Friday, January 8, 2010

No Time for Soft Talk: Terrorism Threat More Real Than Ever While Administration is in Denial


America has no grounds for relief in wake of Christmas Day terrorist attempt, an event where nothing, short of some amazing good luck, went right.
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Three weeks ago, Christmas Day, the United States sustained a terrorist attack when Umar Farouk Abdulmultallab attempted to detonate a bomb stuffed in his underwear as a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit flying over Michigan skies was attempting to land. Everything Al Qaeda planned was successful. The terrorist paid cash for his ticket, had no check in luggage, booked a one way flight, and chose his seat above the wing right wear the plane’s main fuel supply is located. Every part of the terrorists’ scheme worked to perfection. He was in the process of igniting the bomb, but there was no explosion. Instead he caught himself on fire upon which flight attendants and brave passengers sprung into action to detain this murderer. Thus the plane landed safely at Detroit’s International Airport, and aside from some burns and bruises, no one was hurt.

To attempt to spin this story that anything heroic or strategic worked to thwart this terrorist attack is pure fantasy. Had the device worked as intended, an air liner with a couple hundred people would have been destroyed with every passenger obliterated. One can only imagine the damage that might have resulted somewhere over Detroit or its suburbs.

What prevented this loss of life?

Call it what you will, God’s blessing or just good luck.

Nothing procedures to prevent terrorist activity worked. Everything went according to plan for the terrorist except the bomb did not blow up.

What is being lost in the coverage is, had the bomb detonated the United States would have sustained its second worst terror attack since September 11, 2001.

Absolutely nothing to prevent this attack worked or was even employed. For starters, Abdulmultallab’s father a wealthy banker and one of Nigeria’s most prominent citizens reported his son’s behavior to the United States State Department. What happened with that information and where did it go?

Abdulmultallab was already on a watch list though had not been put on the no fly list.

Indications were readily available this was not the kind of person who should be on a transcontinental flight to the United States. Call it profiling or common sense, he should not have been on that airliner.

Quickly, reports spread that Abdulmultallab attended terrorist training in Yemen, one of the world’s hotbeds of terrorist activity, not only that, he had connections with Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki is a major Iman engaged in propagandizing the terrorists’ movement who Fort Hood terrorist/murder, the psychotic psychologist Major Nidal Hasan who on November 5, 2009, murdered twelve whiling screaming radical Islamic rants. There were also plenty of concerns about Hasan’s activity that would suggest that if not identified as a potential terrorist, he certainly had no place in the United States military and his connections with radical Islam screamed for investigation.

Folks, this is no conspiracy theory, this is what’s going on. Radical Islam in on the march looking for every opportunity to kill Americans, Western Europeans, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and fellow Muslims who don’t believe their doctrine of hatred.

Is the picture becoming clearer?

In two consecutive months, November and December, two significant terrorist episodes exploded both sharing a connection to Yemen, both terrorists in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, both terrorists had quite a track record demanding immediate attention but officials somehow managed to overlook.

In establishing responsibility for the oversight, no single person can be singled out in either case. There were multiple failures. The Obama administration describes it as “systemic” indicating the system failed. Okay, the system failed, but who is responsible for running the system?

Ultimately, three people must be held accountable as possible places where the buck clearly stops. Start with Homeland Security Chief, Janet Napolitano and Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Janet Napolitano immediately changed the nation’s focus on terrorism when she made every effort to wipe the slate clean and cover it with a sugar coating of political correctness speaking of man-caused disasters and overseas contingency operations rather than terror attacks and war on terror. Her initial response to the Detroit airliner attack was to proclaim “the system worked.”

Was this statement made out of ignorance or some feeble attempt to spin an obvious disaster into something else? Either way, she’s either a fool or a liar. What’s more disturbing is no matter what she has said since her initial statement, our top official in the fight against terrorism which she loathes to call terrorism simply doesn’t have the guts for the job or the strategic intelligence.

Eric Holder, of course, has set the tone that terrorism is a criminal matter and that police actions and civilian courts are the proper way to address the problem. Foreign agents seeking to destroy our way of life are accorded the rights and privileges of American citizens. If Sheik Mohammed would be liberated from Guantanamo Bay to stand trial in civilian court in New York City, it should be no surprise that Abdulmultallab is being treated as a criminal not an enemy combatant. He will likewise face criminal charges where there has already been talk of plea-bargaining, information in exchange for lesser charges. The son-of-a-bitch should face a life in prison and nothing less.

Finally, the responsibility falls on Barack Obama who was relaxing in Hawaii keeping his distance as the Detroit disaster and its aftermath unfolded. It is not our expectation that Presidents cannot travel to nice places for vacation, but when a national emergency occurs, the President must step up, assume command, and become fully involved. We saw an incredible disconnect, a lack of sensitivity, and a total lack of urgency in his conduct. One need look no further than how President George W. Bush responded to Hurricane Katrina to see how the public reacts when the President appears detached and not properly fired up about a major disaster.

Finally, yesterday, January 7, the President attempted to have proper agencies accept responsibility for the Christmas day botched bombing. We got no impression that anyone is being held more accountable or that the President clearly sees the gravity of the situation. While the embargo on the term terrorism seems to be have lifted, can anyone believe that Barack Obama sees the war on terror as job one, that every effort is being made around the clock every day of the year to ensure our safety?

The radical left does not accept the notion of Radical Islam, that they are an evil, blood thirsty ideology hell bent on genocide against our way of life. The left looks as our system and our economic interests worldwide as the source of the problem – that the United States as the leader of the western world creates conditions so intolerable Radical Islam is the natural consequence of the oppressed people rising up as a result of their conditions. When we look at the profile of those recruited into terrorist activities, we do not often find the down and out of the Islamic world. In this discussion, we’ve spoken of the son of one of Nigeria’s wealthiest and most powerful citizens. The Fort Hood killer was an American educated Doctor employed by our Armed Services.

A nation cannot defeat an enemy it does not understand. Clearly, the Obama administration shows a horrible lack of understanding of the roots of terrorism, its development, and most importantly its operations underway right now with bombs loaded and guns aimed awaiting orders to kill every last one of us who stand in their way.

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