Napolitano: "The system worked"

[bobbyw24]

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that "the system worked."

Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: "We're asking the same questions."

Napolitano added that there was "no suggestion that [the bomber] was improperly screened."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/Napolitano_The_system_worked.html?showall

[bobbyw24]

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) rebuked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Sunday for saying that the botched terrorist attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Friday demonstrated that "the system worked."

“The fact is the system did not work, and we have to find a bipartisan way to fix it. He made it on the plane with explosives and detonated the explosive," King said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "If that had been successful, the plane would have come down and we would have had a Christmas Day massacre with almost 300 people murdered."

King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, also said that the Obama administration hasn’t done enough in raising awareness of the risks of Islamic terrorism – a point echoed by his House Republican colleague, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.).

“It’s important for the president or the secretary to be more out there and reminding people just how real this threat was and how deadly it is," Kind said. "For the first three months of this administration, they refused to use the word terrorism."

“This is a teaching moment," he went on. " believe he or the secretary or the vice president or the attorney general should be out there reminding the American people that this shows how deadly this enemy is, this shows how real this threat is, and how we have to do whatever we can to protect the American people.”
Posted by Josh Kraushaar 10:50 AM

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/Peter_King_rebukes_Napolitano.html

[ChaosControl]

You'll never stop those who really want to accomplish something from accomplishing it. The only thing all these things do is make it highly invasive and restrictive for the average person.

[Matthew Zak]

That's a weird thing to say. I mean, the system will never be perfect, nor will it stop 100% of terrorists who are determined to wreak havoc. It just won't.

Last year my girlfriend and I flew to Colorado, and security didn't notice the pocket knife on her keychain. They totally missed it. They had it in their hand and everything. They gave it right back to us, not realizing what they were doing.

When we passed through security on the flight BACK, however, they caught it.

So, in my experience since 9/11, it's 50/50.

[CharlesTX]

The band-aid "worked" this time.

I wish the powers that be would realize the source of the problem, U.S. Foreign Policy, is what's giving way to the symptoms.

[kahless]

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that "the system worked."

Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: "We're asking the same questions."

Napolitano added that there was "no suggestion that [the bomber] was improperly screened."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/Napolitano_The_system_worked.html?showall

She should be canned for these comments.

[TheEvilDetector]

What politicians repeatedly fail to understand is that if a psychopath wants to kill people he/she will always find a way to do it in spite of any security measures that are in place.

The only casualty of politicians' efforts to make us safer is the liberty of the law abiding citizen.

Those who have made up their mind to kill, will not be abiding by laws now are they?

Someone who has on his mind a plan to commit murder of 300 americans up in the sky, is not going to give up when he finds out that he cant get up off his seat in the last hour.

"Oh shit, now that I can't get up from my seat in last hour before landing, I better not try to kill 300 people in the sky that I've been planning for last 12 months, I think I will take up pottery and
making handkerchiefs instead, yes that's what I'll do."

PS. Those passengers who will no doubt suffer extreme discomfort (sometimes pain) by not being able to go to the facilities in the last hour before landing, are going to be mighty upset with the whole air travel concept for some time after the
incident. I'm not even mentioning the possibility of a highly personally embarassing spill because of inability to hold it in.

This can only hurt ticket sales in the long run in my opinion.

[catdd]

"I wish the powers that be would realize the source of the problem, U.S. Foreign Policy, is what's giving way to the symptoms."

Agreed. I wish the entire population would realize it and put a stop to this self-defeating nonsense. But to do that, they would have to rethink the entire notion that our "boys" are over there fighting for our freedom.

[Matt Collins]

Blatant lies and propaganda....


YouTube - Nothing to see here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic)

[Matt Collins]

No the system didn't work, freedom and the People worked (with a bit of luck)!

It was the People who took this guy down, not the government. The People defended themselves without the help of the government. Imagine that. In fact the government FAILED because Theater Security America (TSA) didn't keep this guy off the plane.

[angelatc]

Exactly what part of the system worked? Free will worked. The passengers grabbed the guy and put the fire out while the trained professional flight attendents huddled and screamed.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger_says_at_l.html

Here's a story that's likely to disappear. Apparently the system works so well that the guy was allowed to board with no passport.


A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.

Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.

While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”

Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.

Haskell said the flight was mostly unremarkable. That was until he heard a flight attendant say she smelled smoke, just after the pilot announced the plane would land in Detroit in 10 minutes. Haskell got out of his seat to view the brewing commotion.

“I stood up and walked a couple feet ahead to get a closer look, and that's when I saw the flames,” said Haskell, who sat about seven rows behind Mutallab. “It started to spread pretty quickly. It went up the wall, all the way to ceiling.”

Haskell, who described Mutallab as a diminutive man who looks like a teenager, said about 30 seconds passed between the first mention of smoke and when Mutallab was subdued by fellow passengers.

“He didn't fight back at all. This wasn't a big skirmish,” Haskell said. “A couple guys jumped on him and hauled him away.”

“Immediately, the pilot came on and said two words: emergency landing,” Haskell said. “And that was it. The plane sped up instead of slowing down. You could tell he floored it.”

As Mutallab was being led out of the plane in handcuffs, Haskell said he realized that was the same man he saw trying to board the plane in Amsterdam.

Passengers had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit the plane. Haskell said he and other passengers waited about six hours to be interviewed by the FBI.

About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.

© 2009 MLive.com. All rights reserved.

[Danke]

Exactly what part of the system worked? Free will worked. The passengers grabbed the guy and put the fire out while the trained professional flight attendents huddled and screamed.



Where did you get the flight attendants "huddled."

I'd imagine the commands the flight attendants were giving were "screamed." And the flight attendants retrieved fire extinguishers and put out the fire.

Oh, BTW, Happy Kwanzaa!

[silverhandorder]

I know how to fix the system! Get the police state laws repealed.

[bobbyw24]

Fire Napolitano [Jonah Goldberg]

Understandbly, the White House is trying very hard to get out in front of the would-be Christmas bomber story. The head of the Department of Homeland Security isn't helping. I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the "system worked" because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was "foiled" by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is "working" when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it's fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical — turned in by his own father — can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn't go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have "worked" since it has done everything right.

Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with "man-caused-disasters" afer they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patenly unqualified hack.

Here she is her own words, over at RealClearPolitics.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/12/27/napolitano_on_failed_terror_attempt_the_system_wor ked.html

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTY0Y2E2NWQ3Nzc2MjYzMWMwOGJlNzE2NDVlMGUwZjM=

[lynnf]

the sheeple will believe their lies, but it was only luck that worked, not the "system":

http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/12/27/northwest-bomber-was-carrying-a-high-explosive-but-failed-detonator-saved-flight/

Northwest Bomber was Carrying a High Explosive but Failed Detonator Saved Flight

December 27, 2009
(ChattahBox) - As Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was charged Saturday with the willful attempt to destroy an aircraft, bomb experts concur that there was more than enough explosive to bring down Northwest flight 253, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed. Preliminary FBI analysis shows the device that Abdulmutallab smuggled through security attached to his body, contained 80 grams of PETN, a high explosive. Fortunately the make-shift detonator failed to engage properly.

....

--------------------------

lynn

[bobbyw24]

By: Reuters

The system aimed at keeping air travel secure failed when a Nigerian man who was suspected of ties to militants managed to smuggle explosives aboard a flight, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday.

Getty Images

"It did," Napolitano said in an interview on NBC's Today Show, when asked if the system "failed miserably."

"And that's why we are asking — how did this individual get on the plane? Why wasn't the explosive material detected? What do we need to do to change" the security watch list rules, she said.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines [NWA 9.9 --- UNCH (0) ] flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board. Passengers and crew overpowered him after he set alight an explosive device attached to his body.

On Sunday, Napolitano said the system to protect air travel worked, but in news shows appearances Monday she said she meant the response to alert other flights and airports and impose immediate safety procedures was effective.

Appearing on Monday on CNN, she said the administration was reviewing other security policies "because clearly this individual should not have been able to board this plane carrying that material."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/34608993

[Kylie]

no the system didn't work, freedom and the people worked (with a bit of luck)!

It was the people who took this guy down, not the government. The people defended themselves without the help of the government. Imagine that. In fact the government failed because theater security america (tsa) didn't keep this guy off the plane.



this.

[bobbyw24]

By Ian Swanson - 12/28/09 01:28 PM ET

President Barack Obama is set to deliver his first public remarks on the failed plane bombing in Detroit this afternoon amid increased criticism from Republicans.

Obama will cut into his vacation in Hawaii to talk about the attempted attack and his administration’s response at about 3 p.m., according to the White House.

Escalating criticism over how a Nigerian national was able to retain a visa and fly into the U.S. even after his name was included in a terrorism database has created an unexpected challenge for Obama during his holiday break.


Republicans have hammered the administration over the attempted bombing, and one lawmaker on Monday said the White House had been “stonewalling” Congress by not providing information. Congressional hearings on the matter are planned for January.


Alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board a U.S.-bound flight even though his father had reported concerns over his son’s “radicalization” to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to a database at the National Counterterrorism Office, but he was not put on a no-fly list.

Abdulmutallab also was able to retain a visa to enter the U.S. even after his name was submitted to the counterterrorism office. He originally obtained the visa in 2008, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The administration has been increasingly defensive on the issue, and on Monday Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reversed her earlier statement and said the system had failed in allowing the alleged bomber to enter the U.S.

“Our system did not work in this instance,” Napolitano told "The Today Show." “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”

Napolitano initially had said the system worked in an interview with CNN that aired over the weekend. She said Monday that her earlier comment was taken out of context.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs over the weekend said the incident should be a nonpartisan issue. “This should not be a tug-of-war between the two political parties,” Gibbs said Sunday on NBC.

continue

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/73749-obama-to-make-first-remarks-after-napolitano-says-system-didnt-work

[bobbyw24]

GOP blame at TSA?

As Republicans seek to put the blame for the widespread perception of ineptness at the Transportation Security Administration on the Obama administration, Democrats are arguing that Republican legislators bear part of the blame and that they're politically vulnerable on the subject.

Perhaps the largest impediment to change at the agency: South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has a hold on the appointment of a TSA chief, over his concern that the new administration could allow security screeners to unionize.

Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure that the 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Joe Wilson.

The conference bill included more than $4 billion for "screening operations," including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems, with $778 million for buying and installing the systems.

UPDATE: DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton responds:
Democrats have only themselves to blame for not having a confirmed TSA administrator. President Obama waited 243 days in office before making a nomination and Harry Reid has been too busy trading earmarks for votes on health care to schedule debate on the nominee. This is an important debate because many Americans don't want someone running the TSA who stands ready to give union bosses the power to veto or delay future security measures at our airports.

Relevant appropriations language after the jump.


For necessary expenses of the Transportation Security Administration related to providing civil aviation security services pursuant to the Aviation and

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1209/GOP_blame_at_TSA.html

[bobbyw24]

By Spencer Ackerman 12/28/09 3:23 PM

In his first public remarks after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, President Obama reiterated a number of expected themes. His two reviews of the vast U.S. watchlist system that failed to prevent Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane and the airport screening procedures that failed to detect his explosive device. The need not to give in to “fear and division.” The objective of al-Qaeda and its allies not just to kill Americans but to attack the “open society and values we cherish.”

But there was more. “We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Obama said. While investigations into Abdulmutallab’s ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, continue — even after the group itself claimed involvement in the attempted attack — Obama said that extremists “must know that the U.S. will do more than strengthen our defenses.” That means going after them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, “Yemen, or Somalia, or anywhere else.”

For the first time in connection with Yemen and Somalia, Obama used the “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” construction his Afghanistan strategy employs to describe U.S. aims against al-Qaeda. Whether that means more airstrikes in Yemen remains to be seen — Obama said vaguely that the U.S. will use all its national power against the extremist threat — but, you know, it’s not a bad bet

http://washingtonindependent.com/72264/obama-u-s-will-do-more-than-strengthen-our-defenses-after-failed-terror-attack

[JK/SEA]

I don't have any evidence to back-up my opinion, but my bullshit meter is off the scale here, in regards to this 'story'...