Lest we become complacent

This story is appalling --more for the paper's emphasis on the airport security mishandling of the event (by allowing this obviously suspicious man on the plane).

The report states that a man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop.

A search of the man's baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man's shoes and determined that the "entire soles of both shoes were gutted out."

The real question here should go well beyond the security decisions. I'd like to know why a Middle Eastern man had that computer in his baggage and lied about it, why there was a battery and Quran taped to it and why the hell his shoe soles were hollowed out. Before 9/11 we know that the terrorists made pre-flights to assess the security situation, etc. Why is the media ignoring the real story here??? It certainly wouldn't be the first time...