ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
THE EXPLOSION in Olympic Centennial Park may prove to be the work not of an organized political group but of a deranged individual. That possibility wouldn't make the act any less murderous. But it does underscore the importance of not overreacting to the danger that the assault exemplifies.
Americans, in this light, should be wary about the hastily packaged anti-terrorism measures agreed to Wednesday night by the White House and congressional leaders.
Studying the feasibility of placing chemical markers in explosives is a good idea; it was rejected. Expanded wiretapping authority is a questionable idea; it is being rushed into law.
The problem is that our world is full of alienated people with axes to grind and access to weapons. They range from resentful have-nots and extremist fundamentalists to Unabombers, racists, militiamen, the media-hungry and the plain messed-up. In an open society, the general population can never be perfectly protected from losers eager to evoke terror and prepared to inflict violence.
So the response needs to be calibrated by considerations of cost effectiveness and risk assessment. Neither one is aided by impulsive reactions egged on by the immediacy of fear and the posturing of politicians.
Reasonable cost considerations, for example, would take into account the fact that time taken by security delays is money, and that money to pay for expensive precautions must come from funds otherwise available for other purposes. Reasonable risk-assessment might note that the chances of dying in an airplane explosion are still nothing when compared with the odds of, say, being shot to death at home by a family member.
Even when exposed to such calculations, prudent security precautions at places that are likelier targets or that draw high media attention - government buildings, airports, Olympic games, etc. - are justifiable. Such measures reduce vulnerability to anxiety as well as to violence. Law-enforcement efforts in any case should be stepped up and better coordinated.
Still, it is telling that President Clinton asked Congress immediately after the Centennial Park bombing to join him in enacting "as quickly as we can" several anti-terrorism measures that he had proposed earlier and had been rejected by lawmakers - before TWA Flight 800 and the Olympics.
A few of the measures made sense before these events; they make sense now. One is to look into the possibility of placing small plastic particles called "taggants" in manufactured explosives, so that law-enforcement authorities could trace their origin after they go off.
Clinton had included a taggants provision in the crime bill that passed recently, but Congress had knocked it out after the National Rifle Association objected. Had taggants been in place, they might have aided the probe of the Atlanta bombing. But, once again, the NRA had veto rights.
Meanwhile, other of Clinton's proposals, including the expanded wiretap powers, raise concerns about overreaction. The risk of eroding civil liberties seems at least as high as the risk of spreading terrorism.
Let's not forget that the heroes of Atlanta this week include all the people who, after the terrifying explosion, put aside their doubts and fears and - while accepting the inconvenience of reasonable precautions - went about their business in a collective refusal to be intimidated into rash action.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB