HOW TO HANDLE VERMIN

Our senior intelligence officials were called to the Capital today to discuss national security in the wake of the Christmas Day bomber with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

CIA Chief Leon Panetta and his peers from National Intelligence and the FBI, in a rare moment of candor, admitted that the chances of an attempted attack were 'certain'.  Panetta also admitted that the new 'lone wolf' tactics were difficult to track.

To me, terrorists are like cockroaches.  With 9/11, they were successful as a large group because we weren't really aware that there was such a large, organized nest of them and that they were such a potent threat. 

Now we know that they are determined to do us harm but we have managed to scatter the nest; they are still coming, but it is individuals now instead of a swarm.  We have learned how to detect large groups and stomp them out, so they have adapted to splintering off and coming at us from many different directions.  They are taking their training, getting their drugs and explosives, and are on their own.  Sort of like a terrorist express line.   

So what do we do?  First and foremost, target the training camps.

We know it's nearly impossible to figure out who might end up being a bomber before heading off to camp, and there is no contact between the killer and the network after training.  They choose the time and place and research rudimentary pieces of information on line at home, like knowing where to sit on the plane so that you are directly over the fuel tanks.  So target the camps, where we know they are intending (and actively training) to do us harm but haven't managed to do so yet.  Destroy the nests, wherever they may be.  Demand help and approval from the UN and NATO for surgical strikes to any and all known terror training camps, be they in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, wherever. 

Once you've targeted the nests, you start picking off the stragglers.  One way is to go digital.  Shut down the network globally.  Bomb building website?  Deleted.  Radical Imam spouting 'Death to Israel'?  Detained, questioned and surveilled.

There will still be attempts, but the number will have shrunk dramatically.  A smaller suspect pool means more agents will be assigned to each case, thus upping the odds of  successful identification and disruption of plots. 

This administration is crippling our intelligence agencies with their insistence on treating terrorists as common criminals.  Their hands are tied, and our safety is at stake.  If there is a successful attack in the next three to six months, God help the democrats.  Their policies will be to blame and they will suffer the consequences on election day and beyond.

There's plenty more that can be done, I'm just offering up a few suggestions that seem like common sense to me - whether they are practical and possible are up for debate.  But at least I'm not throwing my hands up with an air of futility and telling the country we're helpless to stop it.  Our intelligence chiefs are somewhat less than inspiring when it comes to instilling confidence.

Thank God our intelligence and military personnel are more savvy and on the ball than their appointed betters.  They are the reason I'm not totally freaking out.  May they be ever vigilant and successful in destroying those vermin, down to the very last one.