Sunday, December 27, 2009

Malkin vindicated: 'Lone nut card' played by Napolitano in NWA terror case

When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was arrested after attempting to detonate an explosive aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Michelle Malkin ended her Christmas Day post with a prediction:
Victim card/lone nut card in 3, 2, 1 . . .
The administration has evidently decided to go with the "lone nut" angle:
The U.S. has "no indication" that an attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight was part of a larger plot by a terrorist group, a top Obama administration official said.
"Right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger, but obviously the investigation continues," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday.
Right. But what of the connections to al-Qaeda in Yemen?
Authorities say the 23-year-old suspect spent months in Yemen being trained for the Christmas Day suicide mission.
Investigators believe Abdulmutallab was connected to al Qaeda by the same radical imam, American-born Anwar Awlaki, who is linked to the American Army major accused of opening fire at Fort Hood in November.
According to investigators, the bomb . . . was built in Yemen by a top al Qaeda bomb maker. . . .
This is incompatible with Napolitano's claim on CNN that this was not "part of anything larger." One cannot train with al-Qaeda under the influence of a radical imam, and utilize an exploisve designed by al-Qaeda, without being part of something larger.

So far, I've seen no evidence of the "victim card" being played on behalf of Abdulmutallab, but this Associated Press biographical profile of the suspect portrays him as having had a "saintly aura" as a student in England. Give the media time, though. Their best spinmeisters are still on holiday.

UPDATE: Further evidence (as if we needed more) that Janet Napolitano is a useless dimwit:
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that "the system worked."
Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: "We're asking the same questions.”
Napolitano added that there was "no suggestion that [the bomber] was improperly screened."
(Hat-tip: Blogmocracy 2.0.) If failure to keep a bomber off a plane means "the system worked," then obviously this means no changes to the system are necessary, right? Wrong. The al-Qaeda-trained "lone nut" has just given the Transportation Security Administration the excuse it needed to make commercial air travel even more miserable. My libertarian friend Radley Balko observes:
TSA will apparently adopt a new policy prohibiting passengers from moving during the last hour of a flight. Also, no pillows or blankets during that last hour.
In addition to keeping with its usually tradition of making policy on a reactionary basis, this one wouldn’t even have done anything to prevent the attempt over the weekend.
No doubt, the TSA will also enhance its policy of conducting random searches of elderly women from rural Minnesota in order to prevent CAIR from accusing them of "profiling."

TSA: Protecting You From Olga Swenson!

UPDATE II: Ed Morrissey calls this Napolitano's "Chip Diller moment," and Mary Katharine Ham Tweets:
"The system worked." Jasper Schuringa is "the system," apparently.
The "bring your own Dutchman" approach to airline safety.

UPDATE III: And now The Boss weighs in on the clueless nitwit in charge of DHS:
Beginning with her embrace of the impotent euphemism "man-caused disasters" to the hit job on conservatives and veterans that she was forced to apologize for, to her assertion that crossing the border illegally "isn't a crime per se," to her boneheaded claim that 9/11 terrorists came in through the Canadian border, Ja-No has confirmed time and again that she's not ready for prime time.
Yes, but you've got to give Janet Napolitano credit for preventing terrorist attacks by those right-wing extremists, not to mention her perfect record against the Olga Swenson menace. Just imagine what carnage might have been wrought by elderly Lutheran ladies, if not for the vigilance of DHS!

UPDATE IV: Another anti-terror success for TSA:
Police say Ivana Trump has been escorted off a plane in Florida after she became belligerent when children were running and screaming in the aisles.
Authorities say the first ex-wife of billionaire Donald Trump cursed at the children Saturday, and when flight attendants on the New York-bound plane tried to calm her, she became even more aggravated.
No word yet on whether Ivana's attack was part of a larger terrorist conspiracy by rich divorcees.

14 comments:

  1. Is Napolitano friggin insane? Even most Dems in Congress acknowledge this is al Qaeda affiliated. It has come absolutely clear that Hasan Nidal was al Qaeda affiliated--and we even went after the killed the contact he had with al Qaeda in Yemen. Abdulmutallab was in touch with the same individuals in Yemen. Abdulmutallab's FATHER contacted the U.S. Embassy to warn his son was being recruited by al Qaeda.

    Napolitano should lose her job over this. This is a major issue that everyone should be howling over. She is unfit for this job (we knew that before but this only confirms the obvious).

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  2. And yet, when some nut with the skakiest ties to the right goes postal, that's an indictment against conservatives.

    We all remember the Department of Homeland Security warning about the "right-wing terror threat" posed by individuals with "radical" ideologies based on "Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes."

    Makes you wonder who the government sees as the enemy.

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  3. One easy way to solve this problem of the TERRORIST LOVER'S is to make Barry Hussein Obama, Nancy 'Botox Queen' Pelosi, Rahm 'Ballerina Boy(?)' Emannuel, Harry 'Backroom Deal's' Reid and all elected(?)-Franken Clown come's to mind- Federal offical's fly commercial like we mere peasant's have to. Cut all funding for the Air Force to fly this AMERICAN HATING administration and ALL ELECTED OFFICAL'S on CRAPITOL HILL.

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  4. Why the last hour of a flight? Won't the terrorists just do the deed before the last hour? Duh!

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  5. You don't understand. Napolitano's system IS working. Not one returning American serviceman has managed to blow up an airliner...

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  6. Actually I am all for Ivana Trump getting arrested for karmic crimes against nature, but that has nothing to do with terrorism.

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  7. Makes you wonder who the government sees as the enemy.

    The government, wholly owned by the Statists at this point, sees the Christian ethic - and anything that mirrors the good of that ethic - as the enemy.

    Hence their war on marriage and family, life, and other Christian, conservative values. Because - while communal - Christianity also recognizes the dignity and worth of the individual, up to and including the right of the individual to enjoy the fruits of his labor and defend himself against unjust aggressors (including government).

    Destroying these last defenses between civilized society and utter, socialistic chaos is the only way they'll be victorious.

    Hence this is why DHS lists US as extremists while Nigerian men who try to blow up airplanes are isolated incidents.

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  8. One talking head, on Fox, made an interesting point... terrorists may well be trying to see just what will get past TSA (and other countries security) and what will be found.

    Now, a question from me.... is it possible the plane that exploded after leaving Brazil last summer (black boxes never found) was also a PETN victim?

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  9. I quit flying when they made me show ID because I wanted to live in a free country. I laugh now to see you sheeple complaining about TSA now.

    They obviously need to know everything about everybody to keep us safe, you know.

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  10. Old Rebel is on to something. Andrea is on to something.

    Abdul Farouk Abdul Mutallab was on a terror watch list, but not on a no-fly list. Huh?

    CNN reported: "The father of a man suspected in a botched terror attack aboard a Northwest Airlines flight contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria recently with concerns his son was planning something, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday." Huh?

    A passenger reports that a "sharp dressed man" helped the terrorist get on board the aircraft without a passport. (http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger_says_at_l.html) Huh?

    The same passenger says the FBI arrested another man. "About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody." Huh?

    Something isn't right here.

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  11. "No word yet on whether Ivana's attack was part of a larger terrorist conspiracy by rich divorcees."

    The absolute best line, evah!

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  12. We should retaliate to the underwear bomber with the same method. Send underwear previously worn by Big Sis Napolitano to Yemen. A True WMD.

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  13. The trouble with liberal idealogues is that telling the truth about their actual views or what they're doing is not an option because they would never get elected. Everything to them is a "feeling" and not something tangible or even realistic. Therefore they must rely on illusions as opposed to reality. Unfortunately when they actually dupe voters into putting them in power, this is what you get... incompetence of the highest order, cowardice in every decision, illogical and confused actions towards an unobtainable or unidentified goal, and poll driven policies. Hence the reason for refusing to identify real problems, real dangers, and reality in general.Bolstering the Canadian border so as to not offend illegals pouring in from the south and changing the name of terror acts makes sense to these idiots.

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  14. Jeezus...you're a friggin' douchebag.

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