From Chewy; "Are they deliberately trying to scare people out of the sky?"
Well, yes, actually. IMHO the more stories you can print like this that say 'thank goodness for the TSA and our Executive Branch led decision making cycle' the easier it is to convince Joe Public that something meaningful is being done about 'the threat' using his tax dollars. But it doesn't take much Emperors' New Clothes thinking to come up with an alternative answer though.