What??? I'm sorry, but this is just ridiculous speculation. If you look at the facts it's pretty clear what happened: They guy was a loser having difficulty in life, so his fanaticism (militant islam) gave him a way out and to "be somebody" (in this worlld and the next) he tried to make a homemade bomb and failed because the detonator device was poor. There are numerous examples in the past few years of people exactly like him trying and failing similar acts. (not to mention numerous that have succeeded) all in all, it was just incompetence and luck that it didn't go off. In other posts, gnius, you make the mistake of assuming all terrorists like this are incompetent. Just because there have been failed attacks, doesn't mean they're all stooges. Wait untill a "competent fanatic" comes along and sets off a dirty bomb. Then you'll really see what gov. intrusion and big brother video monitoring is all about. from the start, people have been interpreting this thing through very narrow and subjective lenses. you chose to see things from "an excuse from big brother" perspective. everyone is politicising it. The reality of the matter is pretty simple, and there is a storied history of similar incidents. The fact is, he's just another in a long line of fanatics that want to kill civilians for jihad. Like I said, when competent ones come along they can literally change the world. 20 were able to do so on 9/11. Trust me, yours, mine, and everyone's world will change if someone sets off a crude dirty bomb in Times Square or Washington D.C. and they render the Capital Mall or Times Square uninhabitable for hundreds of years. What kind of security do you think you'll have to endure then? (not to mention the probability of global war) also, terrorism is not just about relative number of deaths compared to other things. ie: you're more likely to get hit by lightning. Yeah, plane travel is unbelievably safe, relatively speaking, but if you have a plane blow up, or a hijacking, like 9/11 or similar, there are global consequences that need to be considered. ie: having all air traffic stop for weeks at a time. So the argument that "terrorism is irrational fear because there is very little chance I could be killed" is extremely short-sighted and misleading. Like I said, 20 stooges changed the world on 9/11. In fact, they probably had more impact on world history than few others. (helped cause 2 wars, ect...) They're up there with Gavrilo Princip who set in motion World War I, by assasinating ArchDuke Ferdinand.