Is Preventing Terrorism an Unattainable Goal?

The Director of National Intelligence and the head of the National Counterterrorism Center told Senators today what was already clear, that the Christmas Day bombing attempt over Detroit occurred because of flaws in the counterterrorism system devised in the wake of September 11. Though they're already trying to correct the flaws that allowed Umar Abdul-mutallab to board a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit, a former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council says they're missing the point. Gregory Treverton is director of the Rand Corporation's Center for Global Risk and Security and the author of Intelligence for an Age of Terror.