The Press on terrorist detection

The Press editorial;

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s comment that the system had worked defied belief. Clearly President Barack Obama, for whom the botched attack has become a political liability, did not agree with her.

I think he needs a new Homeland Security Secretary. The only part of the system that worked was the courage of passengers in tackling the terrorist.

He declared that there had been a systemic failure in the US intelligence community. Given the ample warning signs about Abdulmutallab this was self-evident.

Abdulmutallab had previously lived in Yemen, a country known to have al Qaeda cells. He had paid cash for his ticket and boarded the aircraft carrying only hand luggage, which should have aroused suspicion. US intelligence authorities had intercepted messages referring to a possible attack by a Nigerian and received warnings of a terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

But most astonishing of all was that the terrorist’s father had visited the US embassy in Nigeria and spoken to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer to express concerns about his son.

This would be comical, if it was not true. I mean seriously – the guy’s dad actually pops into the US Embassy to tell the CIA that his son has joined Al Qaeda, and he is still allowed to fly. Millions of legitimate passengers are screened, delayed or refused, but the terrorist is given the all clear even after his father had dobbed him onto the CIA.

Maybe you could understand the CIA fuckup if the father had communicated by e-mail, for the father was Chairman of the Bank of Nigeria. So an e-mail starting “I cam the Chairman of the Bank of Nigeria and my son has a lot of money …” might hit the spam folder.

The incompetence of Government has no limits it seems. This is why it is so laughable that some loonies think the US Government secretly pulled off 9/11. Hell they can’t even do a no fly order for someone dobbed in by their dad, let alone pull of a giant global conspiracy.