I had precisely the same reaction. I work with a lot of banks, and I can't imagine any of them making $5 million available in an account on the strength of a cashier's check without at least some attempt to verify that the check is genuine. Bank check forgeries are very common these days -- a function of the sophistication and widespread availability of computer graphics technology. Look at the web sites of the bank regulatory agencies (Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC and OTS). You will see an alert almost every day about forged bank checks.
In this case, since the check was written on a branch that didn't exist, red flags would have gone up immediately. I would like to think that our terrorist enemies were that stupid and unsophisticated, but I doubt that is so. There is something funny about this whole story.
Indeed there is something funny about this whole story. And with our lazy and ignorant press who can't zero in on the obvious we will probably never hear about how this guy was going to turn trash into cash!