MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Still Flying the Jittery Skies,” Ellis Henican Column, amNewYork, April 9, 2010
First he was a possible hijacker.
Then he was an alleged airborne terrorist.
Then he was a shoebomber wannabe.
By the time the fighter jets pulled back and the little whiffs of smoke cleared the cabin air, Mohammed Al-Madadi was just a nicotine-starved airline passenger slipping into the potty for a smoke.
Thanks for flying the jumpy skies! When every single jitter sparks a major security breach!
It’s just one of the downsides of all this age-of-terror talk: If you see something, say something!
Treat all incidents seriously!
Never forget!
Sometimes, the feared terror bomber is just a 27-year-old jonesing smoker.
Sometimes the latest burst of panic has no basis at all.
You know the latest by now. A low-level diplomat from the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, a close U.S. ally, was flying United on Wednesday to Denver from Washington. The Boeing 757 had six crew and 157 passengers aboard, including a couple of air marshals.
Someone in first-class smelled smoke. A flight attendant was alerted. So were the air marshals.
Next thing you knew, two military jets were buzzing outside the windows and the man with the Middle Eastern name was restrained and being grilled.
OK, Al-Madadi shouldn’t have been sneaking a cig like that. And when asked about the restroom aroma, he shouldn’t have made a lame setting-myshoe- on-fire joke, if that’s what he did.
His bad.
But while we’re blaming him for being a flying idiot, maybe we can learn a lesson of our own. Vigilance has to be balanced with judgment. Not every fear is a major threat.
Sometimes the dopey guy is just a dopey guy.
Nearly nine years after 9/11, nearly four months after the Christmas Day “underwear bomber,” we’re still trying to juggle security and panic — and still not getting the balance right.
Now people in Washington are saying that Al-Madadi will be booted from the country anyway — if not for terrorism, then for goofball-ism.
Said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.): “Getting on a U.S. flight, smoking a cigarette and making jokes about it is totally inappropriate.”
With inappropriateness to go around.
Email ellis@henican.com. Follow on Twitter @henican.
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