Foiled terror plotters provoke varied reactions

Re “Britain Holds 18 in Airline Plot Case,” Aug. 10

While the British police are to be commended for foiling a serious plot to blow up airliners using devices held in hand luggage, I believe the proposed new security regulations, which will most likely be adopted in other places as well, have finally led me to do what I have considered for some time -- give up airline travel.

I am in my 60s and had begun to find long lines and canceled or delayed flights, coupled with long, cramped international passages, more than I really wanted to cope with even before 9/11.

I had been planning a trip to Geneva and points east via London, but I now think I will give the whole project a miss. Some people will doubtless say this means the terrorists win, but at my age, international airline travel, already stressful, looks like just plain more than I can handle physically.

GEORGIANA F. COUGHLAN

Gardena

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The disruption of this major terrorist plot by the British stands in startling contrast to our inept counterterrorism efforts. Five years after 9/11, only a few, small groups with wild dreams and no ability to carry them out have been identified.

We have yet to find either Osama bin Laden or the anthrax killer. Our forces have mostly abandoned the Afghanistan/Pakistan sector where the plans are hatched and have become bogged down in Iraq, where they are not.

Should a significant terror attack take place here, we have Katrina to serve as a model for our response. Have we become safer because of 9/11? Hardly.

ARTHUR L. YEAGER

Edison, N.J.

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With the terror attempts in London, it seems clear to me that people should not be allowed to bring anything on a plane aside from the clothes they are wearing.

Perhaps that would save us a three-hour wait at the airport and ease some security fears. However, what is to stop a terrorist from swallowing a liquid explosive like a heroin mule?

The ultimate answer to security fears is to improve our relations with the Muslim world, but as of recently, I see little hope for that plan.

HEATHER STEWART

Dana Point

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It would be nice if instead of spending $300 billion in Iraq pretending to make us safer, we used some of that money at our airports to improve security measures. That would be what I call real homeland security.

GREGG SCOTT

Los Angeles