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Audacity of Truth
"Diplomacy":
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Tom Kean: Abdulmutallab “probably did us a favor”
Via CNN:
Washington (CNN) – The man who led the federal government’s inquiry into the intelligence lapses leading up to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks said Sunday that the Obama administration is plagued by the same problems the Bush administration had more than eight years ago.
Thomas Kean, the Republican who chaired the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, said Obama counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan had sounded “a bit defensive,” in an interview that had just aired on CNN’s State of the Union.
Kean said Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who failed in his attempt to set off an explosive on an airplane about to land in Detroit, “probably did us a favor.”
“We had an administration which was not focused, as it should be, on terrorism and that’s understandable,” Kean said. “They were focused on health care and global warming and the economy. That’s very understandable. Secondly, we weren’t really focused on Yemen and the terrible things that are happening there. Now we are and that’s a good thing. And, thirdly, there were holes obviously and the [intelligence gathering] system wasn’t working well. We found out it wasn’t working well and the president understands it’s not working well and now we’re focused on fixing it.”
Kean directly repudiated Brennan’s earlier assertion that the circumstances that allowed AbdulMutallab to board a U.S.-bound plane on Christmas Day were different from those that led up to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
“It’s not like 9/11,” Brennan had said earlier on State of the Union, adding that the “system didn’t work as it should have” due to “lapses” and “human error.”
“There wasn’t an effort to try to conceal information,” Brennan also said in reference to the well-chronicled competition and turf wars between security agencies prior to the 2001 attacks that was later blamed for the failure to prevent them.
Kean disagreed.
“He’s wrong when he says this wasn’t like 9/11,” Kean told CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger.
[...]
Here’s video of Kean’s remarks:
Of course, CNN was very helpful in pointing out that Kean is a “Republican” so that will mean the Usual Suspects will go after him even more so than they would have had this been the Democrat co-chair of the Commission, Lee Hamilton, who currently has a spot on President Obama’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. Of course, what TUS will conveniently forget in the midst of their outrage over the fact that anyone would “dare” say such a thing is the fact that Kean was part of a commission that, frankly, was a waste of taxpayer money because it wasn’t designed to actually help future national security operations conducted in the name of the United States both home and abroad. It was designed to the blame for 9-11 could be sprinkled around to everyone so that no one felt left out, and so that no one – chiefly, the Bill Clinton administration, was given the lion’s share of the blame. Kean and Hamilton demonstrated this attitude every chance they got. In short, what this menas is that Kean is in no way a “partisan gunslinger” out to alienate that Obama administration.
That being said, Kean is absolutely right here – except on the issue of it being “understandable” that global warming and healthcare “reform” were priorities for this administration. The highest priority of any US President and his administration, first and foremost, should be the safety and security of every American citizen, both here and overseas. For all the hopes many of us had that the Obama administration would reluctantly come to the same conclusion, the incident with the Detroit-bound plane – and even more so the embarassingly weak response to it – has shown us more so than any other national security incident/decision that has happened this year that they have not.
As I wrote to a friend earlier today, this President and his administration are more interested in appeasing Europe – and impressing them – than they are in the security of this country. Or, maybe a better way to put it is that they think they can appease Europe and impress them while at the same time tear down the national security measures Bush put in place and still keep us safe. It’s a dangerously naive view, and one that could very well make the next Islamofascist terrorist(s) a martyr(s) to his(their) cause – that is, in the event that he/they kill hundreds or maybe thousands more Americans in one or more terror attacks here at home.
I pray I’m wrong, and I pray that from this point forward the administration is, as Kean suggested, taking the threats from Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist outfits very seriously.
Related reading:
- BBC – Al-Qaeda ‘planning Yemen attack’
- AP – US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats
- Fox News – Despite Al Qaeda Threat, U.S. Not Planning to Expand Terror Fight in Yemen
- CNN – Brennan: Some Guantanamo detainees will go to Yemen
- Fox News – Some Dems Join GOP Opposition to Gitmo Transfers to Yemen
- Jake Tapper – Obama Administration Orders New Airline Security Directives
RSS feed for comments on this post.
To borrow a now-tiresome phrase, “It’s the terrorism, Stupid!”
“That being said, Kean is absolutely right here – except on the issue of it being “understandable” that global warming and healthcare “reform” were priorities for this administration. The highest priority of any US President and his administration, first and foremost, should be the safety and security of every American citizen, both here and overseas.”
This works in great ways. I wonder if it would be possible to use this kind of argument to force the supreme court to help cut back on the issues that the United States Federal Government has taken on outside of its constitutional preview. If the federal government is limited on what it can concentrate on, should it not be forced to concentrate solely on its sworn duties and not made up privileges?
SJ, I absolutely agree with you and Tom Kean, but I will continue to say that this is OUR fault, the American people. We overwhelmingly put him in a position of power, and gave him a very friendly Congress. We didn’t want to hear anything negative about The One. We turned the clock back to September 10, 2001 when we walked into the voting booth. Well, now it’s September 11 again, but we’re stuck with him for at least another three years. I wish I had a solution to offer instead of just criticism. For now, all I can do is pray for a better informed, more mature, intelligent and sophisticated electorate.
‘Abdulmutallab’…they oughta call this guy the ‘Alphabet Bomber’ with a name like that.
I still don’t believe this Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab incident occurred because the Obama administration was focusing too much on healtcare, global warming, and the economy. That’s excusing their stupidity. I believe it occurred because Obama and the moron (Napolitano) he put in charge of DHS, and others he put in charge of security for this country, believed their own Democratic Party propaganda that George Bush was the cause of terrorism and by replacing him with Obama suddenly terrorism would cease and the world would love us again.
For God sake they couldn’t wait to look for ways to prosecute CIA officers who worked hard to keep us safe during the previous 7 years and have been poking around for ways to prosecute Cheney and Bush as well. And not to mention charging Navy Seals for giving a poor terrorist a bloody nose during his capture. I’m not convinced the Obama administration has a clue about this terrorism stuff.
“…administration was not focused…on terrorism….” WTF??? Over. Is Not Focused is the problem at present, and Will Not Be Focused is the problem of the future. Proof: Civilian criminal processing of illegal enemy combatant. Don’t watch the words being waved, no matter the assurances that they are “not empty.” Watch what is happening now, cause that’s what we gonna get in the future.
This college student turned terrorist is an enemy combatant, and should be treated as such. Think of the information our counter-terrorist people could have gotten from him, before he got Mirandized and lawyered-up. He and all his is co-fanatics are worshipers of our death, and therefore not deserving of civilised considerations.
The CNN interview fits in well with what other liberal news outlets propose as excuses. Last night on NBC they went as far as saying “there was no smoking gun” evidence…WTF???? How about smoking underwear?
Is there no end to the cover-ups? Get smart America….they can fool you once, but please don’t let it happen again. You have to watch this administration’s “focus”, if they actually focus on anything. They seem to have ADHD and a short attention span. Maybe Obama is using the news cycle to make policy? So except a lot of knee jerk reactions and whiplash decisions.
hope cheney let’s ‘em have it with both barrels this week. the gist of obama’s problem is what he says vs what he does…and he doesn’t do either well…every terrorist and tyrant thinks we’re weak because of his misteps.
Well, Kate, if you think we look weak now, just wait a couple more months. In response to this incident, several countries have been put on an “enhanced” schedule of security screening. So far, Nigeria is the only one that’s screamed about it, and you can bet your neighbor’s farm the administration will back off it there, but even sadder, they’ll undoubtedly back off from all the rest, too.
Yeah, that’s showin’ them how tough ya are, Barry.
Unfortunately for us, Barry never got to the “sticks and stones” thing in his younger days and probably wouldn’t understand it if he was told what it means!