Man attempting to smuggle SAMs into US arrested

ABCnews.com is reporting that a British man has been arrested in connection with an apparent plot to smuggle a surface-to-air missile into the US.

The person arrested allegedly sought to smuggle a Russian-made surface-to-air missile into the country and believed he was selling missiles to would-be terrorists, sources said. The name of the person has not been disclosed.

Sources said the man thought he was dealing with terrorists in the United States who wanted to shoot down a passenger jet.

Because the news is just now "breaking", the available details are very sketchy. From the phrasing of the above quote, though, it sounds like the man may have been grabbed in some kind of a sting operation ("Sources said the man thought he was dealing with terrorists..."), which, of course, will leave open many questions - including whether or not there's reason to be concerned that terrorists might actually be thinking of trying to smuggle such SAMs into the country and actually use them to try and shoot down a plane.

The reason I bring this up is that when people hear that someone has been arrested for possibly smuggling in a SAM weapon to shoot down an airplane, they are, by nature, going to become more worried about the possibility that such an attack might actually happen. More importantly, though, the idea that law enforcement may have prevented an attack tends to make them more likely to support the expanded powers law enforcement has been given - believing that they've been shown to be effective at stopping an actual crime - and possibly more willing to accept an even greater expansion of those powers in the future.

If, however, this was part of a sting operation, then it tells us little about whether those expanded powers are actually doing anything to reduce the threat of actual terroristic attacks. Sting operations, by their very nature, may show that someone has a pre-disposition to willingness to commit a crime, but they don't really tell us much about the likelihood of a crime being committed. In other words, we may know that there's one less person out there who would smuggle such a weapon in, but we still don't know if anyone here is actually looking for one.

Keep in mind, though, that all of this is speculation based on my interpretation of a comment in a very sketchy, early report. It may well be that a genuine tragedy was prevented, and if so, that's wonderful! My concern is just that I don't want to see something like this turned into propaganda used to cut back our rights even further than they already have been. I don't know right know if it will or not, but I think it's at least worth looking into.

Posted by thorswitch at August 12, 2003 04:18 PM | TrackBack