What Happened to Flight 17? Nothing.

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.

A number of us in the blogosphere have been catching wind of rumors that a surface-to-air missile was fired at an America West flight originating out of New York. Here's a post at Little Green Footballs, where many commenters are virulently racist misanthropes wisely skeptical but wanting more info.

Let's see. The two sources for a story are LGF and Michelle Malkin. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it probably wasn't a missile.

And what do you know:

The sighting was reported near Colt's Neck, NJ, which is a major route south out of NY. FAA set up a small temporary flight restriction around the area while checking radar files. Turned out to be nothing more than birds, and [a] big game of "telephone."

I wonder how long we'll have to wait before Flight 17's version of Annie Jacobsen is regaling us with tales of how "Arabs" have invented a surface-to-air missile with active camoflauge, able to appear exactly like a flock of birds.

WHY WON'T THE FBI ADMIT IT TO THE PUBLIC?!?!??111??

Update: Jesse from Pandagon is on the same wavelength.

Update 2: As is LA.

It occurs to me that events like this - at least overblown, if not completely without basis in fact - were reported in the early days of WWII, which contributed to both the call for and acceptance of the internment at the time.

False reports of spying and sabotage by Japanese Americans in Hawaii and on the West Coast were combined with already existing racial prejudices to inflame feelings of hatred against all people of Japanese ancestry i.e. Issei, the first Japanese immigrant generation and Nisei, the second generation.