Washington – The attempt to blow Northwest Flight 253 out of the air was planned as an attack on the United States and very nearly succeeded in accomplishing that horrific goal. The moment demanded inspiring, decisive presidential leadership.
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America waited four days for a glimmer.
President Obama’s initial response Monday was too long in coming, too cool in delivery and too removed from the extreme gravity of the plot.
Tuesday, he spoke more assertively, acknowledging what everyone else had long ago concluded: that unacceptable security failures had enabled 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to smuggle high explosives onto a Detroit-bound jet.
Before his first remarks on Monday, Obama had left a vacuum, and into that 76-hour empty space rushed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose ineptitude made a mockery of her position and threw millions of fliers into continuing states of confusion.
What the public was left with was a never-to-be-repeated case study in crisis mismanagement. It’s time to get a grip, Mr. President.
The attempted bombing occurred at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Christmas. When finally Obama spoke after the weekend, he vowed to hunt down “all who were involved” and promised, as has become standard, to “use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.”
Nothing less is required, and there can be no arguing with the stated mission.
Even so, Obama’s description of Abdulmutallab as an “isolated extremist” was remarkable and disturbing. This radicalized young Nigerian is nothing of the sort. He operated, in fact, as an Al Qaeda-recruited, Al Qaeda-supplied, Al Qaeda-directed foot soldier – as, to put it directly, an enemy combatant, and not as the criminal “suspect” of Obama’s description.
In similarly distant fashion, the President ordered up a “review” of how Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto the jet and a “review” of how he slipped through the government’s various terror watch lists despite signals of clear and present danger.
Missing then was a statement about those obvious and unacceptable security cracks; the name, rank and serial number of the officials who would conduct the inquiries, and a deadline for completion and a report to the public. Tuesday, Obama filled in those rather basic blanks.
His seeming initial lack of urgency was uncharacteristic in a leader who calls himself a “deadline” executive for his practice of setting same in order to get things done. Most famously, Obama has established a deadline, albeit a slipping one, for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
There, the apparent balance had been off by a ton: the pressure of time applied on behalf of detainees, many of whom are avowed enemies of the nation, a lighter hand put to work for those worried about terrorist infiltration of the United States. Which basically covers every man, woman and child in the country.
It is all but certain that Obama’s reviews will reveal screwups that overwhelmingly are not of his administration’s making. The record shows that he inherited the Transportation Security Administration’s long and wasteful botch of airport screening, as well as intelligence databases of unwieldy proportions.
Obama is, however, accountable for his own anti-terror appointees and policies.
Among them, his costly and wrongheaded order to try key Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, architect of 9/11, in Manhattan Federal.
Among them, his determination to release selected detainees into foreign hands and hope for the best, as President George W. Bush did with two Yemenites who wound up leading the Al Qaeda offshoot that sponsored Abdulmutallab.
Among them, Napolitano, who will never live down her declaration that “the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days.” Or her previous clanger that the 9/11 hijackers had entered the U.S. through Canada. Or her euphemistic airbrushing of terrorism as a “man-caused” disaster.
Ultimately, Obama will be measured by a single, unforgiving standard of accountability. It will not be that he affords constitutional rights to terrorists. It will not be that he distinguishes himself by 180 degrees from his predecessor. It will not be that he extends a hand to the Muslim world and refrains from speaking of Islamist terror. It will be whether, on his watch, America suffers a terror attack from abroad, as almost happened on Christmas.
Wow. This is journalism.
If a tabloid junkpaper like the news or comPost is telling the president to “get a grip” that must mean he is doing everything right. Unlike his predecessor, this President does not first run to the shelter and then come out for a few minutes to yell “gevalt” on national tv before he even knows whats going on. Its bad enough Nepolatano opened her mouth before she had all the facts. We don’t need the president acting like a former president who spent half his presidency taking one foot out of his mouth to stuff the other one in.
The bush administration was right when they said not to close Guantanamo
Obama is a joke his presidency is a joke the man is clue less, just not ready for prime time.
i must say this is suprising coming from the most liberal paper in new york! wow! mabe a sighn of whats gonna come for the liberals!
I don’t completely blame Napolitano for her apparent ineptitude. She was probably only saying what Obama told her to say. They are clearly both clueless about the severity of both this incident and terrorism in general. It is scary that this administration thinks that “the system” (which system?) “worked really, really well” and that it was an “isolated incident” (really? this kid who looks like he’s twelve just bought this stuff on the street corner and then bought a one-way trip to Detriot? Where did he get the money?).
Impeach Obama!
When a liberal paper starts attacking 0babma – the GD of liberals, we know that his support base is crumbling. While the conservatives hate and fear his ideology, the left are upset that he hasn’t delivered. Americans have given Obama a chance, and to date has not delivered on his promises of change. While he succesfully stirred up American emotions during his campaign – that same emotion will start revolting agaianst him unless he delivers. America now sees how campaign promises are just that, and any future politician will have a lot harder job. Americans will stop believing in Democratic power of voting change, and most Americans have resigned to the fact that the US government is a old-boy club, and does not really do anything. Our country has lost its pride.
The few supporters he has left will of course spin it as “his style of getting all the facts” before commenting. That to Americans is weakness and America wants strong leadership. Many of us that loathed Bush are starting to understand why he acted the way he did, and his only problem was his lack of IQ.
He called the guy an “isolated extremist”…. What can anybody say to justify that?!
Obama, what a mistake. There’s got to be way to impeach an incompetent leader. America is becoming the butt of the world under this non-leadership.
This guy is an empty suit.
Obama is learning on the job, unfortunately for us.
By the time the 8 years are up, he will have a grip. Remember, this man never ran ANYTHING, all he had was books and untested and unsubstantiated ideas.
And now America pays the price for the idol worship of his style of walking and talking….
It seems that this was Obama’s 3:00 am phone call… And he… went right back to sleep…
Reminds me of Clinton after the world trade center in 1993, Clinton tossed a few missles at the Jihadists and 8 years later the jihadists succeeded. The next bomber will be successful because the President is more interested in his liberal guidelines then the safety of the American people. CHAYECHO KODEM
Our great leader managed to comment on the sgt crowly – gates issue without getting the facts straight. I guess that was a REAL threat to us and this is only an isolated extremist with no threat to the general public. After all the sgt crowly – gates issue had the country in panic with a need for leadership, a need for someone to guide us during turbulent times so the president HAD no choice but to issue a statement immediately without getting the facts straight first but this incident is nothing to panic about, it was an isolated incident involving a disturbed individual. There was no need for leadership or guidance, why should we bother our very busy president for a statement right away? We will give him time to listen to CNN and read the NY Times to get the facts first.
P.S. Mr president since it seems you still didn’t get the facts yet, I think the American people will give some more time to investigate. This is the change they wanted, from a president who’s a leader but can’t speak well to a president who’s a speaker but can’t lead well.
There is such a double standard. From Politico: 8 years ago, “a terrorist bomber’s attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers, an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security just a few months after the attacks of September 11. But it was six days before President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made any public remarks about the so-called ‘shoe bomber,’ Richard Reid, and there were virtually no complaints from the press or any opposition Democrats that his response was sluggish or inadequate.”
You know times are bad when even the liberal daily news is criticizing the messiah.
I remember well that within hours of the 9/11 crisis, Giuliani was broadcasting on public media with information, instructions, etc. At least we felt the leader of our city was there leading us when the crisis occurred, not on vacation with a “do not disturb” sign.
it is time for this so called president to step down and we vote again for a real president
Based on the events of the past week, you might have thought that there was nobody in charge of transportation security in Washington.
And you would be right!
Erroll Southers, former FBI agent, counterterrorism expert, and assistant chief of the Los Angeles International Airport police for homeland security and intelligence, associate director at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California, and former deputy director of homeland security for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was nominated by President Obama to be the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. But Republicans in the US Senate have held up confirmation becaues they think he is too sympathetic towards labor unions. (I’m not making this up!)
No, they cannot unionize under the guidelines of the tsa.And you should read the new information about southers,there is some serious questions about if he broke the laws about privacy,and his testimony to the senate.