Posted by
Patrick Henry on Sunday, December 27, 2009 6:39:22 PM
There is probably no truth to the rumor that requirements for an I.Q. over 40 were
waived prior to Janet Napolitano's confirmation as Secretary of Homeland Security.
But you would never know it, to hear her pontificate after the Christmas near miss by
a would-be homicide bomber aboard a Detroit bound Northwest flight. "The system
worked," she crowed. "Everybody did what they were supposed to."
Now if that was an example of the system "working," Americans would hate to see
what the system looked like when it wasn't working. Three things prevented an
incredible disaster, and not one of them had anything to do with Janet Napolitano,
DHS or "the system" working. First, the alert and yes, heroic, actions of the passengers
and flight crew to restrain the bomber were crucial. Second, like so many of al Qaeda's
homemade murder toys, this one didn't work, or, third, the bomber, Umarfarouk
Abdulmutallab was too dumb to know how to trigger it properly (a la Richard Reid).
Looking at some of the al Qaeda bombers like Abdulmutallab, Reid and Zacarias
Moussaoui, one wonders if any of their elevators go all the way to the top. What saved
the day was decidedly NOT the system working.
What contributed to the problem was the system working poorly or not at all. Consider
that as recently as November Abdulmutallab's father showed up at one of the two
American consular offices in Nigeria to warn us that his son had become radicalized
and might be plotting something nefarious. One would think that such information might
have been just a wee bit helpful had authorities known it BEFORE Abdulmutallab
boarded the aircraft with a bomb strapped to his midsection. Into what State Department
black hole that information vanished remains presently unknown. If it wasn't reported
appropriately up the chain then the person who sat on it had better hope there is some
room left in the hole for him or her. And apparently Abdulmutallab had made it onto a
list of some 500,000 suspects, but not the no fly list. What's wrong wth this picture?
Nor did he get patted down in Amsterdam, where screeners could and should have easily
found his explosive device. These are wonderful examples of the system "working."
What is troubling, in addition to the near mass loss of life, is that a presidential cabinet
member would have the mendacity and gall to try to convince Americans that everything
is just fine and dandy, and we're all quite safe because "the system worked." This is yet
one more in a chain of bald-faced whoppers told for gospel by Democrats and members
of the Obama administration in the obvious hopes of hoodwinking Americans whom they
obviously think are all dumb as posts.
Now Obama says it's time to review how people get on the list of 500,000, get upgraded
to the list of 400,000 and finally promoted to "no fly." Gee, do you think? More to the
point, what earthly good is a list of 500,000 names unless somebody is continually
cross-matching them against passenger lists? This was a breakdown of intelligence sharing.
What is the National Intelligence Director for? Was he busy eating his "figgy pudding"
while Abba-Dabba-Muslim-Jihadi was trying to blow a plane on approach to Detroit?
In a nation awash with pink slips, at least two more are needed, and those who should
get them both work for Barack Obama.
Obama's reluctance to admit that the murder of 13 and wounding of 32 on a U.S. Army
base is a cold-blooded terrorist act is being exposed as purposeful politically correct
naivete. That he continues to stick his Marxist head in the sand while his DHS sceretary
continues to sell snow to Eskimos only convinces more of us of the awful truth. We're
not safe at all.