This past weekend, the mere rumor of someone walking past airport security in Newark — unnoticed by security but passed along by a concerned bystander — was enough to purge an entire airport and force some 10,000 people to get back in line and go through security again.

Meanwhile, from the UK Telegraph, the British government had given the U.S. specific information on Umar Abdulmutallab and his terrorist ties a year ago. Yet despite this, Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a U.S.-bound airplane with TNT in his BVDs.