Even failed terror plots should be taken seriously

Foiled terror plots often will seem ridiculous and unlikely, especially when they are preempted. What could be stupider than Ahmed Ressam, “a petty thief” according to Wright, running from border guards in Washington state after explosives were discovered in the trunk of his car? He wouldn’t have seemed so risible if he had exploded his bomb at Los Angeles International Airport. If the 9/11 plot had been disrupted at its very inception — with jihadis playing flight-simulator games in Afghanistan — it would have seemed laughable.

This is why even foiled plots deserve to be taken seriously. The New York Times notoriously played down the scheme to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy Airport on Page 37, pleading that the amateurishness of the plot limited its newsworthiness.