But another question needs to be asked that is unrelated to body scanners and exploding underwear: what if, instead of a mid-air detonation, Abdelmutallab's intention had been to de-plane, enter the United States, and carry out an operation at a later time, originating within our borders?
The latest operation marks perhaps the first time that civilian officials have carried out such an action against the army.
Speaking for the first time about the work he carried out for Operation Trinity, he told me he was confident all six murders had been the work of a lone serial killer.
The Bureau had a search warrant at the time, but no approval to carry out a bugging operation.
"When we have an operation that takes place early in the morning, we check to find out what time school gets out (in case) ... we have to process people more quickly, " he said.
Lord Justice Elias said there was an obligation to provide thick gloves at the time to protect against the risk of injury as the operation could involve her carrying out a whole range of tasks, not just removing the plants.
BBC: Hampshire PC to keep almost ?5,000 damages for cut thumb
On this week's programme, the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Britain and the United States would make a "very determined effort" to secure United Nations support for any military action against Iraq - but he warned that time was running out for Saddam Hussein to demonstrate his full co-operation with the UN weapons inspectors.
However the heads of those agencies, Mr Blix of Unmovic and Mr ElBaradei of the IAEA, told Iraq on Thursday that time is running out for them to "drastically" improve their co-operation.
Earlier this year, BBC Newsline carried out a series of reports into a USPCA operation which been tracking one gang for some time.
After he told the story in our M and M meeting, the hospital implemented a "time out" protocol in the operating room for everyone to stop and agree on what operation would be performed, on what side of the body and whether the correct patient was indeed lying on the operating table, to make sure that kind of mistake would never happen again.
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