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Of course this is a sort of off the cuff kind of topic. But See Sum of All Fears or read the book again...I can't remember the name of the book where the Japanese pilot runs the 747 into the Capitol. But that was pretty freaky too.

Movies are for entertainment, but it is scary to think someone could suggle a "dirty bomb" into the US. Hell, with federal agents bringing all sorts of things thru airport security, what about shipping (like in Sum of All Fears) or smuggling?

It's worth some thought anyway.

I can't remember the name of the book where the Japanese pilot runs the 747 into the Capitol.

"Executive Orders". Cabinet member Jack Ryan is the one guy left behind (standard procedure) during the State Of The Union address when Congress is wiped out, making Ryan the President. This and other terrorist attacks are cover for ... and the ending is remarkably satisfying.

Reality is not different than fiction when it comes to dreaming up terrorist scenarios, either for execution or publication. That's why, post 9/11, the guvmint hired some Hollywood types to do just that: sit around thinking up scenarios for the military/law enforcement types to plan for.

The primary reason no one in guvmint saw 9/11 coming is that, by nature and definition and getting rapped on the back of the head for not marching to the agency beat, bureaucrats and bureaucracies totally lack imagination.

Witness reports yesterday that a field FBI agent sent a report up the chain that, uh, several suspicious Middle Eastern-type dudes were inexplicably training at American flight schools. The report went into File 13 until, oops, after 9/11 somebody said, "Oh, that's what that was about."

Why did no alarms go off when the report was sent? Because all agencies lack imagination. The higher up the food chain one gets, the deeper and darker the lack of imagination. The agency couldn't even begin to imagine any scenarios arising out of these ME dudes training to fly our jumbo jets. So CLICK, DELETE FILE FROM MEMORY. NEXT REPORT, NEXT CUPPAJOENDONUT.

Personally, I think creativity is creativity. UBL was very creative on 9/11. To match these creeps, we need creativity, too. If Clancy is where you gotta go to get the appropriate level of creativity, so be it, IMHO. In fact,that would be a very creative solution [groan . . .]