Most of us could better tolerate the uncertainties of terror, and even the ambiguous warnings that it could reappear, if we could be certain those we pay to do the security job were actually doing it.

It isn't so much the vagueness of the recent alert about another possible terrorist attack that is troubling. That's what waging terror is all about. Keeping people apprehensive. If you know the game, you know the rules.

What is most bothersome is that agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service could stop six men of Middle East origin, armed with photos of U.S. nuclear power installations, those cursed box-cutters, and other equipment, then let them go without consulting the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Why? Because their Israeli passports were valid. There's a “duh” factor at work in all this.

In times of terror, including the anthrax scare, everyone is suspect, especially a pack of travelers from the Middle East carrying pictures of power plants.

The deceits and subterfuge at work in the game of terrorism tell us nothing is to be assumed. All manner of scenarios are imaginable. Friends could take advantage of our situation for their own purposes. They can't be immune to a check or two.

This incident was part of several bits of information that led to the issuance of a national alert that the brainwashed Afghani Islamic fundamentalists - don't they remind us of The Manchurian Candidate and those kids in cults families kidnapped and deprogrammed? - were about to have at us again. The Canadians told us more.

It is now believed that the six men changed vehicles and headed for Canada.

Perhaps our cousins to the north will save our bacon again by apprehending them and holding them for proper questioning. Our own law-enforcement fingers don't yet seem sticky enough for the task.

First Published November 6, 2001, 11:51 a.m.