What if I told you that your friendly local chemical factory was vulnerable to terrorist attack? You'd want to know, and make a free, informed choice about where to live. If I got specific about how exactly terrorists could exploit the vulnerability (like some of the so-called "terrorism for dummies" Web sites now being shut down), you'd be furious that I was potentially helping the enemy. But if I kept you in the dark about the threat, you couldn't pressure the plant to change. Tilt too far toward specifying hazards, we risk aiding terrorists. But tilt too far toward secrecy―a natural impulse in times of trouble―and we risk learning so little from our mistakes and vulnerabilities that we might get whacked again.
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