Yellow is the Right Color

What's that definition of terrorist again?

a person who terrorizes or frightens others.

So how does that relate to this story from last week?

Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.

...

seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."

According to this alert, dastardly terrorists were shipping, um, cheese, around the country as a proxy for explosives, planning for the day when Gouda could be replaced by C4.  The package that contains a fresh block of Parmesan today could be plastique tomorrow.  A nice Stilton... you get the idea.

These FBI warnings caused airports to increase their level of security, and contributed to a summer that's already been plagued by travel problems.  Worse, it served to tweak the nerves of travelers who had to wonder if their plane would be the one not carrying a block of pepperjack.  

Heh.  Funny story.  Not only has some of this turned out to be completely ridiculous, it now turns out there were no dry runs.

"That bulletin for law enforcement eyes only told of suspicious items recently found in passenger's bags at airport checkpoints, warned that they may signify dry runs for terrorist attacks," CNN's Brian Todd reported Friday afternoon. "Well it turns out none of that is true."

Instead it seems that the FBI put out some false reports just to keep folks on their toes.  In other news:  Wolf!  Look over there, a wolf!

By the way, the national threat advisory today is yellow as it has been since January 2004, and the alert level for aviation is still at orange, dating back to the fear of shampoo.