> As described by Clinton’s counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, this idea was conceived overnight as a way to show that the government was “doing something” in response to a plane crash that turned out to have been caused by a faulty fuel tank, not terrorism.

To be honest the worry about terrorists hijacking planes under Clinton proved to be quite prescient only a few years later.

And they had their IDs checked at the airport when they boarded the planes they hijacked. The security theatre here had no benefit.