Janet Napolitano-"The System Worked."

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


Watch this clip of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano telling us that in the case of the attempted plane bombing in Detroit, "the system worked." It appears that is the administration talking point of the day; "The system worked."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1209/Napolitano_The_system_worked.html
(Hat tip to Politico.com)






What in the world is Ms Napolitano talking about? Is she claiming the system worked because the would-be bomber was unable to set off his explosives on the plane and was overcome by civilian passengers? Is she saying the system worked because they immediately sent out nation-wide alerts? That's like saying the system worked on
9-11, when 19 hijackers were able to board planes with box-cutters and wreak their havoc, but all air traffic was grounded after the crashes.

No, Ms Napolitano. The system did not work. Here we had a man who was known to intelligence as a suspect, but he was never on a "no-fly" list. We now know that his own father reported him to the US Embassy in Nigeria. Why did this man have a US visa? How was he able to board a US airliner in Amsterdam to fly to the US in possession of this mysterious powder if the system worked.

If the system had worked, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would not have gotten a US visa. If the system had worked, he would have been on a no-fly list. If the system had worked, the powder would have been detected either at Lagos or Amsterdam airports. The only reason a disaster was avoided was because Abdulmutallab was incompetent in detonating the device as intended and because the passengers did what they know they must do after 9-11.

No thanks to "the system".

It may be too soon to pass judgement, but I'll bet we have had another breakdown in communications between the concerned agencies that could have kept this man off the plane to begin with. If so, it would be just another example of our responsible agencies not sharing communication. I saw it all too often in my career with Customs and DEA. Prior to 1973, US Customs and the old Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) were competing with each other instead of cooperating fully. That led to the 1973 merger in which DEA was created. Then it became DEA vs Customs, DEA vs FBI, DEA vs CIA and FBI vs CIA. Guess who won? The traffickers. Guess who wins when our intelligence and security agencies don't work together and share intelligence? The terrorists.

It is high time for Janet Napolitano to stop worrying about those right-wingers and Iraq war veterans that she so fears and start paying attention to who our real enemies are: Islamic terrorists.

If my suspicions are correct, heads should roll. If the Department of Homeland Security is found to be at fault, Napolitano should resign or be fired.