On May 1st, we killed Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda is sure to retaliate. Now, we have a Yemeni man attempting to storm the cockpit of an American Airlines flight screaming “Allahu Akbar”… and shockingly, authorities can’t figure out a motive.

Really?!

The passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco. He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door.

“I kept saying to myself: ‘What’s he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?’” passenger Angelina Marty said.

Within moments Sunday, a flight attendant tackled Rageh Almurisi. Authorities do not yet have a motive.

Um, here. Let me help them out. It’s called jihad.

While authorities said that Almurisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., has no clear or known ties to terrorism, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week.

Federal agents are investigating Almurisi’s background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card, authorities said.

…Marty, 35, recalled that she and other passengers on the plane were stunned when they saw Almurisi walking down the aisle. She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic translated that Almurisi said “God is Great!” in Arabic.

Andrew Wai, another passenger, told KGO-TV on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling “Allahu Akbar.”

“There was no question in everybody’s mind that he was going to do something,” Marty said.

A male flight attendant tackled Almurisi, and other crew members and passengers, including a retired Secret Service agent and a retired San Mateo police officer, helped subdue him as he banged on the door, police said. The flight attendant put plastic handcuffs on him.

It doesn’t matter that he has no known ties to terrorism. Is it not possible that someone could be a terrorist, hiding here in the United States, and our government (gasp!) doesn’t know about it?

This incident also shows how important it is for us to always, always, always be alert. With the Mr. Magoos at the TSA busy groping grandmas and little kids, it’s easy for terrorists to stroll right on through security and board an airplane (obviously). And authorities apparently can’t figure out an attempted terrorist attack, even when it’s right in front of their eyes. It seems to me that when it comes to national security, we’re on our own. These passengers and flight attendants showed that they were paying attention, and more importantly, showed extreme daring and bravery in tackling this man before he had a chance to do whatever it was he was going to do.

Now, let’s say the man had no weapons and this attack was as ludicrous as it comes. Does that mean we should shrug it off as no big deal, as Michelle suspects the Obama administration will? Well, no. This could easily be a man who is still working for Al Qaeda and is still a terrorist — and was simply going through a dry run, attempting to find out what kind of security we currently have on our airplanes. We can’t become complacent and we can’t forget that the threat is still out there. They’re still trying to kill us. — even though authorities may not be able to understand that.