I was thinking about the plane the other day that was at 8500 feet. The angle required to get it in the cockpit would have placed the would have placed the laser atleast 2 miles out. To get through all the airpollution around most airports and be visible in the cockpit it would amaze me if it were a hand pointer. Even so, I hope the guy pointing it didn't drink a lot of coffee. :)
From the descriptions I've read, the pilots report seeing a laser. That doesn't mean they noticed a little green light dancing around the roof of the cockpit. They most likely noticed it pointed up from the ground. I work with some very sophisticated and powerful lasers. Their spot size expands with range quite a bit. The little penlight you see at the source becomes significantly larger at ranges over a mile. Furthermore, most military tracking lasers are infrared. Obviously you don't want your target to notice he is being tracked, so the lasers operate outside the normal visual spectrum. It is extremely unlikely any of these laser sightings have anything to do with any military tracking systems.