Intelligence groups must work together

We are in a war with Islamic fundamentalists of the world. Janet Napolitano can make all the incomplete statements she wants as to whether our system worked or not, but the fact is: We are at war, like it or not.

The plain facts of the Flight 253 incident in Detroit are that we were lucky and you can keep getting lucky just so many times and no more. The episode is a reminder that the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, etc. must get together and share knowledge on a continuing basis whenever they have something useful. People who break this rule will do so under pain of dismissal.

The threat of another aircraft being blown up in flight is so serious and apt to happen again that we must have a proactive policy. I am sure that training personnel to ride herd on airlines and air terminals will be demanding and complex, but dealing with people who have been taught that killing civilians (especially Americans) is perfectly all right can't be dismissed.

The decision to treat terrorists like common criminals is a mistake. They are enemy combatants, and we have a real need to treat them as murderers and deal with them as such. People who do this are attacking our country.

As long as they are being trained to do this sort of thing, we need to set up to become more proactive - not reactive when dealing with them. Obama has changed his tune on this serious threat, but unless the several agencies organize to train their people to work together, we will not have the security presence we need.

Charles Barr Jr.

St. Charles