By Al Kamen

Monday, February 23, 2004; Page A19

A couple of years ago, when famed D.C. lawyer and now Florida senatorial candidate Larry Klayman was running Judicial Watch, he was a principal author of a book, "Fatal Neglect: The U.S. Government's Continuing Failure to Protect American Citizens from Terrorists."

The Transportation Security Agency, responding to such criticism, greatly tightened airport security, even posting signs warning people at airports not even to joke about bombs. The TSA Web site also warns against talking about terrorism or explosives or weapons when going through security. "Don't joke about having a bomb or firearm. The mere mention of such words as 'gun' or 'bomb' . . . can compel security personnel to detain and question you. They are trained to consider these comments as real threats."

The Web site of Klayman, a candidate in the GOP primary, touted that "as a national opinion leader on security issues, Larry Klayman believes that our officials in Washington have not gone far enough to protect Americans from terrorism."

But how far does he want them to go? For example, Klayman was just about to go through the metal detector at National last fall en route to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on United Flight 2899, when he announced that the package he was carrying (a little container for his cat) was not a bomb.

According to another waiting passenger nearby, Klayman told the screeners that the cat wasn't a terrorist and didn't have a bomb. With that, we're told, he was instantly taken out of line by the security people and put in handcuffs.

He was then apparently taken somewhere for questioning, where agents most likely didn't recognize him or realize that he was famous. He was eventually released, and he hopped a later flight.

"It wasn't a funny joke," Klayman said last week, rejecting our efforts to talk about the surgical removal of the agents' senses of humor. "I apologized for it. I support what the TSA is doing, and I should have been more sensitive. I was tired, and it was the end of the day."

Asked about the cuffs and the questioning, Klayman declined to go into detail, though he confirmed he had to take a later flight to Fort Lauderdale.

Well, beats Guantanamo.

Speaking of terrorism and such, it's possible that people are starting to forget why the United States really had no choice but to go to war in Iraq. Maybe with those folks in mind, the White House Web site continues to post the most important reasons:

"The gravest danger we face in the war on terror is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

"• Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein agreed to disarm all weapons of mass destruction. For 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement.

"• Three months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam his final chance to disarm. He has shown his utter contempt for the U.N.

"• The U.N. and U.S. intelligence sources have known for some time that Saddam Hussein has materials to produce chemical and biological weapons, but he has not accounted for them:

"• 26,000 liters of anthrax -- enough to kill several million people.

"• 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin.

"• 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agents.

"• Almost 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents."

Saddam was still working hard to get nukes, too. "He recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, according to the British Government," the Web site posting, put up just before the invasion began in March, says. "He has attempted to purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons, according to our intelligence sources. Yet he has not credibly explained these activities."

Betcha he's singing now about that uranium.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's favorite Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi, now on Baghdad's governing council, has laid claim to the Nobel "Heroes in Error" Prize. Chalabi, accused of peddling phony tips about Iraq's weapons, shrugged off charges that he had deliberately misled U.S. intelligence, the London Telegraph reported.

"We are heroes in error," he told the Telegraph in an interview Wednesday in Baghdad.

"As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. Our objective has been achieved. That tyrant Saddam is gone, and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important."

Not even to the families of all the killed and wounded?

Speaking of Baghdad, Robert Tappan, a longtime Washington public affairs guru and now principal deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs, has departed Foggy Bottom for Iraq on a temporary assignment as director of the Coalition Provisional Authority's Office of Strategic Communications.

White House Council on Economic Advisers chief Gregory Mankiw was scalded last week for saying that sending jobs overseas was a good thing for the economy. So on Tuesday, he tried to, as they say on the Hill, revise and extend his remarks at a luncheon with economists. The restaurant? Chinatown Garden on H Street NW.

The Bombay Club was booked?