The next big one foiled; Five conspirators still at large!

Tyler Cowan at Marginal Revolution has a few questions about the viability of the Islamo-fascist conspiracy to blow up about 10 American airlines. How could 21 to 24 men pulled off bomb-making on each of the plans. If successful the disaster would have outstripped 9/11.

I guess in theory you can trigger a liquid explosive with a flash camera. The Internet certainly says you can. How much mid-air assembly of the procedure is required, and at what point do the scheming Pakistanis start to look suspicious? Do the passengers just stand around and watch? Of course if only one of the plots had succeeded it would have been terrible terrible terrible. But, um, was this really a well-developed idea for a terror attack? Just askin', as they say...

How many airline passengers would react and say frantically "Let's roll?"

There's a lot of follow on this story. James Taranto has more.

Meanwhile fewer people might be less wary of electronic surveillance. The feds picked up chatter.

Was this event a precursor to the bust?