Ron Suskind: How to Stay One Step Ahead

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Here's another lesson from London. Human intelligence routinely trumps fancy and often legally problematic surveillance techniques. The key to discovering the plot was apparently a citizen from Britain's diverse Islamic community who, in the days after last summer's bombings in London, overheard something troubling. He contacted authorities. An investigation took root. Imagine: a Muslim man sitting across from a British intelligence official at a café, off hours. They have little in common. Some would say they are natural opponents. But a thread of shared interest leads to the passing of information and, a year later, to saving grace.

The U.S. intelligence community is in a poor position to replicate that. Concerned citizens in the Muslim world who are close enough to radicals to see or hear something pertinent seem less inclined than ever to sit down with an American. "They see us right now as an angry, reckless giant supporting the bombing of kids in Lebanon," says a top U.S. terrorism official. "If they were to see something troubling nowadays, they'd be more inclined than ever to simply look the other way. It's their inaction--on a vast scale--that'll kill us."

We talk in America's culture wars about the connection between personal behavior and public morality, a link that launches the country into divisive frenzies over abortion and same-sex marriage. Flip the equation. The angry public posturing of warring nations and messages sent from missile launchers and the turrets of tanks often stand in the way of unlikely human connections, improbable encounters that could save lives.

Good vs. evil? Blood quickening, yes. But it's never that simple. This week's offering from the cafés of London? Coffee--strong coffee--for two. Pull up a chair.

Suskind is the author of the best-selling book The One Percent Doctrine, first excerpted in TIME, about the war on terrorism