An attack following Osama bin Laden's alleged execution will - not "may" - be forthcoming.
I carefully word that.
Not an "attack to avenge" or "an attack of revenge" for that would suggest that the attack will be by a Moslem, albeit not necessarily an Arab Moslem - radical Islam is not restricted to Arabs.
A revenge attack probably will happen - an attack by a Moslem individual or group, but Bin Laden's claimed death also opens the door for other crazies, non-Moslem crazies, to reap the whirlwind.
Who brought down the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, murdering 168 people, including 19 children?
Timothy James McVeigh, a WASP - White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant - who won a Bronze Star for service in the first Gulf War and his partner, Terry Nichols also a WASP were responsible for the Oklahoma City massacre.
Theodore (Ted) Kaczynsk, the "Unabomber", is a Polish American mathematician, social critic, anarchist and Neo-Luddite.
Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber, is responsible for a series of bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured at least 150 others.
Buford O'Neal Furrow, Jr. is a former Aryan Nations member and security guard who opened fire on the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting in August 1999. The shooting injured three children and a receptionist. He also shot dead USPS carrier Joseph Ileto, a Filipino American.
James von Brunn fired a weapon into the Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum, resulting in the death of security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns. Von Brunn died while awaiting trial.
Joseph Andrew Stack III flew a small personal plane into an office complex containing an IRS office in Austin, Texas after posting a manifesto on his website stating his anti-government motives and burning his house. One person other than Stack died, 13 were injured.
Not one of the above is a Moslem or even an Arab.
That, or course, is not to exclude Moslems - Arab or not - from the list of potential threats, but only to try to make all risk management practitioners and their clients aware that others may decide to ride the coattails of Bin Laden's supposed death. When a person has a mission, any excuse is a good excuse to act.
Yesterday's entry included suggestions on how to mitigate exposure to crazies.
Today's comment is simply a reminder that no one is, or should be, above suspicion.
Likewise, nothing should be taken for granted. A portable radio allegedly brought down Pam Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Israeli airport security routinely takes "pregnant" women - including my wife - aside to "pat them down" to confirm the bulge really is due to pregnancy. The wife did not complain.
The bottom line for risk management practitioners is to be aware that "packaging" may be deceiving.
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