Let's not get carried away by the crack response to this loon nabbed at the Orlando airport after trying to check a backbag that contained some pipes and some printed material on bomb-making.
Naturally, the usual media nitwits, locally and nationally, immediately began hyperventilating.
Knee-jerk politicians like Rep. John L. Mica, the Florida Republican, who used to chair the House transportation subcommittee, rushed breathlessly to get into the action and try to evoke 9/11.
"Within the last hour I received a closed Transportation Security Administration briefing from TSA Administrator Kip Hawley relating to the incident at Orlando International Airport. This appears to have been a serious matter with the potential for tragic consequences, and the incident is being thoroughly investigated. This incident serves as a reminder that our nation and our aviation system face the continued threat of potential attacks," he said in a statement hurried out by his office.
Yada, yada ... What the incident serves as a reminder of is: 1. The "behavior specialists" that Kip Hawley put in place to expand security, and try to spot trouble before it gets to the head of the line, are doing the job, and 2. Outright severely mentally disturbed people -- oh hell, let me use the term: lunatics -- generally behave in ways that are obvious, as this guy did. Evidently, passengers in the area also noted and reported his bizarre behavior.
According to one local television report:
"Passengers waiting to board flights at Orlando International Airport Tuesday said they noticed Brown acting suspiciously before agents moved in.
'He looked rather crazy,' a passenger said. 'He was rocking left and right and up and down. He looked a little wacko.' "
This is not the way a crafty terrorist behaves.
The FBI later said that the following were found in the backpack: "Two galvanized pipes, end caps, two small containers containing BBs, batteries, two containers with an unknown liquid, and bombing making literature."
The
Associated Press says the man told authorities he had the stuff because he wanted to demonstrate to friends in Jamaica, his destination, how to make a bomb.
Remember: His backback never got into a cargo hold of an airplane, and he never got through security.
The way I see it, the system worked as it was supposed to. So calm down, congressman.
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