bryant

Not very surprisingly, the Syrian band that freaked out Anne Jacobsen has been identified. Despite this, the usual suspects are still up in arms. From National Review Online:

That means that our air-traffic system was expecting trouble. But rather than land the plane in Las Vegas or Omaha, it was allowed to continue on to Los Angeles without interruption, as if everything were hunky-dory on board. It certainly wasn't. If this had been the real thing, and the musicians had instead been terrorists, nothing was stopping them from taking control of the plane or assembling a bomb in the restroom. Given the information they were working with at the time, almost everyone should have reacted differently than they did.

But... everything was hunky-dory on board. The band was a band. Saying "but they might have been terrorists" is silly, because they weren't. You might as well say, with as much justification, "but what if Anne Jacobsen had been a terrorist?" Nothing was stopping her from taking control of the plane either.

My god. Any passenger could potentially be a terrorist! We've got to just shut down all commercial travel. It's the only way to be sure.