The Gullibility of Air & Space Smithsonian

The latest issue (October, 2014) has an article about the fight against the NIMBYites in Santa Monica who want to shut down the airport. That article has a side-bar article about the closure of Meigs Field in 2003 by Stadtführer Mayor Richard Daley the Second. The article contained this nugget of bilgewater about Daley's rationale for carving massive Xs into the runway:

The decision to shut down Meigs Field was made by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, ostensibly to prevent terrorists from using the field as cover to mount an attack. While that was a legitimate concern, many contend the true motive was Daley’s long-held wish to turn Meigs into a large park.

There was nothing legitimate about it. There was no support for the notion that terrorists were planning to use small airports as staging areas for terrorist attacks on Chicago or any other damned place. As was shown when some clown crashed a Piper into an IRS office or when Cory Lidle's airplane hit an apartment building, small airplanes are pretty piss-poor weapons.

I've read some fairly incredible things in Air & Space over the years. But this one takes the cake for complete gullibility on their part.