Posted on 12/29/2009 5:12:12 PM PST by Salena Zito
A congressman who oversees American intelligence operations, a former CIA operative and an intelligence official agree that Christmas Day's aborted attack on a U.S. airliner proves that the nation's anti-terrorism efforts are flawed.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano praised the nation's aviation-security system Sunday but backtracked Monday, admitting the system "did not work in this instance."
"Clearly, the system did not work," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told the Tribune-Review yesterday. Hoekstra is the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
"Success is not a person on a plane with an explosive," he said. "That is a failure. The system designed and put in place failed."
Former CIA operative Bob Baer, who has written extensively — and critically — about U.S. intelligence-gathering and anti-terrorism efforts, dismissed President Obama's pledge to protect air travelers.
Baer said the president "can scream and yell and order all of the investigations he wants. But there is this huge, vast bureaucracy gridlock in Washington that absolutely refuses to move, which is why this happened in the first place."
>> “vast bureaucracy gridlock in Washington that absolutely refuses to move, which is why this happened in the first place.”
First? How many U.S. planes have been nailed by terrorists?
here is the link to story: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_659802.html
Ya Think...
The system is not “flawed”, it’s broken. Until we go back to profiling and using common sense, it cannot be fixed. Political correctness will destroy this country.
Our mistake is that we don't screen people, we screen passengers and their baggage. El Al, on the other hand, screens people, and then they screen passengers and their baggage.
Anyone with half a brain would have been suspicious of this guy, had they just taken a moment to speak with him - he had questionable documentation, he paid for his ticket in cash, he had NO luggage, and I'd bet a month's salary he was acting squirrely. No one who has half-a-pound of high explosive strapped to their Johnson can do anything but act squirrely. To any screener who wasn't drunk or on drugs, this guy had to stand out like a stripper in church, IMHO.
When Janet Napolitano claimed her “the systems worked” comment was referring to the systems AFTER the incident, she wasn’t truthful either. I have first-hand knowledge that many pilots in the air didn’t even hear about the incident over Detroit until they got back to their lay-over hotels. So much for her claim of alerting all 128 carriers, and on-going flights.
The present admin has mistakenly tried to politicize the War on Terror. Untill BHO sees the light, we're screwed.
Get rid of Napolitano and start profiling. Don’t let anybody on international flights without passports.
They blame a faceless "system" but I have not heard that they assume any blame themselves.
And, my worry is that they will do what leftists always, always do to solve crises (real or imaginary.)
They will confiscate freedoms and wealth from U.S. citizens.
And, I also worry that the administration will show the terrorist enemy that we fear them, (which can invite and magnify terrorist attacks.)
.
I guess they need more money. Wait for an increase in that security "fee".
Get rid of political correctness and get back to profiling. If it looks like a terrorist and walks like it has a severe case of BOOM! jock itch, it’s probably a terrorist.
One of the many reasons I don’t fly.
The INSANITY of the TERRORIST ATTACKS we are now experiencing – and will cost many, many more American civilian lives — can be laid at the feet of earlier DEMOCRATS! Does any sane person think these “NEW” Democrats will solve the problem, especially a party headed by a president born of a muslim father and raised in muslim cultures?
Here’s the story.
Back around 1975, DEMOCRAT (who woulda guessed?) Idaho Senator Frank Church held hearings on the operation of the CIA and found that — HORRORS — taxpayer money was being paid to foreign citizen snitches with CRIMINAL RECORDS for vital human, on-the-ground intel on the activities of those who were planning the destruction of this country. Church commented at one session that “Gentlemen do not read other gentlemens’ mail.” Interesting how Church and his fellow Dimocraps viewed men who would destroy America “gentlemen.” Glad that a**hole didn’t serve during the run-up to WWII. (Although he may have handled the “delayed” communication to Pearl Harbor that the Japanese were on the way!)
When he became president, Jimmy Carter fully supported and enforced the Church Amendment.
The sorts of people who consort with — and, more importantly, get cozy with — the leaders of terrorist organizations are not normally choir boys. Church moved the legislature to PROHIBIT any US funds going to these potential informants. Since it can take upwards of 20 years for these guys to move close enough to the top to be seriously valuable, we had virtually NO humintel on bin Laden’s plans for 9-11!
While there are still Church-like imbeciles (Reid, Pelosi, et al come to mind) at the levers of power here, I THINK the law has been changed.
While the NSA wiretaps and eavesdrops on US citizens HERE, isn’t it comforting to know that – while the TSA is inspecting grandma’s bloomers — in just 15 or 20 years we may be able to thwart a plan hatched THERE for some future 9-11 with information gathered THERE.
Now our guys are required to MERANDIZE enemy combatants NOT wearing uniforms and displaying NO recognizable military patches, etc., etc., all of which, de facto, removes them from the protections afforded under the Geneva Convention. In past conflicts, the Geneva Convention permits the capturing forces to shoot these guys on the spot. Of course, any trooper caught doing that would be up on charges in the morning.
Anybody else see a pattern here?
The morons now “leading” (and I use that term very loosely) the United States have finally achieved something I thought impossible: They’ve tied BOTH our hands behind our backs. They will get MILLIONS of us KILLED before they are removed from office – hopefully in 2010 and 12.
“Whom God would destroy, He first makes mad.”
The MADNESS continues. Surely, our destruction awaits.
Am I alone in believing that that is PRECISELY what Obama and his radical leftist Chicago thugs want?
By Dick Bachert
Written 2/13/2006
Revisions/additions 2009
FrankR - you are right on the money!!!! I have been long advocating this very thing and all I get is ridiculed and laughed at because I’m a nut-case. The only language these crazies understand is death - yours or mine.
Great - lets put the feds in charge of our medical health too.
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