It seems fair to say the system failed. The facts: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board, in Amsterdam, a commercial airliner bound for Detroit carrying explosives and an al Qaeda supplied detonator capable of destroying the plane. Able to board despite Abdulmutallab's father having warned the U.S. Embassy and Nigerian security services that his son had fanatical religious beliefs and activities. Abdulmutallab had, inexplicably, not been placed on a "no fly" list and was carrying a U.S. visa when he passed through security screening in Amsterdam and boarded the Northwest Airlines flight.
I suspect most folks that travel a lot aren't going to be terribly surprised someone could board a commercial airliner carrying explosives sewn into their underwear. But I would guess those same folks will be dismayed that the system allowed someone with as many red flags as Abdulmutallab to board a U.S. airline.
The reaction has been predictable. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told ABC News this morning that Abdulmutallab's failure to destroy the plane proved "the system worked". Well, I suppose that's true if the system now is dependent on brave passengers taking airline security into their own hands, risking their lives, and subduing terrorists. But if "the system" has anything to do with actually preventing bomb carrying terrorists from boarding full airliners, it's hard to spin this as anything but a massive system failure.
On the other hand, we've also been subjected to knuckleheads like Representatives Peter Hoekstra and Peter King suggesting the failed attack was an Obama Administration failure, caused by the Obama Administrations refusal to use the term "war on terror" and just another sign that we are all far better off living our lives in abject fear. The fact that the terrorist was carrying a U.S. visa issued to him during the Bush Administrations tenure and that he passed through security systems set up during the Bush years were, conveniently, omitted by Reps. Hoekstra and King.
Perhaps when the dust clears, the adults can address how the system failed and make some changes to prevent this from happening again. But as the news unfolded, I was reminded of a post I had done over a year ago on why there's not been another major terrorist attack since 9/11.
One of the hypotheses was that perhaps, just maybe, al Qaeda isn't as competent as we've made them out to be. Abdulmutallab was carrying al Qaeda supplied explosives and a detonator reportedly built by al Qaeda's master bomb maker in Yemen. Authorities have now reported the device was too small to detonate that amount of explosive and then failed when Abdulmutallab attempted to use it.
While not to minimize the amount of damage and heartbreak al Qaeda is capable of, might this not be at least a small sign that they're certainly not omnipotent and our reaction to this attack should be a measured one?
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