Airports go to alert level "Plaid", rest of nation still at "Bert".

If this still-developing story turns out to be even 50% factual, it illustrates the quandary that the Western governments are in: If they use the alert system for every terrorist operation they break up, they risk turning into the "Government That Cried 'Wolf!'", and get accused of trying to scare the nation into surrendering more freedoms via their hype. Conversely, if they try and keep things low key and something does happen, then they're blasted from both Left and Right as lazy and incompetent.

If the US and British governments were as cynical and scheming as the Konspiracy Krew like to paint them, don't you think they'd have let this one go down in order to whip up flagging support for the Global War On A Noun? I mean, if there were smoking wrecks littering the tarmac of American airports, aluminum showers raining crispy critters on the 'burbs of DC, would I even now be making snarky remarks about "alert level Bert"? Doubtful...