AND STILL ONE MORE - AT 7:20 P.M. ET:  We've noted the sheer number of terror incidents, and near-incidents, in the United States in the last year.  We haven't highlighted some strange occurrences aboard airliners.  Here's another, which occurred just this week.  From Canada Free Press:

It happened again on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, less than a month after the incident aboard AirTran Flight 297.

United Airlines Flight 227, scheduled to depart Denver International Airport at 1:50 pm Wednesday for Los Angeles was disrupted when several passengers who were described as Middle Eastern in appearance, confirmed by this investigator to be a group of Muslims traveling together, were removed from that aircraft due to suspicious behavior that originated in the terminal and continued to the airplane. Their behavior was consistent in some respects to the behavior of the Muslim passengers aboard AirTran Flight 297 on November 17, 2009 that caused a flurry of controversy over its legitimacy, and the now infamous case of the “Flying Imams” of 2006.

And...

According to information obtained by this investigator, seven men of Middle Eastern appearance, boarded flight 227. Two took their seats in coach, while five took their seats in the first class section of the plane. At a critical pre-flight point, the individuals appeared to act in concert with one another, changing seats and moving stowed luggage to very specific areas of the aircraft, often having to move the stowed bags of other passengers to do so. They disobeyed or otherwise ignored the admonitions of the flight attendants to remain seated.

The flight crew had those passengers removed.  There's a TV report here.

The passengers were put on another flight.  No criminal activity was found, but the pattern was similar, as the story notes, to one on a flight in November. 

These incidents tend to be downplayed, partly because of political correctness, and partly because of the commercial interests of the airlines. 

Two of the strangely behaving passengers were in coach, and five were in first class, but they all seemed to know each other. 

COMMENT:  We can't make any charges, of course, but we should be concerned.  The general excuse given for behavior like this is "cultural difference."  But there's another, more ominous explanation - testing the system and rattling flight crews.

We say we've been lucky so far, although we weren't so lucky at Fort Hood.  The American people are dozing.

December 11, 2009