these people are getting smarter by the minute. it's exhausting all security resources to no avail. when i think the single most important part in preventing these things from happening is for us stand up against this and educate tirelessly about the heinousness of these attacks and the beliefs that follow. plus it's really important to be on the look out, even the general population, for anything that seems out of the ordinary. in the end whoever's planning to do something wrong always gives cues.

Reliance on high technology is the major weakness.

If the police radio communications in any city were jammed, or disabled, the authorities would lose control.

The more sophisticated systems are far more vulnerable than simple two-way radio systems.

Jamming a single frequency on a cell system will remove the essential command channel needed to enable calls. Similarly with public order systems.

Sundays and other holidays are also good times to strike as many key people are 'off for the weekend'.

DUH !
Obama brought our security level back to 9-10-09.
I'm sure the plan is ready to go. They just have to figure out what elementary school or mall to attack during the Christmas shopping season.

"He reminded them of just what had transpired over this summer. In September, the FBI nabbed Najibullah Zazi and charged him with wanting to plant a bomb in New York, likely on 9/11. That same month, Michael Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested for trying to blow up the federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois. Hosam Smadi was indicted for wanting to plant a 550-pound bomb in an SUV parked at Dallas' Fountain Towers. A few months earlier, in June, Carlos Bledsoe, a.k.a. Adulkahim Muhammad, shot up a naval recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, before state troopers eventually nabbed him with automatic weapons and 1,400 rounds of ammo. James Cromite, a.k.a. Abdul Rehman, a career criminal who just wanted to kill Jews and shoot down military planes, was arrested in May."

And they were all allowed extrance into the US legally by ICE?
And no evidence of extremist activitis or contacts before entry?
More likely no one bothered to check
Its a little late once they are allowed legal entry into the US

It's more like guessing as to when and where it will happen, the first time. I am predicting it will be the Mall of America. Whenever the Lost Somali Boys of Minneapolis-St. Paul come home from wherever they are. Or something like that.

Very sobering. It would have very interesting to have read the solutions to this, but perhaps that's off limits to the public or none are available for the time being. What can the average citizen do? Be vigilant and maintain situational awareness at all time. Change the gun laws to make it illegal for foreigners to buy guns. In the same light, serious thought should be given about whether arming ourselves for such an occurrence would be a help or a hindrance.

Great piece. HBO has a good documentary about Mumbai. Hearing the telephone converstions between the terrorists and their commander,and seeing the captured terrorist interviewed, is chilling. I become more and more convinced that the only way to turn the tide is for good Muslims to rise up. They need to kill their brothers. These terrorists are more than happy to kill Muslims, as well as others. Fellow Muslims need to not just speak out, which to date they have only done tepidly, but to act. They know who these animals are, and they know where they live. It's time they got to work!!

In the meantime, we need to continue to reach out to moderates and try to convince them to help. But firstly we have to hunt these animals and capture or kill them. It's not any more complicated than that. We have to have defense, but offense is much more important. If they're spending all their money running, they can't attack.

It was Machiavelli who said that no one could depend on stopping a determined assassin who was trained and willing to die.

No city, no nation, no person is totally safe from these crazies who think killing someone will solve his political problems.

Of course, gun-carrying citizens might be a deterrent....

Ooopps, my bad. Law-abiding citizens carrying liscensed firearms is, of course, the total problem with terrorism/assination.

Posner, get a grip! You make your living postulating and surmising. Would anything happen 'IF?". Florida, the most corrupt state in the US after The District Of Columbia .Of course any group of focused people can create massacre. Why don't you write about the proper response for once. Man up.

Mr Posner, a few notes
1- it's an ASSAULT rifle, not an "attack rifle", you live in Florida, for god's sake, it has almost as many guns, per capita, as my beloved Lone Star State.

2- The drill you mentioned relied strictly on LOCAL law enforcement. What about the FDLA and FBI, which both have offices in Miami?

Your main points of a determined, small group willing to give their lives as an effective force do ring true. I worry that this is how law enforcement will start to see all hostage takers and dispense with negotiations....

Three big things no one seems to be talking about:

1. Notice that pretty much all these terrorism attempts that were thwarted were thwarted by POLICE work, not by military action.

2. There is TOO MUCH freedom for the press to cover things like police maneuvers live, on-site... this has always been a clusterf**k waiting to happen, and now it has...

3. And finally, there has ALWAYS been a tendency for WAY TOO MANY POLICE to cluster around "interesting" events. Police are almost by definition "adrenalin junkies", and seem to have very little accountability as to what they spend their time on... Start a fistfight in a town with eight cops and all eight cops show up. (I've SEEN it.. TWICE this year alone.) Do you NEED eight cops for a fistfight? No. But given their addiction to 'action', none of the cops wants to be left out. And there's no one telling them to pay attention to their JOBS and not what they WANT to do, because they have too much latitude with things like the unconstitutional 'disorderly conduct' statutes (WIDELY acknowledged to be unconstitutionally broad and vague.). (As a side note... look at the godawful places cop cars pull people over for MINOR infractions, bottlenecking traffic, etc., creating MAJOR hazards in traffic... a similar "I'll do what I want because I have a badge" mentality.) It's a matter of a nearly-military skill set becoming more and more necessary in a profession that does not receive the of disciplined training a military unit undergoes. It's a long-standing cop characteristic that, for instance, if a cop is shot, they ALL go to the hospital or the scene, TOTALLY NEGLECTING their obligation to be keeping the public safe elsewhere. Or like "the Blue Line", where you don't "rat" on your fellow cops... FOR BREAKING THE LAW! They TOO OFTEN consider themselves above it, as a class. And that 'action-seeking', 'clustering' characteristic, left uncorrected by the command structure, really operates in favor of the subjects of this article. Cops: quit being self-indulgent, thrill-seeking a**holes and CONCENTRATE ON YOUR JOBS... and this kind of "response-baiting" would be less of a problem.

We've probably already spent a trillion with no end in sight for the overseas response to fear of terrorism. Honestly, I don't think we're safer and even wonder who we are fighting and why. The Mumbai attacks were plotted in Pakistan and India-Pakistan has a history of violence. There is a historic, longstanding political component there that isn't comparable here. "What if a Mumbai-style attack happens in Miami?" is fearmongering and won't prevent the next Virginia-Tech style horror.

The Mumbai massacre last year was a combination of so many evils, that prevail far too much throughout the world.
First of all it was ignorance. As the young terrorists in many cases couldn't read and had little knowledge of the world. Next it was blind hatred as they slaughtered indiscriminately. Then there was the religious fanaticism that spurred their suicidal assault, and last but not least, there were the depraved, power-hungry "leaders" who sent these young men on their suicide missions, to kill and be killed.
How do you stop this kind of thing from occurring? You probably can't, but if more people were educated, and more religious leaders denounced violence and condemned those who would use it to further their own power, and if police infiltration of these groups were more feasible, we might mitigate, but never eliminate this from occurring.
But there is no reason to think America is immune to the same kind of attack. I only hope all the money we've spent on Homeland Security doesn't go to waste, with serious suspects like Hasan being known to one U.S.law enforcement agency, which neglects to inform other agencies to take preventative action.

Reading all the comments I can't help but wonder if the couple who "crashed" Obama's dinner party had been Hasan's or any other terrorist, would the dumbass, do right, political correctness, people have a change of heart????