Abdulmutallab is a terrorist not an ordinary criminal. There is no presumption of innocence here. If he had been successful he would have killed over 250 people at a stroke. If he is found guilty in a civil court he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. Considering the enormity of the intended catastrophe, accidentally averted, a 20 year prison sentence and scorched genitals hardly seems punishment enough.
Now that he has been read Miranda rights and has legal counsel at his disposal his use as an intelligence asset is severely compromised. Obama's main concern is not our safety, the swift and effective gathering of intelligence, or the firm treatment of terrorist prisoners but the desire not to appear to be doing anything useful that would resemble the Bush Administration and so alienate his left-wing base. For this meagre and cynical political consideration the rest of us are put in lethal jeopardy. This is nothing new in the world of Obama. Under his regime both our Justice Department and our intelligence services have become politicized. Thus does clarity become obscured. Without clarity there can be no understanding and without understanding no objective or rational decisions can be made. Why does it so often look as if the president and his men seem more interested in avoiding blame than they are in really protecting the American public from harm? We are not being well served. What grade do you suppose Obama would give himself now?
Today, his handlers trotted out Obama to make yet another teleprompter speech in the confident but vain hope that this one, unlike the others, would actually mean something. This reminds me of the cult which used to believe that if three monkeys tapped away on a typewriter long enough eventually one of them would type out the Ten Commandments. They too were disappointed. One keeps hoping for a Mark Twain or an H.L. Mencken to appear and ridicule the whole dreadful performance but we are left listening to Obama paying lip service to urgent matters affecting our security droning on about "systemic failures" and reluctantly trying to summon up some kind of martial vigor in attempt to fool himself, dellude the public, and impress our enemies all of whom remain impervious to his apologies and anxious acts of appeasement.
Talking about monkeys, Janet Napolitano must go. Her statement on Sunday about how well the system worked when a terrorist was permitted to board a flight bound for America with explosives hidden in his underpants is proof positive that any conversation with her about Homeland Security is bound to subtract from the total sum of knowledge on the subject. She is hopelessly out of her depth and her early appointment to such an important position demonstrated Obama's inability to take the war on terror seriously. It sent a dreadful message of weakness to terrorists everywhere who, no doubt, have been celebrating and taking advantage of Obama's studied myopia ever since.
What makes Napolitano's reaction to this incident even worse is that Abdulmutallab's own father went to our embassy in Abuja, Nigeria in mid November, met with members of the C.I.A., and told them of his son's suspected radicalization and his likely disappearance to Yemen for training. That was the instant when Abdulmutallab should have been placed near the top of the "no-fly" list and any visa in his possesssion revoked. Much as Obama and Napolitano would like to blame this failure on George Bush it just can't be done. They own every part of this enormous scandal if for no other reason than they are unwilling to call the war on terror and terrorist attacks exactly that. If you are unwilling to identify your enemies how can you prevail against them? Their intellectual dishonesty almost got over 250 people incinerated. We were lucky this time but until this administration is prepared to tell itself the truth about this war, abandon political correctness, formulate a global strategy against terror and stop treating it as a matter for the police, then we might as well prepare ourselves for one almighty terrorist attack that will dwarf 9/11 in its devastation and in its consequences. If Obama belatedly decides he wants to do his sworn duty then he should close down all radical websites, all Islamic para military training camps, any organisations raising funds for terrorist groups under whatever innocuous guise, keep Guantanamo open, have KSM's trial there, make life extraordinarily difficult for those who aid terrorists, and start profiling and discriminating against the Islamic totalitarian ideology that threatens to destroy our culture and our country. All of this will be difficult for Obama since he has shown us that he is really an Arab/Muslim inclined politician who bows to Muslim potentates and has friends like Rashid Khalidi and whose declarations about Islam's contribution to American society always seek to make fair foul and foul fair.
As for the woebegone Janet Napolitano, before she is subjected to the pole-axing which she so richly deserves, she ought to implement a procedure whereby passengers with more than one hyphen in their names, making them too long to fit onto the side of a bus, should be stopped from boarding flights bound for the United States. This isn't so much racial profiling as it is a recognition of the law of averages which now stares us so regularly and so sternly in the face.
Today, his handlers trotted out Obama to make yet another teleprompter speech in the confident but vain hope that this one, unlike the others, would actually mean something. This reminds me of the cult which used to believe that if three monkeys tapped away on a typewriter long enough eventually one of them would type out the Ten Commandments. They too were disappointed. One keeps hoping for a Mark Twain or an H.L. Mencken to appear and ridicule the whole dreadful performance but we are left listening to Obama paying lip service to urgent matters affecting our security droning on about "systemic failures" and reluctantly trying to summon up some kind of martial vigor in attempt to fool himself, dellude the public, and impress our enemies all of whom remain impervious to his apologies and anxious acts of appeasement.
Talking about monkeys, Janet Napolitano must go. Her statement on Sunday about how well the system worked when a terrorist was permitted to board a flight bound for America with explosives hidden in his underpants is proof positive that any conversation with her about Homeland Security is bound to subtract from the total sum of knowledge on the subject. She is hopelessly out of her depth and her early appointment to such an important position demonstrated Obama's inability to take the war on terror seriously. It sent a dreadful message of weakness to terrorists everywhere who, no doubt, have been celebrating and taking advantage of Obama's studied myopia ever since.
What makes Napolitano's reaction to this incident even worse is that Abdulmutallab's own father went to our embassy in Abuja, Nigeria in mid November, met with members of the C.I.A., and told them of his son's suspected radicalization and his likely disappearance to Yemen for training. That was the instant when Abdulmutallab should have been placed near the top of the "no-fly" list and any visa in his possesssion revoked. Much as Obama and Napolitano would like to blame this failure on George Bush it just can't be done. They own every part of this enormous scandal if for no other reason than they are unwilling to call the war on terror and terrorist attacks exactly that. If you are unwilling to identify your enemies how can you prevail against them? Their intellectual dishonesty almost got over 250 people incinerated. We were lucky this time but until this administration is prepared to tell itself the truth about this war, abandon political correctness, formulate a global strategy against terror and stop treating it as a matter for the police, then we might as well prepare ourselves for one almighty terrorist attack that will dwarf 9/11 in its devastation and in its consequences. If Obama belatedly decides he wants to do his sworn duty then he should close down all radical websites, all Islamic para military training camps, any organisations raising funds for terrorist groups under whatever innocuous guise, keep Guantanamo open, have KSM's trial there, make life extraordinarily difficult for those who aid terrorists, and start profiling and discriminating against the Islamic totalitarian ideology that threatens to destroy our culture and our country. All of this will be difficult for Obama since he has shown us that he is really an Arab/Muslim inclined politician who bows to Muslim potentates and has friends like Rashid Khalidi and whose declarations about Islam's contribution to American society always seek to make fair foul and foul fair.
As for the woebegone Janet Napolitano, before she is subjected to the pole-axing which she so richly deserves, she ought to implement a procedure whereby passengers with more than one hyphen in their names, making them too long to fit onto the side of a bus, should be stopped from boarding flights bound for the United States. This isn't so much racial profiling as it is a recognition of the law of averages which now stares us so regularly and so sternly in the face.
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Paul:
ReplyDeleteAs a result of the conflagration that took place in his lap it is safe to assume his pants zipper melted, so we may assume that at some point on that flight he was on the "no fly" list. Don't expect this President or this administration to do any of the things you suggest. They are myopic ideologues and do not, cannot and will never see the very real threat to our civilization. Their misguided beliefs about Islam and the way the real world works are more of a threat than any threat from outside. Treating this as a criminal act rather than an act of terrorism is pre-911 thinking and they WILL NOT CHANGE. Guantanamo will close, KSM will be tried in NYC, I doubt Napoletano will be fired, the crotch bomber will not be interrogated as to past connections or future plots he may know about. For the next few years we pretty much have to pray for Providence to protect us since this administration will not.
Paul:
ReplyDeleteThe politicizing of the Justice Dept. and Intelligence Agcys. has rendered them ineffective in the task of protecting the American People. They will now be consumed with the task of protecting their turf and covering their a$$. Don't be surprised if BO appoints a new unelected intelligence czar to oversee the lack of intelligent governing that we are witnessing.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteYou have spoken the TRUTH eloquently. BHO has situated us in the world as sitting ducks. When they finally do get through and kill masses, the Country will want him gone at the expense of those lives. If rational thinking prevails, they will want him gone sooner. His administration is not only acting unconstitutionally, but the wagging tails of the democrats in Congress have enabled his agenda to run rampant against the wishes of the majority of Americans. Impeachment comes to mind...he doesn't lie about sex, but everything else that comes to mind. I, for one, pray that the clarity of mind and fortitude that guided our Founding Fathers kicks in the Americans in our day and age. Character and truth NEVER are out of style and Americans have been blessed since its inception with both, except for the present Administration and Congress.