The reason I ask is because news stories indicate that threat level was raised to Crayola Orange last week because a passenger on one of the Air France flights was supposedly tied to Al Qaeda.

Now anyone with an ounce of brains would have waited until that passenger showed up, then grabbed him for questioning.

But instead, the administration had Tom Ridge tell the world about it. Unsurprisingly, the passenger in question did not show up.

The passenger could still be a terrorist, you say? It took the French about a New York minute to check it out.

... the United States had given the French counterespionage service DST the name of a Tunisian man with a pilot's license. American authorities thought the man might be tied to Al Qaeda, the source said, but a DST investigation determined that the man was still in Tunisia and was not in the DST's files. [Air France Terrorist Inquiry Founders]

So do you think the administration was really inept enough to warn away someone they thought was a terrorist? Or was it another opportunity for a bit of fear-mongering and making political points?

Yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, speaking to reporters flying with President Bush to Crawford, Texas, cautioned that the period of high alert is not over, noting the "ongoing nature of the threat and the continuing efforts that are underway." "We are working to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect the American people and prevent attacks," he said. [Ibid.]

The choices seem to be an administration that's incredibly stupid or one that's cynicallymanipulative and unforgivably under-handed.

Scary times, Quasimodo.