Cartoon Militants Arrested, Boston Safe

Two people have been arrested in connection with the Aqua Teen Hunger Force ad campaign that Boston officials mistook for terrorism.

Apparently, it's a crime in Massachussetts to post jokey ads that paranoid police officials don't understand.

The most disturbing line in the story comes from Peter Berdovsky, one of the two people arrested:

" . . . they were up there for three weeks and no one noticed."

If the "threat" was urgent enough to shut down parts of Boston yesterday, officials should be forced to explain why it took them three weeks to spot the "threat" at all.

I hope the companies involved are decent enough to pay the legal expenses of the people arrested.

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When state and federal officials recover their composure and heal their bruised egos, perhaps they'll turn their attention to this far more important and disturbing news story:

Nuclear Agency: Air Defenses Impractical
Government Says Defending Nuclear Plants From Airliner Attack Not an Industry Responsibility

By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Making nuclear power plants crash-proof to an airliner attack by terrorists is impracticable and it's up to the military to avert such an assault, the government said Monday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a revised security policy, directed nuclear plant operators to focus on preventing radiation from escaping in case of such an attack and to improve evacuation plans to protect public health and safety.

Read more

Translation -- The federal government says that the nuclear power industry has no obligation to fortify against 9/11-style attacks, despite the fact that dozens of nuclear power plants around the country store highly radioactive fuel rods in pools of water that are not protected by reinforced concrete domes that surround nuclear reactors.

Erecting protective metal beams and cables around nuclear waste is impractical, says the federal government. Splitting the atom, however, is not. State and local governments should be furious.

I'm sure the energy industry's influence over the current White House had absolutely nothing to do with the NRC's decision.

But, hey, at least they arrested the people who planted Aqua Teen lite brites around Boston.