Editorial writers decry system failure that let would-be bomber on Northwest flight
Umar Farouk Abdulmutalla
AP photo
Abdulmutallab, who was treated at the University of Michigan Medical center, has been charged with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines aircraft and placing a destructive device on the aircraft after the incident.
An editorial in the Washington Post said the incident exposed a massive failure to communicate. The editorial notes with incredulity that the suspect's own father told authorities he was concerned about his son's activities and that he had a two-year visa to enter the United States.
A New York Times editorial says the incident points out the need for an immediate re-evaluation of airport security systems and counter-terrorism efforts. It says whole-body scanners should be considered in the United States. "The machines have been criticized by privacy advocates. We’ve had some qualms, too, especially with early versions that showed the outlines of a naked body too clearly. But security officials have managed to blur the images and adopted other procedures that should allay those concerns. What is needed is a rigorous and independent process of evaluation for whole body scanners and other equipment — the Transportation Security Administration has 10 at some stage of development — to figure out what provides the best security at the most rational cost."
An employee of Schiphol stands inside a body scanner during a demonstration at a press briefing at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands Monday. The Netherlands announced Wednesday that it will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States.
AP photo
A Houston Chronicle editorial called for an investigation into what went wrong and stepped up security. "Luck and incompetence prevented Abdulmutallab from killing Americans, just as British citizen Richard Reid botched his 2001 attempt to blow up a jet with a shoe bomb. That such incidents can still occur is an urgent warning that more must be done to track terrorist suspects and secure the nation's airports and aircraft."
The Chicago Tribune blasted failures to implement better security in its editorial. "Thwarting the next plot, or the one after that, will require more than taking away passengers' blankets and limiting in-flight bathroom breaks. The TSA is years behind schedule in taking over the system that matches airline passengers against the government watch list. Hundreds of full-body scanners, similar to MRI machines, have been promised but not delivered. Homeland Security needs to get its act together. The TSA needs an administrator, now."
But Holman Jenkins, writing in The Wall Street Journal, took a radically different view. Jenkins suggests that airport security measures are working. "Contrary to the nugget thinkers who see every Umar Farouk as a security failure, the fact that terrorists are reduced to smuggling explosive materials on-board in their underwear, without the casings and detonators that make for an efficient explosion, is proof of our success in deterring them from even trying to board with a capable bomb. Amazingly, our checked-baggage screening, as imperfect as it's known to be, also appears to pose an unacceptable risk of detection."
Comments
bedrog
Wed, Jan 6, 2010 : 3:42 p.m.
again...hardly self evident. and re poetic eloquence, try "for evil to triumph it is only necessary for good people to do nothing"....and the TSA, our pres, and others who dont capitulate to jihadist ( and other fundamentalist) loons and their groupies may yet win the day. the alternative is unthinkable, unless you're into living cormac mccarthy's "the Road" ( book or movie)...
Gfellow
Wed, Jan 6, 2010 : 3:27 p.m.
The term 'New World Order' was meant with the broadest poetic interpretation, as in, "everybody knows the war is over, everybody knows the good guys lost..."
bedrog
Wed, Jan 6, 2010 : 12:59 p.m.
add to your list of "blown valves" those who say "new world order" as if it were a real, self -evident thing...
Gfellow
Wed, Jan 6, 2010 : 10:29 a.m.
Wobblies, anarchists, Weathermen, Muslim nut-jobs. Fox News, Red alerts, a media machine geared to spoon-feed a terminally traumatized population fear, fear, fear. If there were no terrorists, the state would have to invent them. You can't enslave people in dead-end work-to-be-poor jobs in a soulless New World Order without expecting some blown valves.
bedrog
Tue, Jan 5, 2010 : 6:31 a.m.
voice...to your question: many of us were mugged by reality... obamas job isnt getting easier when his erstwhile supporters who dont have, or refuse to face up to, the information he must deal with re. imminent physical threats, keep pretending the U.s. really has the choice to ignore or simply walk away from these conflicts
voiceofreason
Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 8:30 p.m.
Whatever happened to the "Jobs Not War, in 2004" crowd?
bedrog
Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 7:05 p.m.
p.s. as to airline safety: more profiling, better profiling, less "p.c" ness and more information sharing among relevant authorities, especially when it comes from sources like a perps parent!
bedrog
Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 3:33 p.m.
re: why is this happening and some of the above comments: islam is the worlds longest running ideological imperialism.neither the colonial era west or the roman empire remotely compares. only with the 1st WW and the fall of the ottoman empire did muslims...many admittedly wretched and oppressed but by mostly other muslims...become a real economic/political backwater. the iranian revolution of 1979, the expulsion of the soviets from afghanistan and then 9/11 galvanized islamic youth and made them feel once again that the tide of history was theirs..and a toxic tide it is based on the atrocious levels of muslim on muslim violence nowadays...to say nothing of how "infidels" are treated/viewed. those who blame the west/israel have it all wrong and are essentially abetting the worst of jihadi ideologues. i believe obama understands this...and in his own inept way so did bush...and so do i as a long time professional scholar of the islamic world who was a first hand witness to 2 coups in a country that shall remain nameless but is frequently, and quite effectively and appropriately in my view, the focus of drone activity. muslims, whether in afghanistan, iraq, palestine, yemen etc need to stop blaming others and take some responsibility for their own admitted plight...and some in the west like our local synagogue harassing jihadi groupies, neeed to stop acting like the MICHAEL VICK's" of middle east policy...ie encouraging, apologizing for and making pets of the most vicious jihadi types while goading them into even more lethal behavior.
delete this profile
Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 12:31 p.m.
David B. - this happened on Obama's watch, not Bush's.
abu hamane
Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 2:59 a.m.
The western world will fall and submit to the one true god.
David Briegel
Sun, Jan 3, 2010 : 8:17 p.m.
MjC, you have asked the right question. Why? Evil comes in many forms. You and everyone that thinks about it, knows that our not so pure foreign and military policy in their world is not helpful. They don't want us in their world any more than they wanted the Russians or Alexander the Great! Obama has used more drones in one year than the last 4 years of Bush/Cheney. Hardly an indiscriminate use of force. Our tanks, gunships and cruise missiles in their cities, towns and villages aren't exactly bringing freedom and democracy. They see that half the victims of these policies are mostly innocent women and children. Collateral dameage. And how would we fight our occupiers? They see the corruption in their govt's and blame the only superpower. They have no military to fight with. They blame us. Maybe if we actually stood for our own ideals and brought freedom and democracy to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait we would have just a tiny bit of credibility. Saudi Arabia and Yemen are an obvious problem for us. Bin Laden was Yemeni. Yemen is poor and Saudi Arabia has vast wealth thanks mostly to us. Yet, Saudi Arabia is where many of the disenfranchised become disenchanted, move to Yemen and elsewhere and become "terrorists"! While somewhat oversimplified, these are just a few of the reasons. There are many more examples for those who are interested. Any young Muslim looking around at his world would have to wonder why our influence isn't used to right some of these wrongs. It shouldn't be that difficult for us to see the difference between our ideals and our actions!
MjC
Sun, Jan 3, 2010 : 4:26 p.m.
Do you know what is truly sad - this terrorist is a kid. Not much younger than my own son. How can it be that these young men have come to hate the United States so much? So much to the point that they'd end their own lives, along with the lives of hundreds of other innoncent people. I wish I could understand evil. But I've never been able to.
David Briegel
Fri, Jan 1, 2010 : 4:52 p.m.
I guess all that reorganizing the Bush/Cheney/Lieberman crowd did wasn't very effective! Too bad they can't be held accountable because we can't look back. Too many empires and not enough pracrical application. Dept of Homeland Paranoid Insecurity!Our "lack of intelligence" has missed most every major issue or development from the fall of the Soviet Union to 9-11 to WMD. Billions and billions of unacountable fraud and waste and we can't even see it or audit it! Aren't we just the greatest?
Hot Sam
Fri, Jan 1, 2010 : 10:32 a.m.
A one way international ticket...paid for with cash...and no luggage...duuuuhhhhh
Adam Jaskiewicz
Wed, Dec 30, 2009 : 3:28 p.m.
Here's another---'Is aviation security mostly for show?', by security expert Bruce Schneier: http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/29/schneier.air.travel.security.theater/index.html