That’s what the frick & frack! as in what the frick & frack is going on with our government, our law enforcement and the media who ought to be helping us keep them in check.
When I opened the page that the Herald titled, AP source: Unlikely that 2 men plotting terror I expected to hear about a couple of people with fingernail clippers getting the 3rd degree by some over zealous TSA officers. I was expecting that AP was making a big deal out of nothing, but instead I found that our law enforcement apparently taking what I see as a big deal and treating it as if it were nothing. Here’s what they
WASHINGTON The FBI probe of two men arrested in Amsterdam after suspicious items turned up in one of the men’s luggage is finding they were probably not on a test run for a future terror attack, a U.S. official said Tuesday, casting doubt on earlier suggestions even as Dutch authorities held the pair on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.
The U.S. does not expect to charge the men, a law enforcement official said.
Earlier, U.S. officials said they were investigating whether the two men had been conducting a dry run for a potential terrorist attack. But as the probe evolved, officials said that appeared unlikely.
I’d be willing to dismiss this if the officials had found fingernail clippers, which by the way there is no mention of, but here’s what the article does mention that they found.
When Customs officials discovered one passenger was not on the flight from Dulles to Dubai, they called the plane back to the gate and removed his luggage. It was then they discovered suspicious items in his bag, a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter, according to another U.S. official who had been briefed on the investigation.
Call me a bit backwards, but how can I view this as anything but a test of airline security and the fact that they found this in baggage that was already on a plane that had left the gate, tells me that security failed big time. And don’t even get me started about the size of that Pepto-Bismol bottle. Really, we have to take off our shoes and divvy up our bathroom stuff between family members to get through security, but these guys get their cell phones taped to bottles loaded on a plane that they aren’t even on? Maybe I’ll try that next time I want a full size toothpaste on vacation.
Okay, okay time to calm down. The article does say that the President Obama had been briefed on the situation.
“Everyone in government was impressed with the amount of information-sharing that happened with some of our partners overseas, and the speed with which we were able to run incidents to the ground,” Burton said.
Oops, call me backwards again, but I’ll only be impressed when guys and situations like this are taken as serious threats at all levels of government. And now I will hold my breath until President Obama refers to these men as terrorists.
What about it!