Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Chief: "The System Worked"

Ha,  I agree with Barry.   Yes,  it is alarming in the extreme that this man was on a terror list and had his own father giving warnings,  yet none of it prevented him being on this flight.  It is a good thing that his act failed,  or all would have been killed,  and that would have been a considerable act of terror against the US, on Christmas day. 

Here,  she back-pedals:

A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context.

The only thing that worked was that airline passengers no longer see being hijacked as safe. In fact, it made everyone a bit paranoid. That's the #1 reason why you don't see more incidents like this: facing a cabin-ful of pissed-off coach class passengers is not a high-percentage situation for a terrorist.

These "security measures" seem designed to give the impression of safety to the public.  The homeland security of the U.S. has been a very expensive failure. It looks like what they are best at is blaming others for their short comings.

ForeignPolicy.com: "No, Madam Secretary: The System Is Not Working"

In the wake of the failed Al-Qaida terror plot targeting a Delta/Northwest airliner traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit, Evan Kohlmann published a new piece over at ForeignPolicy.com, titled "No, Madam Secretary: The System is Not Working."

As someone who generally considers himself a supporter of the Obama administration -- and who recognizes the exceptionally complex and at times intractable nature of the problems it faces -- I watched with a sense of deep dismay on Sunday as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano attempted to defend the handling of would-be terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. According to Napolitano, the fact that ordinary passengers stepped in and intervened to stop Abdulmutallab's failed effort to down a U.S. airliner is a positive sign that the "system is working smoothly." In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth -- and this fiasco is only further evidence of the ongoing mismanagement of U.S. national security. Although this breakdown began during the chaos of the last Bush administration, Obama and his advisors are now looking down the barrel at their own "Brownie" moment -- when Bush publicly praised Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown for his response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The current administration does not seem to grasp that the solution lies in finally fixing the system, not more empty excuses or a further expansion of ineffective bureaucratic policies...

The whole article can be viewed at ForeignPolicy.com.

Geez, just looking at this woman makes ya think if her and Janet Reno ever trade Lesbian Horse Stories?

Al Qaeda's Clear Message - Wall Street Journal editorial. Apparently the fellows in al Qaeda took as a personal insult Secretary of Homeland Anxiety Janet Napolitano's comment Sunday that their role in the foiled Detroit airliner bombing wasn't clear but would be investigated. Yesterday, al Qaeda's ascendant franchise in the Arabian peninsula saved Secretary Napolitano the trouble of plowing through all the layers of the national-security bureaucracy for an answer. The terrorist organization put out a pointed statement not only claiming responsibility but also mocking the U.S.'s ability to stop them. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, they said, "dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is." What this means is that we have to think more broadly about jihad and the potential recruitment of terrorists anywhere in the world, including inside the United States.

Screening for Terrorists - Los Angeles Times editorial. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wisely has backed off her statement that "the system worked" because a Nigerian terrorist failed to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day. The system decidedly didn't work if an explosive could be brought aboard a plane by a man whose radicalization had been brought to the attention of the United States by his father, a prominent banker. But as Congress and the Obama administration undertake inquests into this near disaster, their primary focus should be on lapses in human intelligence, not technology. It was only thanks to chance or ineptness that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to quickly detonate a plastic explosive and destroy a Detroit-bound Northwest airliner and the 290 people it was carrying. Abdulmutallab, a recent resident of Britain who says he received training in Yemen, wasn't on a no-fly or watch list and was spared a pat-down search that could have revealed that he was carrying a weapon. Had his name been flagged, more attention might have been paid to the fact that he paid cash for his ticket and checked no baggage. Actually, Abdulmutallab's mission could have been aborted even earlier.