Making citizens from a blacklist of countries undergo tougher airports security checks is wrong and won’t help.

It does not matter which country people come from, intelligence officials should be able to pick up suspects who are intending to travel before they get to airports and try to board planes. It was not the technology which failed to identify the suspect on Christmas Eve, but the intelligence services. He should have been on a no fly list after his own father expressed concerns about his extremist views to the US Embassy. What is more important than black listing certain countries is improving methods of gathering and trading intelligence within them.

Those who have slipped through the intelligence radar may be picked up at airports more easily due to the scanners which will be an extra obstacle to overcome for anyone intent on carrying out attacks. We cannot expect intelligence authorities to pick up every plot as terrorists become better at carrying out attacks without being infiltrated.