He has navigated the row of computers manned by agents who sit in the vast lobby, checking each visitor's background, making sure his or her every minute in the giant office complex is accounted for. Impressive, he said in a recent interview, but not very effective. When a friend, Korean War veteran Bill Macko, was killed in the World Trade Center bombing, Dugan said it only reinforced his belief that America is extremely vulnerable to an attack on its own soil. After 168 people were killed in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995, he was convinced we haven't learned very much on a subject in which the British and Israel are more experienced. They solve something and they take action.
People know they mean business.
I've been to Northern Ireland and was stopped at a roadblock, searched, detained because they were searching for terrorists. I appreciated it because they were trying to keep me safe. Americans don't like to be inconvenienced. I see it when friends are visiting and I take them to the airport for an international flight. But as the Port Authority's Allen Morrison said, officials have had to resist the temptation of going too far.