"Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid"

Foiled terror-plot to blow up JFK Airport; or just more fear-mongering from the authorities and MSM?

US Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf: "the devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable.”

Jake Magish, engineer with Supersafe Tank Systems: “The fantasy that I’ve heard about the people saying ‘they will blow the tank and destroy the airport,’ is nonsense.... There are people there responding to hysteria, I think. But from an engineering point of view, if someone is successful in blowing a hole into a tank, they will just have a fire from one tank."

I think one commentator ("Clark Kent") got it exactly right: "A government truly interested in fighting terrorism would deal with this threat (to whatever extent it might have been anything approaching a real threat) quietly, efficiently and without any fanfare. Only a government interested in terrorizing its own citizens and reaping rewards from that terrorism would make such a show and raise such publicity about it."

And, as Arianna Huffington writes: "There was no set plan. There was no financing. They didn't have any explosives -- and yet government officials were quoted calling the amorphous plot 'one of the most chilling plots imaginable' that almost 'resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths, and destruction.' And people wonder why the public has become cynical about how the war on terror is being used for political purposes. What's more, the wave of red alert press coverage turns out to have been based on a misunderstanding of how jet fuel pipelines work. 'Such an attack would have crippled America's economy,' wailed AP's Adam Goldman. And people wonder why the public has become cynical about how the media uses the war on terror to boost their ratings and circulation."