Are Tech Solutions the Best Solutions to Terrorism?

NEW ORLEANS -- In the wake of the Underpants Bomber, lobbyists for companies that make full-body scanners -- including, notably, former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff -- have unhesitatingly pushed their products, on media interviews and on Capitol Hill, as this year's must-have anti-terrorism accessory. But fashion and profit aside, some of us keep wondering, "Why not sniffer dogs?"

Now comes a report in Melbourne's The Age on the latest trend in suicide bombing: surgical implants, which cannot be detected by scanners. And again the question arises, why is nobody discussing the issue of sniffer dogs? The article suggests one answer, the Islam culture's aversion to dogs. There's also the well-known American penchant for thinking a technological fix is the only plausible fix.

Here's another possibility to consider: there's no big sniffer-dog lobby.

PS: While Mike ("Brownie") Brown got most of the derision for the Katrina response debacle, his boss was busying himself during the first days of the flood attending a bird flu conference in Atlanta. Yep, Michael Chertoff.