Loose Lips

Overstating the threat of terrorism risks making us less safe

The men charged on JuneĀ 1 with plotting to blow up New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport hoped to outdo the attacks of 9/11, according to the complaint filed against them. "Anytime you hit [a] Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," one suspect allegedly told an informant. But the men were amateurs, and the worst their plans might have achieved was not an apocalypse but a fire in a remote part of the airport. Thankfully, authorities foiled the plot before it could get smarter.

Yet when U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf announced the bust, she deployed code-red...

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