Terror plot a "wake-up call" -- but experts differ on lessons to be drawn

Experts debate the significance of the terror attempt on Flight 253 last Christmas; Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, called it a “daring” plan that was “as close to an aviation disaster as we’ve been since 9/11”; to Hoffman, Flight 253 was a “wake-up call”; Bruce Schneier, who is a critic of many of the security measures initiated by DHS, says the real lesson of Flight 253 is that “Two things have made us safer since 9/11: reinforcing cockpit doors and convincing passengers they can fight back”; Schneier says technology is not the answer: “We can’t continue to let terrorists spend $4,000 to change their tactics and we spend $100 million in airport security in response. That’s not sustainable”

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