Stupid is as stupid does

Anahad O'Connor has an article in The New York Times about yet another stupid diplomat (or is that a redundant phrase?):

Federal officials were investigating an incident aboard a Washington-to-Denver flight on Wednesday involving a passenger who caused a disturbance. The passenger has been identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatari Embassy in Washington. A federal official said that the man went to the bathroom to smoke a cigarette, and was confronted by air marshals on board the plane. The passenger understood he had diplomatic immunity, and made sarcastic comments that the marshals took as a threat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The situation here is not like the shoe bomber,” the official said, alluding to the December 2001 incident in which Richard C. Reid, a self-admitted member of al-Qaeda, had attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Several law enforcement officials said late Wednesday that no bomb had been found on Wednesday’s flight. Still, the passenger was being questioned by the FBI, as were fellow passengers, and the investigation was continuing, they said.
Two F-16 fighters from Buckley Air Force Base, in Colorado, were scrambled to intercept the plane, the authorities said. They escorted it for the last five minutes of its flight, and it landed safely in Denver. Aircraft around the United States were alerted about the incident, a federal official said.
The Transportation Security Administration released a statement about the incident: “TSA is monitoring an incident on board United Airlines flight 663 from DCA to DEN after receiving initial reports that a Federal Air Marshal responded to a passenger who was possibly causing a disturbance on board this aircraft.”
The plane took off from Ronald Reagan National Airport at 5:19 p.m. Eastern time and landed in Denver at 6:54 p.m. Mountain time. United released a statement saying it had alerted federal authorities to the incident. “Following an incident involving a passenger, the crew of United flight 663 asked that the plane be met by law enforcement officials after landing safely at DIA at 7 p.m. local time,” the statement said. “We are cooperating fully with the investigation. The Boeing 757 had 157 passengers and six crew.”
The incident comes just four months after a Nigerian man with terrorist ties sneaked an explosive onto a trans-Atlantic flight and tried to ignite it as the plane prepared to land in Detroit.

Rico says lessee, two F-16s for an hour or so, a lot of FBI time, and general aviation nuisance; we should be billing the Qataris for a couple million bucks, and then throwing them out when they won't pay...
Rico says that MSNBC.com has more on the subject, including the really stupid remark that got him into this mess:

A Qatari diplomat trying to sneak a smoke in an airplane bathroom sparked a bomb scare Wednesday night on a flight from Washington to Denver, with fighter jets scrambled and law enforcement put on high alert, officials said. No explosives were found on the man, and officials do not believe he was trying to harm anyone, according to senior law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A law firm representing the Qatar embassy told the Associated Press that the diplomat was been released by authorities after questioning. The firm, Brown Lloyd James, said the diplomat was on his way back to Washington, and confirmed he is named Mohammed Al-Madadi and holds the post of third secretary.
Federal officials told NBC News that a half hour before the jet landed, a flight attendant smelled smoke as a passenger left a restroom. An air marshal confronted the man. Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that investigators were told the man was asked about the smell of smoke and he made a joke that he had been trying to light his shoes, an apparent reference to the 2001 so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid. The sources asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Officials said air marshals aboard the flight restrained the man and he was questioned. The plane landed safely as military jets were scrambled.
A law enforcement official said there will be no criminal charges against the man.
Ali bin Fahad al-Hajri, Qatar's ambassador to the U.S., confirmed that the diplomat was "traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions. He was certainly not engaged in any threatening behavior," the ambassador said in a statement. "The facts will reveal that this was a mistake."
The incident comes three months after the attempted terror attack on Christmas Day when a Nigerian man tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. Since then, law enforcement, flight crews and passengers have been on high alert for suspicious activity on airplanes. The scare exposed major holes in the country's national security and prompted immediate changes in terror-screening policies.
The Boeing 757 was carrying 157 passengers and six crew members, United Airlines spokesman Michael Trevino said. It left Reagan National Airport at 5:19 p.m. EDT and landed at Denver International Airport at 7 p.m. MDT. The flight crew radioed air traffic control to ask that the flight be met on the ground by law enforcement, Trevino said. Passengers say they were kept on the plane for nearly an hour after it landed, and then questioned at a fire station at the airport.
Passenger Mei Turcotte, 26, of Kalispell, Montana, told The Associated Press she smelled smoke about an hour into the flight. She said she later looked out the window and saw two jets flying alongside the plane. "I'm in the sky a lot, and I was thinking that might not be so normal," she said. She was angry about being held against her will to be questioned over something so minor. "He went quietly. There was not a scene," Turcotte said. "They made this into something that was ridiculous."
Dave Klaversma, 55, of Parker, Colorado, said his wife, Laura, was sitting behind the man in the first class section of the United flight. She said she saw the man go into the bathroom and that moments later he said something to the flight crew. After that, two U.S. marshals in the first-class section apprehended the man and sat next to him for the remainder of the flight. Klaversma said his wife told him it all happened very quietly and that "there was no hysteria, no struggle, nothing". She said she noticed nothing unusual about the man before the incident.
Another passenger, 61-year-old Scott Smith of Laramie, Wyoming, said he was seated toward the middle of the plane and didn't notice any disturbance during the flight. "The approach into Denver was unusual," Smith, a computer programmer, told reporters by cell phone. "We came in rather fast, and we were flying low for a long period of time. I've never seen a jetliner do that. There were no announcements, nothing about your carry-on bags or tray tables." Once on the ground, Smith said, the pilot eventually announced that "we have a situation here on the plane."
The Transportation Security Administration confirmed that federal air marshals responded to a passenger "causing a disturbance onboard the aircraft", but didn't elaborate. "Law enforcement and TSA personnel responded to the scene, and the passenger is currently being interviewed by law enforcement," the TSA said in a statement. "All steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the traveling public." The airport remained open during the incident, and no flights were delayed or canceled, airport spokesman Jeff Green said.
President Barack Obama was briefed about the incident aboard Air Force One by National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones and National Security Chief of Staff Denis McDonough shortly before 9 p.m. EDT, said a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The president was traveling to Prague, where he signed a nuclear arms treaty with Russia Thursday.
Foreign diplomats in the United States, like American diplomats posted abroad, have broad immunity from prosecution. U.S. authorities would have to decide whether to ask Qatar to waive his diplomatic immunity so he could be charged and tried. Qatar could decline, the official said, and the man would likely be expelled from the United States.
Qatar, about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, is an oil- and gas-rich monarchy and close U.S. ally of about 1.4 million people on the Arabian peninsula, surrounded by three sides by the Persian Gulf and to the south by Saudi Arabia. The country hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which runs the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and is major supporter of operations deemed critical to both campaigns. It also played a prime role in the 1991 Gulf War, which drove Saddam Hussein's Iraq out of Kuwait.

Rico says they should make him third secretary in the Qatari embassy to the Falklands...