While our counter-terrorism defences aren't perfect (as proved by said bomb), ther're certainly world class. I've lost count of the number of terrorists cought in the UK since 9/11, many of them in the final stages of executing a terror attack. I don't feel invulnerable, but I have huge confidence in the competence of my protectors.

I don't feel anything like the same confidence when visiting the US. The Homeland Security initiative strikes me as a panick move, it's a high profile initiative that creates the illusion of doign something about the problem, but it seems very misguided. The last thing an integrated security system needs is another huge mass of bureaucracy. Fancy fingerprinting schemes at airports, and other such high-tech 'solutions' are a missguided distraction. If a man can wlak through an airport with bullets in his pocket, despite a security regime specificaly designed to prevent precisely that, how can anyone have confidence in these new systems?

What you do need is tighter links between existing security services and rock-solid basic police and inteligence work. It's not sexy, and it's not very visible to the public, and it's goign to take time during which you're still vulnerable, but it's what realy matters.

Simon Hibbs