On Air Security, We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary

On Air Security, We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Passengers have been holding their own as a check on terrorists quite admirably ever since the traveling public learned that the rules of the hijacking game had changed.

The passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 immediately took action on Sept. 11, 2001, storming the cockpit and stopping another terrorist attack at the cost of their own lives. Three months later, two flight attendants and a defensive line of international travelers sacked would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid before he could score.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was right when she said that 'the system worked' after a Dutch filmmaker tackled the would-be Christmas Day 2009 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The system did work, if you count the passengers as part of 'the system.'"