Pipes's Many Talents

Submitted by Peter Caress (United States), Jul 9, 2002 at 14:05

In addition to his writing ability, Pipes is apparently a skilled arson investigator and can thereby judge whether the fertilizer factory explosion was intentional or not. He can also read the minds of dead men, revealing whether Gamil Al-Batouti or Damir Igric were ordinary loonies or loonies with political motives. (And if any of these men were terrorists, wouldn't they be more obvious about their poltical motives?)

Even if all these incidents were terrorist attacks, it's hard to see what sort of "effective counterterrorism" could have stopped them. There's not much we can do to prevent a suicidal looney from shooting up an abortion clinic; there's not much we can do to prevent a suicidal looney from shooting up an airport either.

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