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Plane Diverted Because of Praying Passenger

AQAP will really get a chuckle over this one: A teenager praying loudly caused a plane to divert.

A U.S. Airways jet was diverted to Philadelphia International Airport Thursday after a praying Jewish man's religious item was mistaken for a bomb, police said....Officials said another passenger had become alarmed by seeing the teen's phylacteries — boxes containing verses from the Bible which observant Jews strap around their arms and heads as part of morning prayers.

"Someone on the plane construed it as some kind of device," said Christine O'Brien, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department.

Between the TSA and hyper-alert (and ignorant) fliers, is everything out of the ordinary going to considered a potential terrorist threat?

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Flying Without an Overcoat a Sign of Terrorism?

Will flying without an overcoat be the next item to place you on the terrorism watch list?

The would-be Christmas Day bomber boarded his flight in Amsterdam to frigid Detroit with no coat — perhaps the final warning sign that went unnoticed leading up to what could have been a catastrophic terrorist attack, lawmakers were told.

..."He was flying into Detroit without a coat. That's interesting if you've ever been in Detroit in December," New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said after a briefing by presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.

How will they distinguish between someone who originated their trip in a cold climate, flew to warm climate and then was on their way back to the cold? When I've flown home to Colorado in the winter from a warm climate, I don't have a coat with me. I've either left one in the car I parked at the airport or asked the person picking me up to bring it. Who wants to schlep a winter coat to the tropics?

As for not having luggage, many people (including me) ship it via Fedex ahead of time. [More...]

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