Case Study – Aviation Security and al Qaeda in Yemen

Aviation Security and Al Qaeda in Yemen
Name
University
Date
Aviation Security and al-Qaeda in Yemen
Immediately after the occurrence of the 9/11 attack, the Federal Government responded by putting in place the United States Homeland Security. The Homeland Security is charged with the responsibility of preventing our beloved country from terrorists attack. In the year 2009 however, our country survived what was to be another terrorism attack, which was organized by the AL Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula based in Yemen. The prevented attack was to take place through suicide bombing. It was to utilize an underwear explosive device, which was on commercial aviation over Detroit on Christmas day. In addition to that, our country was second time lucky when it survived another attack organized in November 2010 (Posner, 2005). The Al Qaeda based in Yemen put explosives on a cargo containing office printers. This case study seeks to shed light on some of the weaknesses that the Al Qaeda exploited in order to come close to effecting this attacks. In like manner, it seeks to evaluate some of the mechanisms that the Homeland Security should put in place to ensure that such events do not take place in the near future.
The structure and organization of Homeland Security is well harmonized. Their exists different sub sections charged with various tasks. In the particular scenario where the aviation security system was breached, two sub divisions were found to be at fault. The first Homeland Security Component that was at fault is the United States Customs and Border Protection. The second section is the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The Customs and Border Protection unit is one of the most important departments in the Homeland Security Department (Bullock et.al, 2013). It is responsible for ensuring that terrorists do not find their way into the country. At the same time, it is responsible for monitoring the United States Borders as well as trade and tr...