As a result of the attempted Christmas Day attack by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab (He had explosives hidden under his clothes and tried to set them off when the flight from the Netherlands to Detroit, MI approached Detroit. He failed to do so and ended up setting his own seat on fire himself.), a list has been compiled of all countries that could possibly be a threat to the United States. The listed countries are countries that are thought to possibly have ties with Al Qaeda. The first four countries are those that sponsor terror: Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran. The next ten are also countries of interest: Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. Also, as a result of the attempted terrorist act, enhanced security measures are most likely going to be taking place in all airports, especially those that support flights to the United States. Also, some extra rules might come out of the attempted attack. For example, giving pilots discretion to prevent passengers from keeping pillows and blankets on their laps during certain international flights and limiting movement within the plane during the flight.
In my opinion, since Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab was on a no-fly list, he shouldn't have even been able to board the plane in the first place. But since he did, I'm glad that the incident didn't become any more serious than it already was. I do think that increased security is a must, not just as a result of this incident, but to prevent future ones. I understand that increased security does take away individual freedoms, but it will keep all Americans safer in the long run. Personally, I have never been on a flight where someone has attempted to blow the plane up, but I don't think it would exactly be a fun experience, so I would like to keep it that way and increase airport security to prevent future ones, so not only do I not have to experience one, but no else has to either. I know some enhanced security may result in a longer wait to get to the gate and detailed x-ray machines. The longer wait is tolerable, but a detailed x-ray machine...I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, but if it would almost nix harmful weapons/chemicals/bombs from getting through security I couldn't exactly disagree with them. Also, the list of 14 countries. I understand that certain countries as a whole are more suspicious than others, but the United States does need to be careful in how they conduct their security measures based on the different races of the passengers. They need to remember that all should be treated equal, and if we start favoring one group of people over another either safety wise or suspicion wise, the true terrorists will only work that much harder to disguise its members.
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