Terrorvision

The FBI say that the two men detained in Amsterdam on Tuesday were probably not making a test run for a terrorist attack. Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi were most certainly guilty of violating the strict codes against flying while Muslim. Of course, they were also flying during our traditional high security days: the two weeks prior to September 11. Not to detract from any intelligence reports or rumors to the contrary, but it seems to me that before 2001, September 11 was notable for being Kristy McNichol's birthday. What makes terror really work is that whole element of surprise. That's why the proposed Islamic Community Center is such a non-starter. Where else would we expect the jihad to be launched? It's so obvious, it's clever.
It makes me long for the day when bad guys used to hijack planes. They would hold a gun to a stewardess' head and demand to be taken to Cuba. That's back when there were such a thing as stewardesses and Cuba seemed like the other side of the world, instead of ninety miles. This was made even more ironic as the flow of Cubans trying to get the the U.S. completely overwhelmed all those who got it into their heads to kidnap everyone on an airplane long enough for a ride to Havana. Nowadays, you can book your flight on CubaJet.com, though you will have depart from Nassau. Please remember to give yourself plenty of time to get through security, since things are pretty tight out there.
Which brings us back to Mister al Soofi, who had a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter in his checked baggage. And he was carrying seven thousand dollars in cash. None of this was sufficient enough evidence to detain him here, but once he got to Amsterdam, the net came down. And his alleged accomplice, Mister al Murisi had changed his plans to fly to Yemen, which along with his surname, was all the authorities needed to haul him in. A vast network of coincidence, toiletries, cell phones and cash, but still coincidence. A little like finding an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory in downtown Manhattan, just two blocks from Hallowed Ground. Just like it's a coincidence that there are three churches within two blocks of the site of the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Scary and sad, but still a coincidence.