Firstly, OBL did publicly promise Bush no more attacks if he pulled US troops out of Saudi, so not entirely surprising since Bush complied with this demand in 2002, but more importantly the TSA approach is reflective of a complete and total failure to "think like a terrorist". None of the people who come up with these rules have ever tried to imagine (or better yet, create a formal war-gaming scenario) what they would do if they with a terrorist with extensive training in explosives, etc., who have just been given two years and a budget of 100K USD by OBL to go do some damage. What are they worried about, what challenges do they need to overcome to accomplish their mission? You would have to be a moron to believe it would be about finding a target -- there are endless choices. You would have to be a real moron to believe it would be about getting a bottle of evian past the TSA. Nothing the TSA or anyone has done could prevent another 7/7 or Atocha, and there is nothing imaginable that could be done -- as the movie V for Vendetta showed, even a total police state is vulnerable to a well planned and well thought through terror strategy. All the supposed "plots" that have been uncovered were being done by unbelievably clownish and amateurish idiots who did little more than talk big over the phone.

What I would like to know is why government authorities think they should not take away an unnecessary privilege like private automobiles even though they kill half a million people annually, but they do want to take away sacred, fundamental liberties to prevent terrorism, even though it kills only a few hundred annually?