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FAMA harps heavily on the dry-run theory despite contrary assertions from its bosses. "There is no specific intelligence that terrorists are conducting test flights or surveillance activities on U.S. airliners. Period." That's not from National Public Radio, the New York Times, or al-Jazeera. Those are the words of David Adams, spokesperson for the Federal Air Marshal Service in Washington, D.C.

Adams is concerned about FAMA's influence and media appearances, but won't tip his hand as to how or whether his bureau will address the matter. He says of FAMA's executive director, Bob Flamm, "He is not a federal air marshal. And, honestly, I don't know for sure who he is or what he represents. FAMA's assertions are not borne out by facts, and the group is not sanctioned by the office of the Federal Air Marshal Service or our workforce."

I wonder what FAMA thinks of the comments in Time magazine from the flight 327 air marshal. According to Adams, Annie Jacobsen disputes the officer's account and has reportedly called him a liar. But the more Annie Jacobsen discredits and rejects nearly everything set before her by the TSA, FBI, FAMS and DHS, the more we have to ask: Just what, exactly, do she and her allies want? Is that question even answerable? Here are the feelings of Stanley J. Alluisi, a professor from the Aviation Sciences Institute at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

"One of my biggest problems with Ms. Jacobsen is her implicit and explicit insistence that 'something should have been done.' The 'so-called musicians' should have been arrested, deported, or possibly sent to Guantánamo Bay. For what? Being Syrian?"

"Her 'logic' that the Syrians were terrorists on a dry run is similar to the arguments put forward by those claiming psychic or magical powers. First, they demand that you prove their extraordinary claims are false, turning the evidentiary requirements on their head. And if you would just look closer and closer, you will eventually find the proof! The truth is out there."

"Jacobsen says, 'I saw what I saw' and 'Those men were up to something and I cannot believe otherwise.' Therefore, no amount of investigation will be sufficient if it does not dig deep enough to 'prove' the 14 Syrians were terrorists. Nothing short of their signed confessions, or their actually participating in a terror attack could satisfy her, since she 'cannot believe otherwise.' This is religion, not logic."

Conspiracy myths, if that's the appropriate term for all that has emerged from flight 327, come in all colors, sizes and political affiliations. I'm hoping at least a few of you remember my take on the Paul Wellstone crash a couple of years ago, when members of the fringe left were peddling grassy-knoll theories that Republican operatives had bombed Wellstone's twin-engine Beechcraft out of the sky. Now it's the other side's turn, and this time the stakes are much higher.

The right has spun the Annie Jacobsen psychodrama into a clash of ideologies. On one hand this is hardly surprising, yet at the same time I'm baffled -- and creeped out -- by the weight of people's investment in the idea of terrorists working among us. What does a group like FAMA stand to gain? Merely a justification for their existence and continued "business"? Or does a ceaseless pretext of us-vs.-them hostilities pander to baser instincts -- those that hunger for conflict and power?

It's a familiar story, whereby hard-line conservatives claim deed over all things virtuous, patriotic and strong, casting aside all who disagree as traitorous, co-conspiring liberals whose opinions ensure nothing short of rampant destruction and the collapse of society. This is not only distasteful but dangerously counterproductive. The security of the skies is being hijacked, if I may, by belligerent partisans who hold their own ideology above evidence, practicality and the common good. I have a problem with that, and you should too.

Next week: The dry-run fantasy and a passenger-profiling nightmare.

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