The Local Lessons of 9-11

Los Angeles remains as vulnerable today as we were ten years ago. Like all generals planning for the previous war, our counter-terrorism experts have worked assiduously to prevent a replica of 9-11. In this they have been, and are likely to continue to be, successful. What they haven't done, and cannot do, is make us safe. We can surrender to every indignity, have physicals at airports beyond what our HMOs would authorize, have our emails read and our wires tapped, but this is all the illusion of security.

We, in Los Angeles/Hollywood, have built iconic structures, hold important events and project our image as the representative of American culture all over the world. We have, in other words, made ourselves as great a target as New York or Washington DC.

For years I have taught a terrorism course at American Jewish University. This, naturally, is not a how-to course. I pointed out, long before the FBI's warning last week, that private aviation makes us extremely vulnerable. Terrorists don't have to hijack 747s. A small executive jet out of Van Nuys, or even a two-passenger plane out of Whitman or Fullerton, would be only minutes from the Rose Bowl or Coliseum on a game day, or Disneyland any time. Iconic landmarks can create mass terror on the cheap. If you want greater protection put soldiers with SAMs (Surface to air missiles) on the roof of the Kodak Theater, the top of the Rose Bowl and at Disney Land.