, who had a bomb made from the same powerful explosive -- known as PETN and a staple in al-Qaida's arsenal -- hidden in his shoe.

That bomb, too, failed to detonate and trauma did not escalate into tragedy. But those are, according to security analysts, only two of at least 28 attempts by terrorists to attack the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. None of them has been successful, even the existence or the details of most are unknown to the public.

There have been known Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe and at least one homegrown terrorist plot in Canada that are either directly linked or inspired by al-Qaida, which has, since 9/11, become an octopus of death and destruction with arms in Africa, Europe and Asia, particularly from Afghanistan to Yemen and Somalia.

The trauma of Flight 253 has affected people in various ways -- most particularly the passengers aboard the flight. It has directly affected air travellers at the busiest time of the year as new security rules compound the chaos created by storms across the United States and Eastern Canada. It is worth remembering in this regard that America is, weather-wise, the most storm-tossed nation in the world, a fact that seems also to extend to the metaphor of international politics and terrorism.

The trauma has certainly affected governments, particularly in the United States, but also in Europe and Canada, as they wonder what went wrong. How was Umar Farouk Abdulmutullab, whose own father had reported his fears of his son's extremism to American and Nigerian authorities, who had been denied a visa by Britain because of his activities and who was already on a U.S. terror watch list, get on a plane to the U.S.?

As airports hustle to tighten their security and as passengers wait stoically for hours and days for planes, politicians and bureaucrats in Washington scramble to provide some answers or excuses and, one hopes, to stop some gaps.

What happened on Christmas Day in Detroit, however, affects all of us. Since the terror of 9/11, amid the apparent calm that has prevailed during the absence of successful terrorist attacks on mainland North America, many people, including many Canadians, have become complacent. The Twin Towers may be a vivid memory, but they are a distant one, a long-ago horror of history. The very phrase "war on terror" has become an embarrassment in some circles if it is used seriously, a "Bushism" that leaves its users open to ridicule.

Flight 253 is a traumatic reminder it is far too soon to become complacent or to pack up the troops and come home. The war on terror is real and continuing and needs to be won. This trauma of Flight 253 reminds us loudly of that. It should not take tragedy to drive that point home.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 29, 2009 A14