More concerned about flying? Yes. Afraid to fly? No. Any more willing to give nutbars like Annie Jacobsen some sort of credence? No.

You may recall Jacobsen, the lady who claimed that in just a couple of airplane flights, with nothing but her two eyeballs, her sharp observational and analytic powers, and some “on background” conversation with airline pilots and officials, how she uncovered a major al-Qaeda test run to blow airplanes up in the sky.

Well, in the wake of the British arrests of a group of British Muslims alleged to have been plotting something similar, an Amazon surfer saw my review of Jacobsen’s book (a highly critical one, on the third-to-last page of my Amazon reviews, linked in the right-hand rail of this blog), e-mailed me, and asked if I still stood behind this review.

I said, by and large, yes, and why.

First, British intelligence developed this case over months, as opposed to Jacobsen flying a couple of planes and then allegedly having some uncorroborated on-background talks with pilots.

Second, any al-Qaeda connection in the British plot is still unsubstantiated.

Third, it was too early after 9/11 for al Qaeda to have launched a plot like the one Jacobson imagines she saw and heard unfolding. Their previous efforts, depending on the magnitude of work involved and distance from the Arab homeland, averaged a two-year gap.

Subpoint 3a on this issue: To the degree al Qaeda itself contributed any work on the Indonesian bombings, that would have been on its table at this time.

Subpoint 3b on this issue: Although bin Laden had dodged early capture in Afghanistan, his inner circle entourage was certainly still in a state of regrouping at the time he would have had to sign off on Jacobsen’s attacks starting.

Bottom line is, though, that many warmongers (no other word for it) will trot out Jacobsen, or Lauren Mylroie again, or bat Ye’or, or people of that nature, to claim that this is far broader and more conspiratorial of an aggression against Western civilization than the “effete left” will admit or even recognize.

If you can’t remember the details of “Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again,” I’ll refresh your memory, with selections from my Amazon review.

Annie Jacobsen's new book, a padding out of her original 2004 Women of Wall Street article, is a mix of half-truths or worse and self-promoting fluff.

For eaxmple, do you REALLY believe that federal agents would simply "casually" drop by her house one day and give her all sorts of off-the-record info that just happened to totally corroborate your story.

As one blogger put it, "I find it rather odd that an official of the Federal Air Marshal Services would release passenger flight and background information to a member of the general public just because she was curious."

Or, that, even as of the time of writing of her book, would-be Arab terrorists continue to do "dry runs" of U.S. airplanes, and have done so for some four years post 9/11 now, and DHS continues to let them?

Also, despite her claim that her own personal check on the musicians didn't pan out (conveniently omitting names and locations connected to her exhaustive search), here IS the "Syrian Wayne Newton": http://www.orientaltunes.com/listening_page9.html#Nour

Finally, as someone who may be of Jewish, not Caucasian ethnic background and at least nominally Christian religious background, she should know better than to peddle a book ultimately based on crude racial stereotypes.

How would she like it if every Jew writing for the Wall Street Journal were excoriated as a usurious moneygrubber? Or something really serious, like a poisoner of Gentile water supplies?