When it comes to explosions in our age, we can never be too careful. The authorities in New York first indicated that the home-made explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday night, that injured 29 people, and another bomb nearby that didn’t go off, were intended to kill but perhaps not linked to international terrorism. But this view seems to be undergoing a revision after five pipe bombs were discovered in a small town in New Jersey, not far from New York, on Sunday night. While no link has yet been established between the Manhattan explosion and the New Jersey discovery, and the search for possible motives continues, the police did raid an apartment in New Jersey and have cautioned the public that a young naturalised American of Afghan origin, now on the loose, could pose a threat.
The change in the official hypothesis attests to good policing and intelligence, which are invaluable to fighting terrorism. Alas, in this country, the quality of policing, and its effective speed, are the weak links in the chain. The intelligence given to decision-makers is often too sketchy, thus failing the test for good operational intelligence. If we are serious about dealing with terrorism effectively and efficiently, these areas must be tightened. Laws also have to be passed to set up a national mechanism to track terrorism and serious crime on a real-time basis.
