While the four alleged to have spent more than a year hatching this latest plot which, had it happened, would have been a devastating blow to aircraft, terminals, and fuel lines, they did not even possess the means to implement ; authorities moved in, and brought three into custody based on its own surveillance, and the belief that one suspect had been planning to travel. So, picture it: law enforcement surveillance of suspects using the Internet to monitor activities of Kennedy Airport; we have surveillance of surveilance. What happens when the watchers are watching the watched who are watching the watchers? No one is looking into the root causes, but only the outward manifestations. More importantly, what happens to free movement on the Internet when government authorities are allowed to track that movement, at will, based on evidence, however dubious, that a "conspiracy" is taking place. I know, I know; we're not suppsed to worry about our First Amendment rights when threatened with an attack on our shores...right?

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly urged New Yorkers, once again, to be "vigilant." In fact , he used the word "vigilant" twice in less than a minute. He's right. All Americans need to be vigilant of anything that looks suspicious, or that could lead to an attack against the city, and country, we love. But, we also need to be mindful of excesses that may result from so-called vigilance, such as the potential for racial profiliing, harsh and illegal interrogation techniques, government surveillance of electronic and telephonic communications, as well as the prospect of domestic internments camps for Muslims, in the U.S., not unlike those for the Japanese after World War II.

Indeed, it may be said that every man or woman who is killed, or kills himself may be seen as a victim of terror in this war. A few days ago, a young Saudi man is alleged to have killed himself while in detention at one of our notorious camps at Guantanamo Bay. He is one of four, since 2002, who has been moved to this most desperate act which doubtless arose, at least partially, from being held without charge, and with no end in sight. Does might give us the right to detain without due process, threaten, and humiliate?

So, while the heads of law enforcement, transit authorities, and U.S. attorneys, in New York, pass out accolades for having deterred another horrific act on our soil, this week, a landmark lawsuit was brought by the ACLU against Boeing aircraft for its complicity in transporting terror suspects, across international airspace, to countries that don't have to comply with Geneva Conventions against torture. It's time we ask ourselves, do the ends justify the means? Can the means be proven to correlate with the ends? Is torture not terror? And, when will we recognize the connection between those crimes we commit, and those that are committed against us. No one regime may be allowed to wipe out world history since the Enlightenment.

There is only one way to end the war on terror, and that is to address the vast, and growing, disparity between wealth and indigence, abundance and famine, and work, with compassion and dignity, to eradicate poverty and fear. This cannot be accomplished with bombs and bloodshed, but undertanding and diplomacy.

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