Posted on 12/30/2009 4:38:05 PM PST by SandRat
PHOENIX — Sen. Jon Kyl said he doesn't "feel totally safe'' with Janet Napolitano at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security, given that agency's handling of the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
At a press conference Tuesday, Kyl and fellow Sen. John McCain, both Republicans, detailed what they said was a breakdown of security that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab not only to board the plane but to be carrying explosives.
Kyl said it was bad enough that the Nigerian got on the plane in the first place given what should have been warning signals. But in response to a question about whether he feels secure with Napolitano heading Homeland Security, he said that is only part of the problem.
"I don't feel totally safe when we continue to have breakdowns such as occurred here," he said.
"There's a lot more that has to be done," Kyl explained. "And I'd feel more comfortable if the people who were responsible acknowledged in the very beginning that this is terrorism, that it may well be connected to other terrorists around the globe, and there are reasons to fix the system rather than trying to assure us that everything worked as it was supposed to."
Much of the criticism of Napolitano and the agency she runs stems from her saying after the botched bombing that "the system worked," comments that she has since reconsidered.
President Obama, in a statement issued Tuesday while he was on vacation in Hawaii, also distanced himself somewhat from Napolitano's claims.
He agreed with her that, after the suspect attempted to take down the flight, "it's clear that passengers and crew, our Homeland Security systems and our aviation security took all appropriate actions."
Obama continued: "But what's also clear is this: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been, so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred. And I consider that totally unacceptable."
McCain said the fact the terrorist was subdued by passengers before being able to set off his bomb does not mean the agency, headed by the former Arizona governor, was doing its job. He said it needs to do more than just check passengers at the airport.
"That's the end of the line," McCain said.
"The beginning of the line is when this person goes to Yemen and gets training, and that person's father notifies U.S. authorities that his son is an extremist, that when that person pays cash for a ticket, when that person is on a watch list," he continued. "Those are the things you need to address so you're not getting it at the end of the line at the airport, which is the most vulnerable point."
Kyl said he agrees that Homeland Security, with its focus on airport checkpoints, continues to focus on the wrong things.
"You can do a lot of things to inconvenience Americans," he said.
"That's what terrorists want us to do," Kyl continued. "You can make it take us three hours to get through an airport for every legitimate flier in this country or (those) wanting to get to this country."
But he said the real answer is being able to recognize threats long before someone is on line, what with all the information that was available about the Nigerian citizen before he even boarded the plane.
"If you can't put all of those things together — and you can do that with computers in real time — then you're never going to be able to stop a more sophisticated terrorist, particularly one who might have better luck than this guy did," Kyl said.
McCain's comments about Napolitano were more muted than his colleague.
"I respect the president's choice, and I want to work with her as much as possible," he said.
Sara Kuban, the press secretary for Homeland Security, said at least some of what led to the Christmas day incident predated Napolitano's tenure.
Kuban said the administration "is determined to find and fix the shortcomings in the system developed over the last several years" that led to the suspect's being able to board the plane.
As to the charges by the two GOP senators, Kuban said Napolitano is focused on enhancing security, "not on the political back and forth that has come to define so much Washington."
Kyl said one way to keep this country safer is to reauthorize the Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the 2001 attacks to give the government more power to monitor for terrorists and to collect and share intelligence. He said "the Left'' is trying to undermine that effort in the name of civil rights.
"Stop this funny business of saying political correctness has to prevent us from connecting dots, when it's pretty clear that if you did connect the dots, you'd put somebody on a no-fly" list, Kyl said.
He said the law is there to get all the information needed, like the warning from the father, the cash payment, the lack of luggage and a report that the British government had denied him a visa.
"Those are dots that you connect," Kyl said.
Yes 63 % No 37 %
Total number of votes 945
Poll results aren't scientific. Percentages may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding off.
McCain wants to work with Janet whenever he can. Still wanting it both ways Mr. RINO?
If that bomb had gone off as intended, instead of fizzling, there would have been no subduing the terrorist. He'd be dead already, with everyone else aboard to follow shortly.
McWho?
yah...what scares me more is Obammy sending someone like Wesley Clark up next, and the Senate confirming him.
“No way out. No way out. No way out. no way out...”
Leo Blum, “The Producers”
Sara Kuban, the press secretary for Homeland Security, said at least some of what led to the Christmas day incident predated Napolitano’s tenure.... Bush’s fault.
Nobody who can’t observe that virtually all terrorist attacks against this country are are performed by Moslem men between the ages of 16 and 40 should be allowed to hold a national security position of any sort. The inept government will be strip searching nuns and teenage girls, demeaning elderly veterans, bothering proud and patriotic Americans who built this nation, while ignoring the obvious.
IMHO if a mohammedan man between the ages of 16-40 wants to fly to the US he should be required to do so sedated and unconscious and stark naked. If he doesn’t want to do that, let him swim.
Zero will throw her under the bus as soon as the noise grows loud enough. I’m sure the search to replace her has begun. I would think the over/under is 7 days.I’ll bet under.
He doesn't feel "totally safe"
I don't feel safe at all.
1) Was the Nigerian allowed on the airliner by a complicit department official who was Muslim?
2) Had the flight been destroyed and crashed into a city on its normal flight path, that city could have been Canadian.
Mc-MOVE-OVER-FOR-JD-HAYWORTH!
We'll be assisting John McCain to a happy, earlier planned long retirement this coming November, if JD is willing...
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