Janet Napolitano on Attempted Plane Bombing: "Everything Worked According to Clockwork" (Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, December 27, 2009, 2:22 PM
This year, domestic terror plots peaked. There have been 32 terror-related “events” on US shores since 9/11, and 12 of those occurred in 2009.
This week, on Christmas Day only a failed detonator saved the passengers on Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Today, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Jake Tapper on “This Week” that “everything went according to clockwork” in how passengers, crew and the government reacted to the attempted bombing of Flight 253.
We’re in the best of hands.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin notes Napolitano’s disastrous year-
It has been, in the words of Queen Elizabeth II, an “annus horribilis” for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
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.
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Beto commented:
So is she admitting, in a Freudian slip, that this was a setup?
Jean commented:
She’s full of it and she knows it.
Now we can say for sure it’s Obama’s fault we’re not safe.
Erik commented:
So if everything went like clockwork, why are they changing the rules for passengers on international flights? It really shouldn’t be needed if everything allready went “like clockwork”…
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Detroit Breakdown commented:
That thing with an adams apple, Janet Napolitano just had her Alexander Haige moment. Send Janet Reno’s luv child packing and back to AZ.
John Fembup commented:
“like clockwork”
. . . and her clock has been stopped since September 10, 2001.
JPL17 commented:
What an flaming a-hole. She’s defending her department by pointing out that the system worked after the incident happened.
I want to scream at her, “No, idiot. The system’s supposed to work before incidents like this happen in the first place.”
She should be summarily fired.
shibumi commented:
Like clockwork? Is this woman insane? Or is she simply saying that the plan for US aviation security is to have random passengers assault Achmed, the terrorist with an unknown religion when he tries to blow up a plane?
Does this woman fly commercial airlines? If not, perhaps she should. Then maybe she’ll be a bit more concerned about what happens on them.
One Way commented:
She can repeat endlessly, “The public is safe” — but I don’t believe her for a minute.
Our security as free citizens is dramatically compromised with this administration – and this woman in particular – in charge of things.
I’m not so sure I’ll feel comfortable even when that excuse for a POTUS is finally out of there. He’ll know too much.
So many times I’d point out the insanity, “I will not – with my vote – give that man what our government will not: a security clearance.”
Sojourner commented:
‘Not much to add to this idiocy except to say that WE APPARENTLY HAVE A PSYCHOTIC LIAR WORKING AS HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY.’
American Thinker: 12/27/09
Oh yea.. I forgot… terrorism doesn’t exist in PC/Janetland..
Amphipolis commented:
My dishwasher works great. It humms, runs its cycle, and lets out steam.
The dishes don’t get clean, but other than that it’s fine.
marc in calgary commented:
“once the incident occurred, the system worked”
is she saying, that once Jasper took a run at the muslim on fire, and took matters into his own hands after the government failed to warn of a muslim on board, that the system worked?
because, that’s what I’m hearing.
ray commented:
Yeah, the “system” gets a solid B+… on the Obama scale.
One Way commented:
I’ll add this for other people of faith: please join me in prayer that whatever terroristic attempts might be made on us – or any nation – will be foiled.
As one who spends alot of time in prayer – and has always avoided air travel (only flown twice since 9/11 when I absolutely had to) – I asked God just a few weeks ago to do just that: foil every attempt.
That NW flight is familiar to me and my son – we were on it when we returned home from my daughter’s wedding in Germany a few months ago.
God is good. He answers prayer.
-Ed. commented:
There are two expressions in American English. “Everything worked like clockwork” and “Everything worked according to plan”. There is no expression “Everything worked according to clockwork”. I wonder which of the two expressions she intended to say? Freudian, indeed.
gus commented:
Maybe they could ask Janet Dumphuck which religion was this man trying to “represent”?
Was it angry white TEA BAGGERS?
The KKK mayhaps?
Disgruntled veterans.
shibumi commented:
I just finished a book written by the guy behind the show “Lie to Me.” Basically, Freudian slips can indeed show a person is lying.
gus commented:
From the get go Napolitano was a loser.
She was Governor of Arizona. How is ARIZONA’S HOMELAND SECURITY??
Anyone?
Beuhler?
Name a LIBTARDOCRAT that believes our borders should be secure. Just one.
jonyjoe101 commented:
Late breaking news
They need to ban all nigerians from traveling to the US, they just caught another one in Detroit disrupting the flight on the same delta flight number.
Racial profiling does work, but it looks like we haven’t learned our lesson.
Hopefully neopolitan is paying attention, we can only rely on luck a couple of times. Every gambler knows, luck always runs out.
mike191 commented:
After listening to this twit can any sober person believe that President44 and his cabinet make this Nation secure.
No Man commented:
Like a clockwork . . . ORANGE.
What worked like clockwork is individual responsibility and initiative. The one positive thing done on 11 Sep 2001 was Flight 93 and individuals acting to save those on the ground.
Central planning will not protect you. Worse, Obama is an amateur poseur and his asinine admin is worse than useless.
You have to look out for YOU and your own safety.
bg commented:
++
through the looking glass looking glass,
unbelievable is an understatement..
==
antisocialist commented:
Mizzzzzzz Napolitano isn’t even the whole problem. She’s a symptom of a larger, more dangerous problem that we’re gonna be plagued with for another three years or so. The Obama administration has gone out of its collective way to populate every senior Cabinet position with unqualified political cronies who were owed big favors for their support – or silence – during the campaign. Lackeys who couldn’t pass muster with a Senate committee, or who possessed potentially damaging information on The Won, were simply appointed “Czar”, thus circumventing any real public scrutiny until the damage had already been done.
Until, and unless, we clean house in Congress next year, it’s going to be more of the same. The Idiot in the White House has hundreds more potential Cabinet members, every one as unqualified as this one. He’s just gonna keep jamming them through.
Kinda makes ya feel all warm and cuddly inside, doesn’t it?
Robert commented:
The system worked. It DID.
After a brave private citizen took initiative and performed the saving feat, the government came in cluck-clucking like the super-nanny that it is becoming, and made rules that restrict everyone’s freedom just that little bit more that it could get away with.
They’re trying to do the exact same thing in the exact same sequence with health care. But the system is having a little trouble there.
S. Wolf commented:
Passengers must now remain in their seats an hour before landing and if any get up to heroically tackle a terrorist they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
art commented:
Looks like all that muffdivin’ has gone to her brain
bg commented:
++
several of many more flashbacks:
Al Qaeda absent from final Clinton report
[The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress -- 45,000 words long -- makes no mention
of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.]
Richard Clarke on Clinto/Bush/al-Qaeda
[Over the course of the summer — last point — they developed implementation details, the principals met at the end of the summer, approved them in their first meeting, changed the strategy by authorizing the increase in funding five-fold, changing the policy on Pakistan, changing the policy on Uzbekistan, changing the policy on the Northern Alliance assistance.
And then changed the strategy from one of rollback with Al Qaeda over the course of five years, which it had been, to a new strategy that called
for the rapid elimination of Al Qaeda. That is in fact the timeline.]
The Two Faces of Richard Clarke
[Touting his book in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" on March 21, Clarke said that Bush had "ignored" the terrorist threat. In an interview with MSNBC's Hardball on March 31, he said the only thing Bush did about it was to ask-passingly-in May 2001 for a "strategy" for dealing with al Qaeda
[..]
On March 24, the White House released the transcript of Clarke’s August 2002 background briefing. When Clarke testified that day before The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, former Republican Gov. James Thompson of Illinois said to him: “Did they authorize the increase in funding five-fold?” To which, Clarke responded: “Authorized, but not appropriated.”
“Well,” said Thompson, “but the Congress appropriates, don’t they, Mr. Clarke?” In fact, as the transcript below shows, Clarke told reporters in August 2002 that the Bush Administration secured the authorization and budgeting for the five-fold increase in funding to destroy al Qaeda in the first fiscal year after entering office-and the process started in March 2001 with President Bush’s decision to eliminate the terrorist group, something President Clinton never tried to do.]
Gorelick’s Wall
[Recall, too, that during the time of Ms. Gorelick's 1995 memo, the issue causing the most tension between the Reno-Gorelick Justice Department and Director Freeh's FBI was not counterterrorism but widely reported allegations of contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign from foreign sources, involving the likes of John Huang and Charlie Trie. Mr. Trie later told investigators that between 1994 and 1996 he raised some $1.2 million, much of it from foreign sources, whose identities were hidden by straw donors. Ms. Gorelick resigned as deputy attorney general in 1997 to become vice chairman of Fannie Mae.
From any reasonably objective point of view, the Gorelick memo has to count as by far the biggest news so far out of the 9/11 hearings. The Mary Jo White prosecutions and the 2001 Moussaoui arrest were among our best chances to uncover and unravel the al Qaeda network before it struck the homeland. But thanks in part to the Clinton Administration's concern with appearances and in part to its legacy, these investigations were hamstrung.]
We Shall Never Forget!!
==
NeoKong commented:
What a twit. The fact that those people are still alive has nothing to do with any system. She looks like an absolute fool to try and claim that she is on top of things.
Moright commented:
Stunning. Her only honest comment was, “He was stopped.” It’s inconvenient to point out that it was citizen that stopped him.
Reminds me, again, of Katrina. -Noone is going to save you, folks. Be prepared to protect oneself.
archer52 commented:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/12/27/dad-tells-us-hes-a-terrorist-and-we-go-well-make-a-note-of-it-thanks/
Janet Napolitano is what we call a “useful idiot” who has far exceeded the outside norms of the “Peter Principle.” The question that begs to be answered is why? Was it her support of Obama and he responded by giving her this spot like it was an ambassadorship? It really is an important position to just hand off to the first dunce that comes along.
So what’s the deal? As I say in my post, maybe it is important to the administration to have someone weak and incompetent in such an important position. They have a plan, we don’t know what it is past what we see. Maybe it is as simple as they want to control the department through her. Or maybe they want to be able to use the power of the department at some point in the future, for example as a way to identify “terrorists” Obama sees in our midst.
One thing for sure, she’s a mess, and should be replaced. If she’s not, then it proves they want her for something and it isn’t her great intelligence or insight.
Spooky.
Joanne commented:
“….once the incident occurred the system worked.”
Now that is a** backwards because the incident isn’t suppose to occur in the first place.
Joanne commented:
JPL17 – right, my thoughts too, obviously.
gman commented:
The security measures get a solid B+
Joanne commented:
This is like saying that after Hassan in Fort Hood killed and wounded military personnel and then was shot, the system worked.
The sad thing is this woman is so stupid, she probably thinks she sounds perfectly logical.
Midwestengr commented:
Moright
December 27th, 2009 | 2:45 pm | #29
Reminds me, again, of Katrina. -Noone is going to save you, folks. Be prepared to protect oneself.
You’ve got that right!
Midwestengr commented:
Perfect analogy Joanne. Mind if I use it to crush a few libs later?
Dave commented:
I’m sure President Obama will show up at a press conference with Janet Napolitano by his side, and say, “Good job, Brownie!”
Randy commented:
Well, once again, something interesting comes up to take our mind off of health care. Coincidence?
Unfortunately, our country is not safer today. You need look no further than the white house for the reason why. Isn’t our military supposed to protect us for from enimies both foreign and DOMESTIC!
Neo commented:
“Everything Worked According to Clockwork”
I’m sure al Qaeda feels about the same way, except for the fact that the detonator failed.
anonymous commented:
Are ALL of Zero’s appointees morons and/or deviants? Silly question, I know.
Bill Baar commented:
What an off-the-wall thing to say
old One commented:
For international travel there is oly one safe airline. El Al. It profiles and the explosives in the pants moron would have never been on board!
wow commented:
old OneNo Gravatar
December 27th, 2009 | 4:40 pm | #43
We can learn a lot from our Israeli friends.
Peter commented:
The system worked. There was the minor little detail of a bomb on the plane and the bomber being able to set it off. The fact that the bomb was a squib is all that saved the airplane and the people on board.
The system did work, though. If the bomb had actually worked the flaming debris would have landed on Detroit, after a couple of decades of Democrat rule no one would have known the difference.
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:
“….once the incident occurred the system worked.”
Good God.
What kind of anti-terror system “works” after the fact? Isn’t the whole point of air security to prevent these things from happening at all????
zanne commented:
Her “system worked”…so what system is she working for? Doesn’t sound like the one I am in.
Boogy commented:
Can Janet just go away?
Militant Conservative commented:
Admission, “once the incident happened the system worked.” Janet admitting we have a reactionary policy not a proactive policy. Folk’s your on your own, There is a level of American Deaths that this WH is comfortable with, it helps further the agenda the WH has. Defend yourself depend on no one but yourself.
NOTUS, cares not for your safety only his power.
TaSS commented:
How about Ft Hood?
Hopefully she doesn’t consider that working according to clockwork?
If they do not understand that these incidents are showing us holes in our intelligence, that”s a major problem in and of itself.
I saw Gibbs saying that terrorism should not be subjected to partisan politics.
My how things have changed for the democrats but let’s get one thing straight, we WILL be holding you responsible for your decisions.
Gina commented:
That is possibly the stupidest, most inept response I’ve ever heard from a government official to a crisis. That is so political, so CYA, so simply idiotic, that Napolitano must step down immediately. If this is who is in charge of our security, it’s an advertisement for every sadistic yahoo to attack us.
RubyTuesday commented:
What worked? Took eyes off Prez Nero fiddling in Hawaii? Seems he didn’t want to be bothered with the nation’s issues if it took 3 hours to notify him. NEVER AGAIN do I want to hear criticism of (a real) President Bush continuing to read to grade-schoolers on 9-11.
Bobbi commented:
She has had her “ojt” and she flunked. For the sake of national security, she needs to be replaced pronto.
bg commented:
++
via TRBO
Full Body Scan (and more)
[This time the last line of defense worked. Next time, the paradise-seeking jihadist might get lucky and find himself sitting next to, say, Charlie Sheen, too immersed in a lengthy treatise on how 9/11 was an inside job to notice the smoldering socks in the next seat; or to the same kind of nothing-to-see-here crowd who thought Major Hasan’s e-mails were “consistent with his research interests”.
… and this:
The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don’t look to “assimilation” to work its magic, either. We’re witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.]
previously posted..
Shoe Bomber II (with updates)
[Update 6: New York Daily News reports “Father of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, Nigerian terror suspect in Flight 253 attack, warned U.S..]
btw Janet, the ONLY thing that worked was the vigilance of the passengers, especially one named Jasper Schuringa.. (thumbsup)
[Mr Abdulmutallab was barred from returning to the UK earlier this year, a government source said. He is believed to have studied mechanical engineering at University College London (UCL) between 2005 and 2008 and, according to a newspaper report, tried to return for another course in May.]
yet another ‘incidental’ that begs inquiry.. *sigh*
==
bg commented:
++
via TRBO
Pundita: How much more information did Homeland want,
Ms Napolitano, before bumping Mutallab from U.S. flights?
ht beethovenqueen @ 8:00 pm
believe that’s an ‘F’ as in FEDERAL, ie: HEALTH CARE;
MORTGAGE / BANK BAIL OUTS; CLUNKERS; etc..
then there’s the 3 Winter White House
Mansion Rentals for 8.9 mil+ each..
Aloha Akbar!!
==
bg commented:
++
re: bg @ 6:16 pm #56
ht Brutal86 @ 4:02 pm
==
bg commented:
++
archer52 @ 3:19 pm #30
thanks..
and lets not forget this peace prize winner:
Iraq Veterans are terrorists – Janet Napolitano
==
Joanne commented:
Midwestengr – crush away!
Buffalobob commented:
When the Janet was gov. of AZ she didn’t know what side of the border the US was on.
guest commented:
THE SYSTEM WORKED? . .. hey Janet, do tell, which system?
A)Abdulmutallab did not go through full-body imaging machines in Nigeria or Amsterdam, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. King has been briefed on the investigation.
B) “He did not go through passport control,” a Dutch military police spokesman said. The spokesman confirmed he transferred from another flight of uncertain origin.
C) man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane WITHOUT PASSPORT
D) Considering your boss ordered an urgent review of airline security yesterday after it was revealed that U.S. authorities had known of the bomber’s terrorist connections for more than a month
D) The terrorist boarded a plane with an improvised explosive device that went undetected.
Which system worked, Janet? Inquiring minds want to know.
BarbaraS commented:
The dems are in cohoots with the terrorists. There is no other explanation. How can they possibly say with a straight face that there is no war on terror? Are they so steeped in BDS that they cannot. will not accept the truth that is thrown into their faces every day? Every time something like this happens, the dems downplay it and say the perpetrator has mental problems. He is not a terrorists, though. Oh, no. They say we are fear mongers. These, the people who tell old people at every election the republicans will take away their social security and leave them with nothing. The same ones who fought Plan D for all their worth. Also tell the blacks we don’t care about them. These, the dems who instituted Planned Parenthood to eliminate the black race per the head, Margaret Sanger. Wasn’t it Ginsberg who said that was the main purpose? And wasn’t it the democrats who fought civil rights tooth and nail and now claim to care about the blacks. Hypocrits, all.
jim from cleveland commented:
A young Muslim male, whose own father tried to report his fanatical ways to authorities and whose name was already in a database of terror suspects, buys a ticket with cash and boards a plane with no luggage. Yeah, the system worked fine. Just like this country is working fine under the leadership of our platitude-spouting blowhard. One big ass mistake, America.
MVH commented:
“Everything Worked According to Clockwork”
What a moral idiot Napolitano is! Of course everything went like “clockwork.” Except for the detonator!
Scrapiron commented:
Janet Mybrainisnapping is not ready for prime time, she isn’t even ready for the Red Eye time slot.