Dino Ainsly blog

Al-Qaida Suspect Too Cheap to Attack Chicago

s biggest skyscraper, seemed to be a likely secondary target for terrorist. The building, now officially called the Willis Tower, was evacuated that day and has increased anti-terrorist security.

It made sense as a symbolic target, just as the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon seemed to be. More recently, an attempted attack on Times Square made symbolic sense as well.

The Christmas 2009 attack on Detroit? Not so much.

According to the , the man accused of trying to bomb Detroit's Metro Airport chose the target out of purely financial considerations, instead of some lofty or devious notion of symbolism. He couldn't afford a ticket to Chicago or Houston, the targets he would have preferred.

The revelation is indicative of a different type of terrorist approach, the report says, a desire to take out a target because it is available rather than because it means something.

Detroit, much maligned and facing mass exodus, was simply a cheaper destination.

Between its politics and the collapse of American manufacturing, Detroit is no longer a jewel of the Midwest. It has become a target of opportunity.

And while the news can't be encouraging for the city, the bigger worry is what the Associate Press conclusions may mean for other parts of the country, including small-town America. It's easier in small towns not to lock the doors of your car. The Williamson County Regional Airport, about five miles from my house, has much more lax security than any metropolitan airport, even Detroit.

So the question prompted by this report is what targets of opportunity are we neglecting to secure simply because we didn't think that terrorists would ever strike there?

In the fall of 2007, when I was flying back to St. Louis from Detroit, my flight was delayed for over an hour because of a suspicious package at the airport. That was before an international terrorist tried to attack there. Last year, flying through Metro Airport, security was much tighter than at Lambert Field in St. Louis.

If the conclusions reached by the Associated Press are reasonable, it would appear that the more heightened the security, and the higher the price of the plane tickets, the more likely we are to be safe in flying. Since I have some flying to do this summer, could we enhance security in St. Louis and Seattle?

Lucinda Gunnin cut her teeth as a reporter covering Illinois government as an intern in the statehouse pressroom. Now, she brings 20 years of experience and insight to covering Illinois issues.