I thought that the whole intercept thingy was ment so that I could take awesome pictures.
But why should a fighter be closer then the standard 1.000 FT to observe who we are or what we are doing. This way safety is not an issue. That way wannabe hijackers or other bad people on board wouldn't know if we are on to them and in the worst case start a very slow descend to a (military)apt.
Then again I've been known to have more stupid thoughts...