Free Republic

The attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing of Northwest Flight 253 may have Iranian fingerprints, but those are dots the Obama administration doesn't want to connect. Iran and al Qaeda have made mutual war on America in Yemen before. In November 2008, Western security officials intercepted a letter signed by bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri thanking Iran for its "vision" in helping al Qaeda establish a foothold in Yemen after being routed from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The terror leader praised Tehran for its "monetary and infrastructure assistance" related to a September 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital...

Liberals are being forced to deal with the cognitive dissonance conjured by the inconvenient truth that Mr. Bush freed al-Shiri from detention and Mr. Obama hunted him down and killed him. We support the targeted killing program because it is the only aspect of Mr. Obama's national security strategy that is reaping concrete benefits. The "blame Bush" mantra, however, is simply a way for Mr. Obama's left-wing supporters to avoid asking hard questions about the future of terrorist detainees. Meanwhile, potential reinforcements continue to flow to the region under the president's detainee-release program. On Dec. 20, six Yemenis arrived in...

The Obama administration's knee-jerk reaction to al Qaeda's attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was to minimize the threat. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that the attempted bombing was not connected to a larger terrorist plot. Business as usual, nothing to see here, move along, happy holidays. Not quite. The Christmas Day attack demonstrated the adaptive and organized nature of the terrorist threat. Al Qaeda chose a flight originating overseas to avoid U.S. domestic security measures. Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly boarded the aircraft by impersonating a Sudanese refugee who did not have a passport,...