This past weekend the American public learned that not only was the Obama administration briefed about the bombing technique attempted on Flight 253, not only did the United States have information that a Nigerian was being prepared for a terrorist attack by al Qaeda in Yemen, but our government also knew that an “Umar Farouk” was involved. Following these revelations, the Obama administration again took to the Sunday shows to defend their national security record. Last week Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tried to convince Americans that “the system worked”. …
Today, TSA announced a new round of security checks for international flights. Extra security in the wake of the failed underwear bound bomb for Detroit made sense as a measure of over abundance of caution. A rash of new permanent procedures, however, appears more like a knee-jerk response than anything else. Requiring one hundred percent inspections on travelers from 14 “terrorist” countries is a kind of feel good, but useless idea. Terrorists route their attacks through the international air hubs that are not the most suspicious. Nor is geography an indicator …
According to the LA Times, John Brennan, the senior Obama counterterrorism official, declared there was “no smoking gun” in the Christmas Day Detroit bound bombing. Putting aside the frantic phone calls from the father — pardon me, Mr. Brennan, but that’s a big deal. There was no smoking gun found after Pearl Harbor or 9/11. There is almost never a smoking gun. There was no smoking gun in 26 of the 28 terrorist attacks foiled by the US since 9/11 (Abdulmutallab and Richard Reid were stopped by dumb luck). We …
On New Year’s Eve, the White House received the preliminary assessment from federal agencies detailing the shortfalls of a terrorist bomber got on a plane bound for Detroit. The president admitted the government had more than enough information to justify keeping Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab off the aircraft. Obama concluded the system failed. Here is what the president did not explain: This is the same system that stopped the London-based terrorist plot in 2006. On that occasion, intelligence connected the dots; counterterrorism agents penetrated the conspiracy; Homeland Security developed countermeasures; and …
On New Year’s Eve, the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) sent a letter to President Barack Obama reading in part: I understand that there were failures across the government and the international community that quite frankly, eight years after the attacks on 9-11, should not have happened. Failures, to include proper information sharing across all agencies, continue to challenge our ability to identify potential extremists poised to strike. Given the technologies available and the high quality personnel serving in our government, there is no excuse for the …
There was a “systemic failure” declared the president yesterday (implying the system set up under George W. Bush). That declaration gets Obama off the hook. It also shows the White House doesn’t understand the problem and doesn’t know how to address it. When these things happen the “system” will always be the problem. That’s because enemies are dynamic…they adopt, innovate, and improvise. If the system just chugs along eventually they will find a way to beat it. As the crotch bomber did a Christmas Day Detroit bound flight. Still, politicians …
Desperate to defect attention away from Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s “the system worked” comments, the left in Congress is attempting to blame conservatives for the attempted Christmas Day Flight 253 bombing. Democrats charge that leading conservatives voted against $4 billion for “screening operations” including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems. Leaving aside the fact that bomb detection in U.S. airports would have done nothing to stop a bomber who boarded planes in Ghana and Amsterdam, the left’s attack shows just how off base their approach to national …
By now, you’ve heard the news. On Christmas Day, a 23-year-old Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow a full Northwest Airlines jet out of the air above Detroit. The only events that stopped this from happening were courageous passengers and a faulty explosive device. If either one of these two events had not taken place, nearly 300 passengers and crew would be dead, and immeasurable collateral damage would have occurred on the ground in Michigan. What you did not hear between this attempted attack on our nation and …
