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[sgtclub]

from opinion journal:

A story by Annie Jacobsen, published on WomensWallStreet.com, has been making the rounds on the blogosphere. Jacobsen reports that when she flew from Detroit to Los Angeles last month, she witnessed a group of 14 men, flying on Syrian passports, conducting what appeared to be a "dry run" for a plan to build a bomb in flight--a terror scenario about which the FBI has warned.

It's quite a chilling story, albeit with some comforting elements. A stewardess tells Jacobsen that there are air marshals on board--though it's not clear if they just happened to be there or were put on the flight because the Syrians raised alarm bells. When the flight lands in Los Angeles it is greeted by a bevy of law-enforcement officers, who take the Syrians aside for interrogation.

Less confidence-inspiring, however, is this postflight conversation Jacobsen describes with Dave Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshals Service:

I asked Adams why, based on the FBI's credible information that terrorists may try to assemble bombs on planes, the air marshals or the flight attendants didn't do anything about the bizarre behavior and frequent trips to the lavatory. "Our FAM agents have to have an event to arrest somebody. Our agents aren't going to deploy until there is an actual event," Adams explained.

Jacobsen says this happened on June 29--the day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that noncitizen terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to sue in American courts.