There has been some speculation that this guy's stupidity precludes him being part of some organized effort. It seems to me that when you recruit suicide bombers you can't be too choosy.
According to the CNN article that Saab2k refers to upthread, the FAA issued a security bulletin on December 11. It warned that the U.S. government had received information "that suggests the possibility of terrorist hijackings of airliners from either the U.S. or Europe. We are concerned that hijackers may attempt to smuggle disassembled weapons on board an airliner by hiding weapon components within their shoes." This incident and the intelligence may well be unrelated but it is discouraging to think that this happened when security was supposedly heightened.