Oh, man, that last paragraph pegs the needle on the snarkometer. That deserves to be quoted somewhere; I hope it gets picked up.

There is going to be a story in the Washington Times detailing a bunch of similar incidences of terrorists probing airline security coming out in the next few days. Hopefully, this will generate a greater public outcry, which will result in some real security measures being enforced.

I'd like to think that some law enforcement agency is tracking these goons but, in this PC age, who knows. This would have been a very disturbing story on 9/10/01 but, after 9/11 its incomprehensible that this would be allowed to go on.

Uggh. What happened to the guy that the pilot saw scribbling flight numbers? Its not illegal but it sure is suspicious.

Its time for ugly, ugly, illegal vigilantism.

If I had money like Michael Moore has money, I'd hire goons to hang around the airports and just jump on guys pulling shit like that and beat the holy hell out of them.

Its difficult to gather information when you keep getting attacked by nutjobs everytime you get near the source.

Its hard to complete your mission if you can't gather information you need to plan the job.

Big, toothless, fearsome soccer hooligans, that's what we need. Homegrown American patriots/ bouncers who are crazy, ethnocentric, and don't give a damn.

Yeah, they might accidentally beat up some Hindus and Italians. That's where the millions of dollars helps out.
Aren't you glad I'm not in charge of anything?

Hey, did you see the latest on Annie Jacobsen's "Terror in the Skies?" It looks like it was a false alarm. A scary, well-justified, prudent false alarm:

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/taylor200407211921.asp

Actual Syrian musicians can't be jihadists?

I have said it before and I will say it again....WHERE'S JOHNNY COLDCUTS???

So much fucking loose shit at this site.......

True, actual Syrian musicians could be jihadists.

But at least we've now ID'd the musicians/potential jihadits/asshats who act suspiciously on flights and scare the bejesus out of the rest of the passengers.

I sure hope they are working on surveilling those guys instead of just assuming everything's OK because we know who they are.

Remember that just a mere few days ago, this story was first ignored by the MSM (save, of course, the WSJ), then it was dismissed, then it was vetted, and at each step it was the blogosphere that gave this story "legs."

As it turns out, Ms. Jacobsen's story was true, i.e., 14 Syrian men who were flying together, en route from Detroit to LA, were acting strangely, or at least suspiciously, and that the appropriate authorities both onboard and on the ground, "scrubbed" those involved.

The NRO piece (mentioned above) not withstanding, there is insufficient evidence to conclude wrongdoing on the part of the Syrian nationals (yes, there are those who remain suspicious). But what the original article pointed out, and the truth of which seems clear, is that the preflight and onboard rules of engagement/interdiction need to be examined openly and candidly in this time of war.

If anything, this event has been a victory of sorts for the blogosphere and the campaign to end the tyranny of political correctness.

Or at least one can hope.

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