What We Are Dealing With
I dunno about you, but what impresses the heck out of me is … no skidmarks. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s tighty whities, via ABC.
UPDATE: Systemic failure. NYT:
HONOLULU – The United States government had intelligence about a possible Al Qaeda attack around the holidays and had more information about where the suspect had been and what some of his plans were, an official said.
Some of the information at the time was partial or incomplete and it was not obvious that it was connected, the official said, but in retrospect it now appears clear that had it all been examined together it would have pointed to a pending attack involving the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to carry out a bombing on a Detroit-bound flight Christmas Day.
Damn, that guy gets more like Bush all the time. He might need to run against himself by the time 2012 comes around. In fact, he could call the part of him that keeps messing up “Bush,” and run against that. Betcha the Obamadorational press will let him get away with it.
Commentary roundup at Memeorandum includes this examination of the Obama admin’s downplay, delegate, dawdle and defend style of crisis management at Politico.
Moderate Voice oddly finds all this a good excuse to start attacking Republicans for attacking the administration for bollixing intel re terrorism … where did the GOP learn that kind of behavior, anyway?
TalkLeft is pleased to hear from Obama that there has been a “systemic failure” on his watch. “Big Tent Democrat” adds helpfully he/she is only speaking for his/herself, which is good. I can’t imagine too many people welcome the president’s admission that he is presiding over a “systemic failure.” Well, theoretically the GOP might, for purposes of relieving him of that burden … much like Dems tried for nearly seven years to pin 9/11 on George Bush. I think we’d all rather fly on safe planes, though.
Never fear. HotAir encouragingly notes Napolitano’s on the job. Gateway: O admin to AQ in Yemen, Heads Up!
Hey, how long before we learn Obama inherited that systemic failure from George Bush? 9/11′s far enough in the rearview that they might not care if that means they have to admit Bill Clinton dropped that ball.
Back to the shorts. Never mind the overall funkiness and grayish color. Those official AQ-issue jockeys were last laundered in Yemen. Adbul the Jihadi was in the process of igniting a bomb in his shorts, and there aren’t even any pee stains. OK, that might be a little one there, chemically enhanced in an FBI crime lab, right next to the burn marks on Umar’s blast wad, but even if it is, it barely meets the no matter how much you wiggle and you dance, the last three drops always end up in your pants standard. That is one focused jihadi. Carried a bomb tucked next to his vital equipment through several security checks, across an ocean, ignited it in midair, and held his mud throughout. This is what we are dealing with.
A pal emails “They are panties. Our terrorist has some problems.” Actually, that’s pretty average for Third-World briefs. Not so robust as your corn-fed American jockey shorts. Not so different in fact from the briefer briefs you can find even in Sears and Wal-Mart these days.
Atlas notes the history of rigging private parts to explode, with vid of what 80 grams of PETN will do to a mightier treetrunk than Abdul’s.
HotAir examines the shorts and other issues from a security standpoint, wonders out loud whether the ACLU is to blame, and also notes the other fallout … two suspected AQ plotters were released from Gitmo in 2007. Interesting. What was that Obama said yesterday about firing up the GWOT again?
Althouse: Apparently they didn’t respond to the art therapy. Notes that if Obama doesn’t want to repeat Bush mistakes, he should stop releasing them.
Danger Room and American Power look at security, and the fact that electronically stripping the lot of us may be the only answer. That, and/or Israeli-style pre-flight grilling for all passengers. Which is going to require a higher level of training than your average TSA gets, plus higher hiring standards and pay.
Speaking of skidmarks and what we are dealing with, Gateway, channeling Steyn, looks at what happens when you treat an enemy combatant carrying out an attack on your nation as a suspect in an alleged crime. It’s about our president, finally weighing in three days after the fact.
Meanwhile, in pro-surrender reax, here’s FireDogLake: “There is no defense capable of stopping everyone willing to trade his life for yours.” I dunno. The Bush admin did a pretty good job. We’ll see how the Obama admin does. How about treating them like enemy combatants, for starters.
Topics: terrorists
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:36 am Comments (1) on Tuesday, December 29, 2009
One Response to “What We Are Dealing With”
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December 29th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
You know that scene in “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World” where Rooney and Buddy are trying to land the unconscious Jim Bacus’ plane and they cut to a shot of the fire brigade – and it’s the Three Stooges?
Like that.