"In retrospect," said Michael Sheehan, "there may have been too much hyperventilating going on."

Aha! I am not alone in the wilderness. Last month's wannabe plane-exploding terrorists had no plan, and the plan they did have wouldn't have worked.

These aren't exactly the most high-profile publications, but they reassuringly reflect what I was saying within a week of the arrests, and are the only stories I've heard that fit all the facts as I know them. (Yes, I'm familiar with selection bias. Thank you, small internet voice.)

Perhaps this is old news, and everyone already knows all this. That would explain why I don't see these stories—the "Oh, wait, we weren't days from explodey death, and travelers should maybe have their beverages back" kind of stories—on the news.