Demagogue

I recently posted on the consternation over here regarding a rather baffling incident in which the U.S. turned back a KLM flight at the Canadian border. Now, more details are coming out, and the incident has become less baffling.

The KLM flight refused entry to US airspace on 8 April was reportedly carrying two Saudi Arabian brothers with suspected links to the terror network of Osama bin Laden.

One of the men allegedly had been in contact with Hani Hanjour, one of the hijackers involved in the 11 September terror attacks in the US, magazine 'Newsweek' reported. Hanjour was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

And it has been reported the two Saudi men may have had flight lessons with Hanjour at the Sawyer School of Aviation in Phoenix, Arizona.

Well, that makes sense. Except that there's surely a typo: everywhere the article says "Saudi," shouldn't it say "Iraqi?" After all, it was Saddam who attacked us on 9/11. And who is this "bin Laden" guy the article refers to? One of Saddam's generals?

If you think the humans on the flight found the whole experience disorienting, imagine their four-legged fellow passengers.

The KLM plane was en route to Mexico City with 278 passengers and 15 horses and was above Canada when pilots were informed it had been refused entry to US airspace. The plane then returned to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

The article doesn't say, but I'm sure the horses were Arabians.