Reserve Judgment on Why Notre Dame Burned

For years, the immediate response by the FBI or other authorities to many a terrorist attack has been official denials that it was a terrorist attack. The effect has been to reduce the public’s situational awareness about actual threats in our midst and to erode confidence in our officials. The practice may even embolden our enemies.

When the facts eventually make such dissembling untenable, it is usually rationalized as an action deemed necessary to prevent increased sectarian tensions and possible violent retaliation.

It was, therefore, as Yogi Bera famously quipped, “déjà vu all over again” when French leaders ruled out arson as the cause of the fire that consumed Notre Dame cathedral in Paris even before it was extinguished. That may ultimately prove to be the case, but it cannot be determined without a proper investigation. And the facts must out.