Well, at least we're consistent

The International Herald Tribune for January 17.

Brussels - A meeting of high-level U.S. and European civil aviation officials broke up Friday without agreement on the question of putting armed guards on international flights bound for the United States.

"I don't think anybody persuaded each other," Asa Hutchinson, the U.S. under secretary for border and transportation security, said of the meeting.

But, he said, officials had achieved a "framework for future cooperation."

Which is, of course, redundant of his previous statement.

The Europeans, for their part, were distressed over the US's "unilateralism" which is

"creating considerable uproar" because it "gave the impression that it's not the countries concerned who are deciding what happens on flights for which they are responsible"

according to Gilles Gantelet, a European Commission representative.

According to an unnamed EU official, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal are firmly against the policy (as are pilots' associations), holding that having a firearm aboard a flight is dangerous; other countries like Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Italy are opposed in principle and would like to see it used "only as a last resort"; France and Britain are said to be allowing the used of armed marshals.

What I'm waiting to see is what happens the first time a pilot refuses to fly because a marshal is on board.