Terror attacks force US officials to renew talk about homeland security

Washington: The Boston Marathon bombing has renewed talk about homeland security in a post 9/11 world. In the Marathon bombing, the suspects apparently blended into the finish-line crowd without detection long enough to place two fatal explosives on a sidewalk.

US intelligence and law-enforcement officials in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks focused on such concerns as airport security to prevent another incident in which US commercial airliners could be used as lethal weapons. However, as improved security made such attacks more difficult, terrorists have instead attempted smaller attacks in crowed, more public spaces, raising questions about the need for more surveillance cameras and other security measures while trying to balance privacy concerns, reports Fox News. Jessica Zuckerman, a foreign policy analyst with the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation said mass gatherings have become a target. The Boston bombs, concealed in separate backpacks, killed three and injured 176 others. The first suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed early Friday morning in a police shootout. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured by police that night. Another more recent and similar incident on US soil occurred in 2010 in New York City. A lone terrorist tried unsuccessfully to detonate a home-made car bomb, which included a pressure cooker like those used in Boston, in the city`s tourist-filled Times Square district. Surveillance cameras that captured images of the vehicle going to the crime scene led to the swift arrest of Pakistani-born terrorist Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty in federal court to charges including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Manhattan alone now has roughly 2,400 surveillance cameras, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union and others. ANI