Law authorities and major media, including Fox News, are apparently shocked at TSA agent Alija Abdul Majed's "stunning error" committed while manning his metal detector in lane 1 of JFK Airport's terminal 7 Saturday morning. Alija Abdul Majed allegedly did not realize his metal detector was unplugged while screening passengers. When the alleged error was finally detected by "higher ups" in the TSA, hundreds of passengers and staff in Terminal 7 were forced to evacuate the terminal, while two planes were called back from the tarmac. From the New York Post, "The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence," a law-enforcement source said. "How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don't even know if the lights are turned on? And more bewilderment from the New York Post reporter:

Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector, the sources said. Majed was so clueless that he couldn't even tell police how long the machine had been shut off or how it happened, the sources said.

Yes, it's certainly amazing. One might even say, unbelievable. And how slick to pass this through unplugged mental detectors by quickly judging Alija Abdul Majed as "clueless" before the facts are in. The state of cluelessness does comes to mind when considering many of the actors in this farce, though this judgment should not so quickly be passed on Alija Abdul Majed. No word on whether there will be an investigation into this alleged error, whether video will be reviewed on passengers allowed through Alija Abdul Majed's lane, whether any of Alija Abdul Majed's acquaintances or possible visits on the internet or are of no particular interest, or whether TSA's hive-minded PC hiring practices will be reviewed.

Bumped, links corrected