Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

While airport security has been bolstered in light of the attempted terrorist attack aboard Flight 253, Jena McNeil, a homeland security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, warns that although such steps are necessary, they are not the most effective way to stop terrorism.

“I think it’s really important that we not only just focus on airport security, but also focus on stopping a terrorist from ever entering an aiport,” McNeil told Talk Radio News Monday. “It’s really important that we continue to drive down on the pre-plot stages.”

According to McNeil this level of prevention can be accomplished by broadening the amount of information shared between agencies, including the FBI, CIA and the Department of Homeland Security.

“[The Obama administration] could have stopped it before it even happened had the information been shared in a timely manner,” McNeil contends.

Although one of the primary intentions of the U.S. Patriot Act was to streamline information across the government, McNeil argues that more needs to be done to ensure greater interagency collaboration.

“The Patriot Act is a facilitating tool for where we need to be in the future,” explained McNeil.