Free Republic

HONOLULU (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday it appeared the man suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network. Defending his administration's counterterrorism efforts amid scathing Republican criticism, Obama said he received preliminary results of the reviews he ordered into air travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watchlist system" and expected final results in the days to come. Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, had called for an immediate study of what he termed "human and systemic...

Kelly McParland: Thanks mad bomber. Thanks a lot. Posted: December 28, 2009, 9:23 AM by NP Editor Kelly McParland Predictably, the reaction of security authorities to the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a passenger plan landing in Detroit (we're just going to dispense with the "allegedlys" here, if you don't mind) is to make life as miserable as possible for all the people who didn't try to blow up a plane on Christmas morning. They missed a guy from Nigeria, who was so radicalized that his own father grew frightened about his intentions and notified U.S. authorities. So...