Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has backtracked:
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watch list with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context.
“Our system did not work in this instance,” she said on NBC television’s “TODAY” show. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”
Secretary Napolitano backtracked, of course, because she was getting savaged on the internet for saying something stupid. Darleen Click tried to start a pool wager as to when Miss Napol;itano would get fired resign, and I called for either 11:00 AM today, or that she’d survive. Looks like she figured out — or was told by someone who outranks her — that she needed to express herself somewhat differently.
But Chris Muir’s Day by Day cartoon had already been released. 
And that gives me all the excuse I need for a YouTube:
There are some inconsistencies in the story of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the brave Islamic jihadi who sought to nobly martyr himself. Supposedly, he coordinated his attempt with al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, and this was in retaliation for American strikes against the terrorists hiding in Yemen; al Qaeda has claimed responsibility. However, it seems that Mr Abdulmutallab purchased his tickets before the US attacks.
Secretary Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security will doubtlessly come up with some new security measures concerning this. We’ve already seen the first one, and it’s pure idiocy. Whether DHS comes up with something that makes a bit more sense still waits to be seen.
Trouble is, the failure that let Mr Abdulmutallab board the plane in the first place was not the first one of its kind. The old “Able Danger” story pointed out a glaring failure: different branches of the United States government knew that some of the September 11th hijackers were in the country, were taking flying lessons, had overstayed their visas, and were generally up to no good, but that was just it, they were different branches, none with all of the information, and none able to put together the whole story.
Here we had the same story: Mr Abdulmutallab’s own father had notified the US that his son was a potential danger, and the son’s name was put on a watch list. Mr Abdulmutallab already had a multi-entry visa, issued last year. Apparently no one bothered to check to see if this fine gentleman, known to be wealthy and known to be a frequent traveler, had a current visa. If two lists, holders of visas and people who are on the terrorism watch list, had just been crossed-checked, Mr Abdulmutallab would have had that visa revoked and could not have gotten on that flight from Amsterdam.
This isn’t difficult stuff. We’re not in the era of typed lists stored in document binders, needing a green-eyeshade type poring over them. To quote Dr Strangelove, it could easily be accomplished with a computer. Surely, surely! all of these lists are in databanks somewhere; a tenth grader could come up with a cross-matching program that would coordinate the various types of terrorist watch lists we have, and red-flag situations like Mr Abdulmutallab’s.
Well, maybe I’m the one at fault here. After all, I simply assumed that such a simple thing would have already been considered and done by the highly-educated and well-paid professionals at the Department of Homeland Security, and it never occurred to me that I needed to call and tell them what to do. Then again, one would have thought that the stink former Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA) was making about uncoordinated efforts, failures of data sharing and the so-called “Gorelick wall” would have led to coordination of such data more than three years ago. The “Able Danger” story never panned out, in that no one was able to develop the story that parts of the government knew enough about Mohammad Atta and his team of brave jihadi to have stopped the September 11th attacks before they happened, but the intelligence weaknesses the story noted did exist, were pointed out rather loudly, yet it seems that nothing, or at least not enough, was ever done about them. This was a failure of the Bush Administration, and now it is a failure of the Obama Administration; what are these people doing if they aren’t doing their jobs? Is it my fault for assuming that they were doing their jobs?
President Obama came into office promising that he was going to restore competence to our federal government. At least in this area, he hasn’t kept that promise.
We find ourselves in agreement, Mr. Pico.
America has at least eighteen different intelligence gathering agencies. Eighteen! How on Earth could we expect all eighteen of these agencies to report everything they know to the FBI, the TSA, and to all the other terror-fighting agencies out there? Clearly the solution established post-9/11 – the Directorate of National Intelligence, which is supposed to coordinate these intel-gathering efforts and find the important stuff – ain’t working. Which means a larger system-wide overhaul is probably necessary.
Of course, that would likely mean streamlining and eliminating agencies, which inevitably means stepping on some congresscritters’ private fiefdoms. Sigh.
And this is the system you fear is watching your every move? And setting up death panels and communist (sic) czars and concentration camps and so on? Which government do we have? The super-competent evil government from 70′s action movies, or something like Ernest Goes to Washington?
Well, perhaps the foreign airport’s security would have been better if Jim DeMint hadn’t been blocking Obama’s attempt to install better leadership at TSA: http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/republican-jim-demint-blames-obama-ts
As I understand Napolitano, it’s all Bush’s fault. Well, Ms. J., why haven’t you fixed it in the last 11 months? Oh, that’s right, the GWOT is over, nothing to fix.
Perhapps, Nang, if you had read the article you inked you’d have noticed that President Obama didn’t even appoint anyone to head the TSA until late September, and Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t even attempted o schedule debate or a vote on the nominee. Of course, if Mr Obama didn’t think that the acting director was adequate, one would have thought that he’d have nominated a rep;acement before late September.
Senator DeMint put a hold on the nomination to try to prevent TSA employees from unionizing.
Yes, and shame on Sen. DeMint for that. Unionized employees are better than leaderless ones.
Anyway, check this out – apparently, not only are there 18 intelligence-gathering agencies but there are also at least four separate terrorist lists! Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a big new bureaucracy makes things more complicated than they have to be…
Of course, if Sen. DeMint proposed abolishing the TSA and rolling its functions into another agency that might do a better job…
Let’s face it, Healthcare had a priority of 10 times over anything else in Congress and with BO to be bothered with this petty security stuff.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Sen-Dodd-D-Conn-slashed-aviation-security-funding-for-pet-constituency-80209967.html
Sen Dudd strikes again. Shifted money from airport security to his union buddies.
The text of the amendment is below:
(Purpose: To provide additional funds for FIRE grants under section 33 of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974)
On page 77, between lines 16 and 17, insert the following:
SEC. X (a) The amount appropriated under the heading “firefighter assistance grants” under the heading “Federal Emergency Management Agency” under by title III for necessary expenses for programs authorized by the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 is increased by $10,000,000 for necessary expenses to carry out the programs authorized under section 33 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 2229).
(b) The total amount of appropriations under the heading “Aviation Security” under the heading “Transportation Security Administration” under title II, the amount for screening operations and the amount for explosives detection systems under the first proviso under that heading, and the amount for the purchase and installation of explosives detection systems under the second proviso under that heading are reduced by $4,500,000.
(c) From the unobligated balances of amounts appropriated before the date of enactment of this Act for the appropriations account under the heading “state and local programs” under the heading “Federal Emergency Management Agency” for “Trucking Industry Security Grants”, $5,500,000 are rescinded.
To think that we actually had a terrorist’s FATHER warn us about his son, and we still couldn’t get something done.
How often can we expect intel like that to be laid in our lap? I’d say about 0.00001% of the time. The only better advance warning I can think of is if the guy actually told all the airport screeners “I’m going to blow up the plane when I get on!” before boarding.
Jeff wrote:
Their supervisors are their leaders, not their union leaders.
It should be noted that the TSA is not leaderless; it has an acting director, which was apparently good enough for Secretary Napolitano and President Obama for the eight months between inauguration day and when the President nominated a new TSA chief.
Scott:
To think that we actually had a terrorist’s FATHER warn us about his son, and we still couldn’t get something done.
Unfortunately, the father is probably on the Al-Q No.1 hit list now.
Yorkshire, I don’t think al-Qaeda is into the whole targeted assassination business… are they?
Jeff:
Yorkshire, I don’t think al-Qaeda is into the whole targeted assassination business… are they?
Would you bet against it??? I wouldn’t.
Definitely wouldn’t bet against it, but that hasn’t seemed to be their MO in the past. Of course, they’re not all that coherent a group and they’re getting more amorphous by the minute, so it’s possible some al-Qaeda inspired nutball could carry out an assassination and aQ could take credit for it.
Their supervisors are their leaders, not their union leaders.
Yes, we know you prefer subservience to corporations over democracy, Dana…
Jeff:
Definitely wouldn’t bet against it, but that hasn’t seemed to be their MO in the past. Of course, they’re not all that coherent a group and they’re getting more amorphous by the minute, so it’s possible some al-Qaeda inspired nutball could carry out an assassination and aQ could take credit for it.
The MO prior to 2001 for HiJacking planes was for ransom, not made into bombs. So, the unpredictablity, is probably the predictability in Asymetric Warfare. I would say right now they are working on a substitute for what failed in Detroit and Richard Reed a few years ago.
It’s good to be reminde of Sen De Mint’s reasoning behind his actions:
“The attempted terror attack in Detroit is a perfect example of why the Obama Administration should not unionize the TSA and allow our airline security decisions to be dictated by union bosses,” DeMint said in a statement. “I hope this incident will lead the President to re-think this policy and put the interests of American travelers ahead of organized labor.”
DeMint points to inefficiencies that will arise from the organizing of TSA employees, which he says may ultimately jeopardize the safety of Americans, such as the inability of rewarding exceptional screeners and firing those who are underperforming, the inflexibility to change protocols as emergency situations arise, and the need to require more collective bargaining as new safety mechanisms create new job descriptions.
This: the inability of rewarding exceptional screeners and firing those who are underperforming, is a vali point.
One only has to look at the demise of the public schools and the union protectionists to see this is analogous to underperforming and inadequate teachers being rewarded with lifetime jobs by virtue of the system in place which makes their removal virtually impossible. With that, those teachers that excel are, by extension, not rewarded because of the same system.
How much more should this concern us when the safety of thousands of people could be directly impacted by this decision?
vali point…eh, my letter ‘d’ is sticking… should be valid point…