No Thru Traffic - And so another week begins under "orange alert" here in DC. The WashTimes reports this morning that the U.S. Capitol was also targeted for attack, according to recently discovered Al Qaeda materials -- not just the five financial sites originally announced. The revelation explains the recent street closures that have snarled traffic in my neighborhood. Oddly, the same report says the D.C. chief of police was "not privy to the new information and was surprised at the sudden security crackdown around the Capitol."

Miscommunication over possible targets doesn't seem to be the only problem with the erstwhile treasure trove of Al Qaeda intelligence that has turned up in connection with recent arrests in Pakistan, Britain and elsewhere. What concerns me more is that any hairbrained scheme some Islamofascist nutjob in Peshawar can imagine instantly becomes (upon discovery) an irrebutable argument for shutting down another facet of American society. Terror prevention needs to focus more on root causes and effective police work overseas than on hardening the impossibly large range of targets in this country. Because if our simple-minded response is always to close roads, put up barriers and generally undermine the openness of American society, then the terrorists will have won without ever launching an actual attack.