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December 29, 2009
The Panty Bomber: Epic Government Fail
Posted by The MaryHunter at December 29, 2009 4:16 PM
Where to begin? What else can be said about this total meltdown in governance and security at so very many levels, that allowed the terrorist attack on, and near bombing of, Northwest Flight 253? Here are the thoughts of a few notable commentators. Even if you have already thunk them, they bear repeating.
Cal Thomas offers his own experience as someone on a "watch list" to draw a stark contrast between his humiliating treatment and the bizarre kid-gloves coddling the Panty Bomber received:
I was once on a watch list because my name is similar to that of someone wanted by the law. It is inconceivable that someone with a real terrorism profile could get on a plane bound for the United States with explosives strapped to his body and not be detected. When I was on a list, my identification was taken into a back room, where calls were made to determine that I was not the one they were seeking. Sometimes a series of S's would be stamped on my boarding pass. This did not qualify me for a free drink or an upgrade, but an intimate pat-down, along with a complete search of my carry-on bag. I had to turn on my laptop computer to prove it was not an explosive device.
While "the system" wasn't quite able to treat the wealthy, quiet, and unassuming "alleged" bomber Abdulmuttalab with the same scrutiny that an average white-looking American guy gets when he's on a watch list, Ralph Peters notes that "the system" did exquisitely well at dismissing all that sensible yet un-PC profiling that otherwise would have sent up red flags. Not only that, but America's whole approach to preventing terrorist attacks has degenerated into a willful act of tying our own hands as we enable our enemies:
Despite vast databases crammed with evidence, our leaders -- of both parties -- still refuse to connect Islamist terrorism with Islam.
We're not just fighting men but a plague of faith. Until Washington accepts that, we'll continue to reap a low return on our investments of blood and treasure.
On Christmas Day, a Muslim fanatic attempted to butcher hundreds of Christians (dead Jews would've been a bonus). Our response? Have airport security analyze the contents of grandma's mini-bottle of shampoo -- we don't want to "discriminate."
With our lies, self-deception and self-flagellation, we're terror's little helpers.
Frank Gaffney, Jr. is an expert of sorts on terrorism. He scolds the Obama administration for their fanciful contention that this terror attack was an "isolated incident":
Read my lips, Ms. Napolitano: Mr. Abdulmutallab's actions were absolutely, positively part of something larger. What they were part of is the comprehensive theo-political-legal program that authoritative Islam calls Shariah.
This supremacist program requires its adherents to engage in jihad, or holy war, to bring about the triumph of Islam under a global theocracy, one that will impose Shariah on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Pursuant to Shariah, jihad should - wherever practicable - be pursued through the terrifying use of violence. Where violent jihad is impractical or would be counterproductive, Shariah directs faithful Muslims to use other means to advance the same goal. Koran expert Robert Spencer calls the latter "stealth jihad."
As long as Ms. Napolitano, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the intelligence community, law enforcement, the military, the media and most especially President Obama refuse to acknowledge what animates our enemies, we will never develop an effective strategy for defeating them, let alone successfully implement it. Part and parcel of achieving such an understanding is to stop allowing the stealth jihadists in our midst to blind us to this reality.
Christopher Hitchens asks the question on every frequent traveler's mind: "Why do we fail to detect or defeat the guilty, and why do we do so well at collective punishment of the innocent?"
In my boyhood, there were signs on English buses that declared, in bold letters, "No Spitting." At a tender age, I was able to work out that most people don't need to be told this, while those who do feel a desire to expectorate on public transport will require more discouragement than a mere sign. But I'd be wasting my time pointing this out to our majestic and sleepless protectors, who now boldly propose to prevent airline passengers from getting out of their seats for the last hour of any flight. Abdulmutallab made his bid in the last hour of his flight, after all. Yes, that ought to do it. It's also incredibly, nay, almost diabolically clever of our guardians to let it be known what the precise time limit will be. Oh, and by the way, any passenger courageous or resourceful enough to stand up and fight back will also have broken the brave new law.
The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high.
Buckets of great commentary concerning the Christmas Day Bombing can be found throughout NRO, including an editorial that details the serious errors of judgment by this administration and the last in repatriating Gitmo detainees:
Less than two weeks ago, the Obama administration repatriated to Yemen six detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. It was a test. About 90 of the 200 or so remaining Gitmo detainees are Yemenis. The president would like to move toward fulfilling his promise to close Gitmo, and thus to appease the antiwar Left, by transferring most of those Yemeni jihadists back home.
On Christmas Day, we got yet another indicator of how reckless this obsession with closing Gitmo is.
Though it is rife with critics who defamed Gitmo and ginned up pressure to release its prisoners, the Obama administration did not release the detainees now in control of AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula]. That was done on President Bush's watch, albeit under pressure from congressional Democrats and ceaseless litigation. Obama is politically positioned to better withstand such pressure, but, by stubbornly pressing ahead with the repatriation of the most dangerous detainees, he threatens to endanger our national security. In his remarks Monday, the president explained that he has ordered a review to determine what went wrong on Christmas Day, so we don't repeat our mistakes. Here's an easy call that requires no extensive investigation: Let's stop releasing terrorists.
On tips from Mega, Bergbikr, and Penelope.
