I guess this hasn’t been a good day to be flying.

A stick of dynamite was found in a college student’s checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina, authorities said, in one of six security incidents Friday affecting U.S. flights.

Six?!?

So, is this a case of higher incidents, or is it just higher scrutiny and awareness catching the bizarre behavior that was missed in the past?

Still the dynamite story is too strange to believe.

Federal authorities were investigating why the student, who got off the Continental plane in Houston before it continued to Newark, N.J., had the explosive, FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said. She said the student did not appear to be connected to terrorism.

Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said the man told authorities he works in mining and often handles explosives. Longoria said federal officials were investigating whether the explanation was true.

Of course I’m glad that these recent cases have been stopped without incident. I do wonder why the first statement is always that there are no ties to terrorism.

I think we’ll see more of this rather than less over the next days and months.

Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore, Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore. Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip, Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip. ~ Pope Leo XII

The Jawa Report (Vinnie) The Lunatic/ Is In The Aisle — “I could be off my rocker, but someone acting crazy on a plane would be a nice distraction for someone trying to plant something on a plane.
I think our defenses are being probed. The cell phone stories, the airplane stories, a lot of s**t seems to be going on right at the moment.” [I think Vinnie's on to something here. Jim]

Stop The ACLU (jcb) Federal Court Rules Protecting America is Unconstitutional — “Many scoffed at the idea of framing resistance to the Patriot Act and the “warrantless wiretapping” programs as an attempt to establish an “Al Qaeda Bill of Rights”, however, with Judge Taylor’s ruling and the help of the ACLU, the shroud of the First Amendment has been extended to protect those who plot to kill Americans.”

Ankle Biting Pundits (Bull Dog Pundit) Carter Appointed Federal Judge Hands Victory To Al-Queda — “The first thing that strikes me is that how Judge dismissed the government’s claim that the Plaintiff’s could not prove their conversations were being monitored. She relied on the affidavits of lawyers and a journalist who admitted they had contacts with terrorist organizations and people accused of helping the insurgency in Iraq. So when faced with admissions of people that they are in contact with alleged terrorist organizations – the Judge ordered the government to stop listening.”

Short post this morning. Places to go, people to see.

Could this be a case of thinking that security at a smaller airport would be easier to breach than at JFK, Logan, Dulles, or LAX?

A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday after two bottles of liquid found in a woman’s carry-on luggage twice tested positive for explosives, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said.

“The bomb squad is on site and the woman is being interviewed by the FBI,” Amy von Walter said.

A machine security checkpoint screeners use to test for explosives registered positive, and a canine team also got a positive hit, von Walter said.

Airport manager Larry Salyers said the bottles would be moved by robot to a remote area of the airport where officials would attempt to detonate them. National Guard and State Police explosive experts will conduct chemical field tests to determine what’s inside them, he said.

Several questions sprung to mind when I read this: Could terrorist be targeting smaller, regional airports on the assumption that security would be easier to breach? Is this connected in any way to the plot foiled in the UK? How about the woman in the flight re-routed to Logan yesterday?

We’ll have to wait for more information.

Coffee falls into the stomach … ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop … the shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink… ~ Honore de Balzac

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to
GOP and the City

TMH’s Bacon Bits (DL) Liberals Play Censorship with Our Lives — “Liberals, I was informed decades ago in college, believe in accepting all points of view and are mature enough intellectually and emotionally to keep an open mind about things that they may differ with. (Don’t laugh yet.)”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Profiling Profiles — “Taking a page from Israeli security forces, the US has started using a technique for screening at airports that focuses on the people rather than the methodology to stop terrorism. Although currently only an experimental program, the technological escalation of the British sky plot will pressure the Transportation Security Administration into deploying this across all airports:”

Blue Crab Boulevard Woman Facing Charges — “he woman who caused a flight from London To Washington to be diverted to Boston will be facing charges for her actions. It does appear she had banned items in her carry on bag – which says that the security crackdown is not quite working as well as it should. Her behavior as described in the article today was extremely odd.”

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) The Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong: The GOP Has Moved To The Middle Too Much, Not Too Little — “The conventional wisdom you seem to hear for politicians always seems to be, “When in doubt, move to the middle!” Yet, a big part of the reason that Bush and the GOP are in trouble this year is because they’re following exactly that advice.”