A Finger in the Dike?

A Northwest Airlines flight to Mumbai was turned back to Amsterdam's Schipol airport today, and 12 passengers were detained following suspicious behavior involving post-takeoff cell phone use. The cabin crew noted the odd behavior and informed the Captain, who radioed the for support. Two Dutch F-16s escorted the plane back to Amsterdam where the passengers were detained.

Alright. Good job on the part of the crew for being attentive, on the part of the Captain for following appropriate protocol, and the Dutch for responding promptly. But this begs the question: assuming there's a plot afoot, how do the various intelligence agencies fail to pick up at least a few of these potential security risks, particularly when they all board the same plane? It also begs another question: if you were running a terrorist operation, would you put all your operatives on the same plane? These two questions lead to a few possible answers (probably several others, as well).

1. None of these people is a terrorist, and all are unfamiliar with the rules governing cell phone usage on airplanes.
2. Some of these people are terrorists, and they are flying with their families, who are unaware of what they're up to.
3. All of these people are terrorists, but none of them has a prior criminal history, and therefore, their aggregation is not seen as a risk.
4. All of these people are terrorists, none of them has a prior criminal history, and their aggregation is part of a larger plan, where the strateic aim outweighs the risk.

Well now. Isn't that fun? It seems that, despite our best efforts at reacting strategically in the GWOT, we just keep reacting like the little boy trying to stem the flood.

And now we'll just have to keep an eye on the news to find out what really happened. Enough speculation on my part.