National Security -- Not a Priority in 2009 by Obama Administration

The United States and especially passengers aboard the Northwest flight 253 to Detroit almost paid dearly by this Obama Administration's lack of concern about national security and his downplaying the threat of terrorism against the United States. If you remember, Obama didn't consider terrorism a major threat after taking office. Excuse us, but Obama is being proven wrong as al Qaeda seems to be growing.

"A wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen said it was behind the failed bombing to avenge U.S. attacks on the group, according to a web statement.
Did Obama actually think he could speak and terrorist would just go away? The more he caved on terrorism even renaming the War on Terror, the more he made the United States vulnerable to terrorism." (Source: Reuters)

Changing the name from War on Terror to Overseas Contingencies did not change the fact that terrorists want to harm Americans. Why was that so hard for Obama and his Administration to fathom? The lack of experience in this Obama Administration is coming out more by the day. Why choose so many inexperienced people to had up agencies.

The head of Homeland Security, former Arizona Governor Napolitano, talked tough as Arizona Governor but her records says otherwise. This except about a border fence says it all:

The border fence is another issue on which Napolitano talks tough but presents a weak record. In the same speech before the Press Club, she opposed the border fence, our most practical line of defense, flippantly saying, “[S]how me a 50-foot wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder.” It’s a great soundbite, but the fact is that the fence does make it much harder for illegal immigrants to enter the country. (Source: Human Events)

Napolitano who came out and said the system worked has proven to be less then truthful. Where was Obama for several days while on vacation in Hawaii before making any comments? We almost had a catastrophe but he continued on with his vacation like nothing had happened. When 9/11 happened, President Bush was roundly criticized by Democrats and media alike for continue to read a story to young children for a 'few minutes' not days. Something is wrong with this picture.

Now the Press Secretary Gibbs says there were failures in connecting dots. What a brilliant deduction (sarcasm) that was readily apparent to the average American citizen who follows national security. The failure is in the people that Obama picked to head the agencies involved in National Security along with his and Congress lack of focus on providing security for this Country. Getting healthcare passed has been the only issue they have cared about for months allowing everything else to be pushed aside.

Obama had plenty of time to fly to Copenhagen for the Chicago failed Olympic bid but no time to review National Security to make sure everyone was working together. It seems it was more important to take CIA agents to look into global warming then National Security.

January 05, 2010
The CIA takes on global warming
Clarice Feldman

Buoyed perhaps by the brilliance of its recent National Intelligence Estimates - including a recent one which suggested Iran had given up its nuclear weapon efforts, the CIA is adding global warmng to its portfolio:

The nation's top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government's intelligence assets - including spy satellites and other classified sensors - to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests. The collaboration restarts an effort the Bush administration shut down and has the strong backing of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The effort is not without its critics:

Controversy has often dogged the use of federal intelligence gear for environmental monitoring. In October, days after the C.I.A. opened a small unit to assess the security implications of climate change, Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said the agency should be fighting terrorists, "not spying on sea lions."

Now, with the intelligence world under fire after the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day, and with the monitoring program becoming more widely known, such criticism seems likely to grow.

Clarice Feldman

Source: American Thinker

Great Britain refused Airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab VISA request in May over security concerns per the Sunday Times, 27 Dec 2009. Why did it take the United States until after the incident on Christmas to revoke his VISA and that of others? Source: Miami Herald

This morning while looking for follow-up news on how the Obama Administration handled this terrorist attack and their lack of attention to national security we found this from the 9/11 Commision Vice Chair from Jake Tapper of ABC:

9/11 Commission Vice Chair Lee Hamilton: Obama, Other Leaders, Too Complacent About Protecting Nation From Terrorism
January 07, 2010 7:00 AM

“I just think what’s pervasive through the country, and has been now for a number of years, is the complacency, an inertia, a business-as-usual attitude ... that I think is harmful,” former 9/11 Commission Vice Chair Lee Hamilton told ABC News. This, he says, includes the entire political leadership of the United States -- President Obama, leaders of Congress and the “many, many people that have had a part in Homeland Security.”

"You can’t put all the responsibility on the president, but obviously he shares a major part of it,” said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman. "His speech yesterday suggested he's going to bear down on this, I hope that's the case."
Hamilton spoke to us for the Political Punch Podcast, which you can listen to HERE or download it on iTunes.

Excerpt: Read more at: ABC News

We thought these were pretty strong words coming out of a fellow Democrat.

Then we have this Gem out of the Obama Administration:

White House national security adviser James Jones says Americans will feel “a certain shock” when they read an account being released Thursday of the missed clues that could have prevented the alleged Christmas Day bomber from ever boarding the plane.

Our guess is that Americans are not going to be shocked but even more disgusted. Will this wake up Obama and his Administration that we are still fighting a War on Terror? We have our doubts as we expect this to blow over and Obama will be back to normal playing golf and ignoring national security like he did over Christmas.