"The public would rather us err on the side of caution than not."
On a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Detroit on Sept. 11, three passengers were seated together on one side of a row: "two Indian men living in the Detroit metro area, and me, a half-Arab, half-Jewish housewife living in suburban Ohio." The two men both, brace yourself for this, used the lavatory. Here's a mediocre-at-best news story that reports what happened after that, but here's the personal account of a blogger who claims to be the third of those three passengers -- the non-lavatory-using female passenger, for those of you who are keeping score at home. I invite your comments, particularly comments that might place this kind of official behavior in a historical context, because I'm just speechless. I hope to see more about this in the news, with detailed responses from the agencies involved, but I don't really expect to.
ADDED LATER: Asked if they had maybe overreacted just a tiny bit, an airport spokesman said this flawless thing to the AP: "We always react as if it's the end of the world. If it isn't, so be it."
Three innocent people detained by a SWAT team, held for hours against their will, and stripsearched, because of close to nothing at all. "So be it."