Yes, there are lots of reports from unnamed sources saying “terrorists appear to be developing the capability to do this but we don’t think they can yet. Better safe than sorry though, right?”
There are also lots of reports that point out that the timing is odd, putting sanctions on the airlines affected seems to conveniently bolster American business interests, the ban as it stands does nothing to stop attacks from other locations or increase security by much at all, the UK didn’t specifically ban the big three Gulf airlines in response to the same intelligence, putting batteries in the hold may actually increase risk, and that this new rule comes amidst the background of trump repeatedly trying to ban Muslims from entering the US.
I don’t doubt that there is an intelligence report kicking around that says that this is a potential risk. That would be the same report that Canada and Australia saw, and decided wasn’t worth doing anything about.
It’s odd, though, that none of the incidents mentioned to justify the ban occurred within the last year. It’s also odd that this report emerged immediately after the US carriers failed to renegotiate key deals that affect their ability to compete with the Gulf airlines, and immediately after a meeting with the president to discuss new measures to make themselves more competitive.
I don’t think that it is conspiracy theory to point any of this out, and neither do The Guardian, Forbes, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Channel News Asia and many other mainstream news organisations.
