If Only: Maybe Both Janet Napolitano Systems Worked

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

If Only: Maybe Both Janet Napolitano Systems Worked

A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKED IN JANET NAPOLITANO's MIND
--EVEN AFTER SHE SAID IT FAILED

IF ONLY...
The Undibomber's Name had been Billy Bob Abdulmutallab

Let me see if I have this right.

A terrorist from Nigeria boards a plane in Amsterdam and attempts to blow it up on its approach to Detroit.
He fails, in large part, because he only fried his frank and beans instead of NWA 523's fuel tanks.
The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (the greatest federal oxymoron going today) then goes on to defend the procedures that allowed said terrorist to board the plane--even though it failed because of the actions of everyone BUT the DHS. Her words were the now-infamous, "The system worked".
Napolitano goes on to say that he's not a part of any terrorist plot--even though he was on a terrorist watch list and evidently had just been to Islamist hotbed Yemen. Where he'd been instructed by the same cleric that "advised" the Ft. Hood shooter.

There was more, but that's the highlights.

Napolitano, after much grief from, well, almost everyone that wasn't nursing an Oxycontin addiction, backtracked and conceded that the system "failed miserably".

Oh, and by the way, she was taken out of context--and she had a cute little number called "It was Bush's fault".

Here's Napolitano's first statement:

NAPOLITANO: What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action.

Hours later, Napolitano recanted, agreeing with Matt Lauer that the "system failed miserably".

WHICH SYSTEM FAILED?
WHICH "SYSTEM WORKED" WAS JANET NAPOLITANO REFERRING TO?
WAS SHE RIGHT BOTH TIMES?

What hasn't been discussed (at least that this writer's knowledge) is exactly which system Janet Napolitano was referring to. Was it the system to keep foreign terrorists from killing Americans--because that system was an epic fail--both in the Ft Hood shootings and the attempted NWA 523 bombing.

Or was it the system to prevent "domestic terrorists" composed of anti-tax, recession-suffering ex-military conservatives from running amok in the streets doing God-knows-what? Because apparently, that system has been a stunning success.

The agency's report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," was published last week and said right-wing extremist groups may be using the recession and the election of the nation's first African-American president to recruit members.

So maybe everyone's being too hard on Napolitano: maybe both of her statements were correct.

When she said "the system worked" just maybe she was thinking of the fact that no airliners have been brought down by the vast far right wing militia conspiracy of her April 2009 report.

And she'd be right.

When she realized exactly what everyone was talking about, she appeared and agreed that "the system failed miserably"--because then she was referring to the system that is supposed to keep Americans from being blown up by foreign jihadis.

She's right again! So Secretary Napolitano is, in reality, batting 1.000 on DHS "system" assessments.

Perhaps, she's even owed an apology!

Ace can go first.