Obama Earns a 'Good Solid F' For Protecting Americans
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 12:05 PM
Barack Obama earned himself a good solid F for defending America against terrorism this year.
Since Barack Obama took office there has been an increase in terrorist activity in the US. There have been 33 terror-related “events” on these shores since 9-11. 13 of those events occurred in 2009.
Toby Harnden at The Telegraph blasted the radical young snorkler for his record on protecting America.
There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the marshalling of “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).
Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2008 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants. He said today that a “systemic failure has occurred”. Well, he’s in charge of that system.
The picture we’re getting is more and more alarming by the hour. Here are some key elements to consider:
1. Abdulmutallab’s father spoke several times to the US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria and visited a CIA officer there to tell him, apparently, that he feared his son was a jihadist being trained in Yemen. According to CNN, the CIA officer wrote up a report, which then sat in the CIA headquarters at Langley for several weeks without being disseminated to the rest of the intelligence community. This was not just a casual encounter. Again according to CNN, there were at least two face-to-face meetings, telephone calls and written correspondence with the father. If it’s true that the CIA sat on this then it beggars belief.
2. After 9/11, the huge bureaucracies of the Homeland Security Department and the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) were created. Inside the DNI, the National Counter Terrorism Center was created. These organisations were created to “connect the dots”. It may well be that the fault lay with NCTC and not the CIA – CIA spokesman George Little says here that “key biographical information” and information about “possible extremist connections in Yemen” was passed to NCTC. If NCTC knew about it, then did someone at the National Security Council within the White House? There’s a huge blame game beginning so we’ll no doubt know soon enough.
3. It wasn’t just the meeting with the father. According to CBS, “as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed ‘The Nigerian’ suspected of meeting with ‘terrorist elements’ in Yemen”. So there were other parts of the jigsaw that were not put together.
4. In his studied desire to be the unBush by responding coolly to events like this, Obama is dangerously close to failing as a leader.
There’s much more here.
Of course, it goes without saying that you never would see such an honest analysis on Obama’s failings in the corrupt US press.
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Michelle commented:
And to top it off, the moron is still in Hawaii! Nothing’s going to mess up Barry’s vacation. He’s tired, don’t you know.
Barry, resign. You are out of your league, completely.
Joanne commented:
With the ability of this world to communicate information within mere seconds, it is absolutely absurd the information about this Nigerian wasn’t send out immediately to all concerned organizations. How hard is it to send all information to one Command Center, and they in turn forward the information to everyone else.
Joanne commented:
“…..this Nigerian wasn’t ‘sent’ out….”
Chisum commented:
NY Daily News: No B+ For Obama Response To Detroit Bomber
Too Little, Too Late, Too Unserious
The New York Daily News under the management of Mort Zuckerman is a fairly reliable weathervane of a particular stripe of moderate, Northeastern Democrat opinion, broadly liberal in inclination but more cold-eyed and hawkish when it comes to crime, national security, and in particular the threat of Islamic extremism to the U.S. and Israel – your basic Ed Koch-type Democrat (this is not an exclusively Jewish phenomenon, although in New York that’s who the leading voices are). Typically, the News gave fawning and totally excessive coverage of every historic move of the historic new historic presidency of Barack Obama during the high watermark of his Administration, from November 2008 through late January 2009; at one point either Obama or his wife was on the front page every day for more than three weeks.
http://www.redstate.com/dan_mclaughlin/2009/12/30/ny-daily-news-no-b-for-obama-response-to-detroit-bomber/
ss252 commented:
I am afraid that the only way the Union Idiots,The La Raza’s of the Country, The insane school teacher types will ever concede that BO deserves an “F” is when one of their family members actually dies from a successful attempt?
This guy is a total incompetent, Janet N. should be fired today and stop this insanity.
Start profiling! PERIOD!!!
Stephen Morgan commented:
Isn’t the quote “the BUCK stops in the oval office” racist???
Jean commented:
The inconvenient truth is an F for Obama in keeping Americans safe from Terrorists.
Now we have proof of Obama’s response to the 3 AM call. Don’t wake him up when he’s on vacation.
We’re expendable to the WH that’s why Obama is sacrificing America to Islam.
Cheri commented:
Obama comes first – not the American people. To acknowledge that we are at war with radical Islam doesn’t fit into Barry’s plans to be the most important person in the world. Not the American people, not our soldiers overseas.
But. Him. It is all about him.
sandy commented:
Yesterday morning I thought who’s Obama going to blame. By afternoon I had my answer — The CIA. Every screw up needs a fall guy–cause Obama is never wrong. Now when are we going to start hearing that Republicans are racists for believing that Profiling can save lives?
sandy commented:
Early in the primary season Angrea Mitchell said that experience is highly over rated when it comes to being President. Its unbelievable how the media has pushed for Obama. But even they are having to rethink their support–now that the incompetence and lies have come to the forefront. Important stories CANNOT continue to be ignored.
LytnUp commented:
Two questions:
1) Who certified that Nigerian airport and when? My understanding is that it was regarded as uncertified until just recently.
2) Which of the reactions that OA took after the Detroit incident would actually have changed anything? Did we have any control over the security of the people on the plane before Detroit? It isn’t like he boarded through the TSA security. Are we planing to deploy these scanners to foreign airports?
Robert commented:
Where’s Hillary?
Jamest155 commented:
hillary clinton gives this terrorist a visa and after the father informed the authorities that his son was a dangerous terrorist, obama did nothing to protect american. obama was busy eating pineapple waffles in hawaii. obama, why don’t you stay on vacation, indefinitly. obama, worst president in history.
Jamest155 commented:
obama couldn’t get carry President George W. Bush’s jock strap.
AnnS commented:
According to an eyewitness and passenger on 253, there was a well dressed man in Amersterdam with the bomber and he said the well dressed man tried to get the bomber booked without a passport saying he was from the Sudan. They left down the hall and went to some office; so someone didn’t seem to have a problem to board without a passport.
Yeah!!! Where’s Hillary????
From a quote from a State Department Employee:
This employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush
Administration, but that since the changeover “we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think
career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer.”
Abdulmutallab
and the Obama Mindset
AnnS commented:
Sorry:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/29/abdulmutallab-and-the-obama-mi
bg commented:
++
sorry this is so late, just found out about
it via an e-mail from Act for America..
Weakening Islamism is Vital to Improve US Image in the Muslim world
12/23/09; By Tawfik Hamid
[In the December 1, 2009 issue of the WSJ Europe, Fouad Ajami - in an Op-Ed entitled "The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama" - argued that President Obama's diplomatic approach to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world has not been successful. Poll results have shown that unfavorable views of the US are as high as 82%, 69 %, and 70% in the Palestinian territories, Turkey, and Egypt respectively. In fact, the Op-Ed stated that unfavorable views of the US in Pakistan have risen from 63% in 2008 to 68% in 2009 according to a recent Pew survey.
In addition, after President Obama came to office in 2009, the number of home-grown Islamist terror plots inside the US has risen dramatically compared to the previous years. The Year of 2009 represents the highest level of domestic home-grown Islamic radicalism in the US since 2001.
We must question why President Obama's approach with the Muslim world has not succeeded yet in at least having a more positive effect in improving the US image in several Muslim countries or in decreasing the rate of home-grown Islamic radicalism on the home front. One of the main reasons for this lack of success is that US strategic communications with the Muslim world was largely based on the assumption that the problem of Islamic Radicalism and hatred to America is primarily because of the US foreign policy with the Muslim world and thus changing this policy will change the latter. This can only work if the main problem was in the US approach; however, if the main problem was in the Muslim world, such an approach cannot succeed as it will be like trying to change the keys to open a room while the problem is in the rusty lock! In the latter situation, changing the lock - or in other words changing the Muslim world itself - is crucial to solving the problem.
[..]
Trying to satisfy the Muslim world by changing the US will not be effective unless the US is ready to end its values of freedom and liberty and adopt an Islamic Sharia system.
[..]
In this context, it is also important to raise the point that the Muslim world is in far greater need than the US to improve its image in the world as its image has been painted by terrorism and barbarism especially in the last few years.
In brief, no matter what the non-Islamic world does – short of submitting to the Islamic Sharia – the Islamists will never be satisfied completely. The US must either change itself to adopt an Islamic system to satisfy the Muslim world or alternatively assist in changing the latter. Weakening the Islamism phenomenon is vital to ultimately improve the image of the US in the Muslim world as Islamism is currently a – if not the – major obstacle to enhancing the US image among Muslims]
re: “The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama”
11/29/09; By FOUAD AJAMI
[Mr. Obama's election has not drained the swamps of anti-Americanism. That anti-Americanism is endemic to this region, an alibi and a scapegoat for nations, and their rulers, unwilling to break out of the grip of political autocracy and economic failure. It predated the presidency of George W. Bush and rages on during the Obama presidency.
We had once taken to the foreign world that quintessential American difference—the belief in liberty, a needed innocence to play off against the settled and complacent ways of older nations. The Obama approach is different.
Steeped in an overarching idea of American guilt, Mr. Obama and his lieutenants offered nothing less than a doctrine, and a policy, of American penance. No one told Mr. Obama that the Islamic world, where American power is engaged and so dangerously exposed, it is considered bad form, nay a great moral lapse, to speak ill of one's own tribe when in the midst, and in the lands, of others.
The crowd may have applauded the cavalier way the new steward of American power referred to his predecessor, but in the privacy of their own language they doubtless wondered about his character and his fidelity. "My brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against
the stranger," goes one of the Arab world's most honored maxims. The stranger who came into their midst and spoke badly of his own was destined to become an object of suspicion.
Mr. Obama could not make up his mind: He was at one with "the people" and with the rulers who held them in subjugation. The people of Iran who took to the streets this past summer were betrayed by this hapless diplomacy—Mr. Obama was out to "engage" the terrible rulers that millions of Iranians were determined to be rid of. ]
DO YOU THINK THERE IS A PRAYER THAT
OBAMA & THE MSM ET AL WILL WAKE UP??
nah, they are the ones they’ve been waiting for, they are the ones making sure an IslaMarxist Jihad hastens America’s demise.. the allied fools that they be are totally focused on their Muhammad & Marx tree.. which will bloom to fruition we shall have to wait & see, but in the end it matters not,
as either one kills the forest of liberty..
==
Ariel commented:
I fear it matters little to the B.O. how he is graded by the run of the mill American — the real question is, how does George Soros rate him.
bg commented:
++
OT..
Caught: TSA pick boasts of ‘joining’ security with unions
via TRBO
Obama’s TSA nominee boasted of ‘joining’ airport security with unions.
==
AnnS commented:
Guess we won’t be getting any info from the bobmer, we can’t throw water in his face and can’t interrogate him without a lawyer present.
But he just might know who the 200-300 jihadists in Yeman who are plotting attacks against the United States.
Robb76 commented:
It is so very sad that we must be informed of this stuff by a foreign newspaper.
AnnS commented:
Can we do numbers less than “F” ?
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:
Yep, it’s pretty pathetic that to get a much less-biased view of what’s happening in the U.S., one has to read the foreign press…
AnnS commented:
OT:
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago
KABUL – A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at a military base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing eight Americans, U.S. officials said.
Militant Conservative commented:
After reading the posts, What are YOU going to do to protect yourself since your government refuses. take charge of your own security and you’ll know true freedom.
Chisum commented:
Confirmed: Changes By Obama Administration
Probably Led To Increased
Success Of Terrorist Activity in America
http://www.blogslucianneloves.com/Forum/?Thread=RXTYBLQVTPELNLNGRO
bg commented:
++
AnnS @ 3:39 pm #28
i heard about that..
evidently Aloha Akbar Obama has not..
==
bg commented:
++
On the Job Training
12/30/09; M. Zuhdi Jasser
It is sad that President Obama and his team are still going through on-the-job training a year into their administration. Despite the fact that Janet Napolitano, our homeland-security secretary, bizarrely tried to nix the use of the term terrorism and despite the fact that his own White House dubiously dubbed this global conflict “an overseas contingency operation,” the president has finally learned to use the most obvious term – terror- this week. Mr. President, if you are listening, here are a few more thoughts from a concerned Muslim.
You cannot just stay hunkered down at your “beachhead” in Hawaii after another virulent byproduct of global political Islam attacked on our homeland. While no one was really hurt, you don’t exactly look like you are taking the issue seriously when your photo of the day captures a romp on the beach. It was not a coincidence that this was attempted on Christmas day, yet you ignore the religious struggles in this conflict. It is time that our commander-in-chief and the leader of the free world come to terms with the reality that this is the greatest conflict of the century and a battle of ideas between western liberal secular democracies and political Islam.
While you and your colleagues are stymied by the question of whether to even use the term “terror,” the ideology of al-Qaeda (violent political Islam) is spreading exponentially. Your systematic failure to advance American security against ideologies that threaten us may turn catastrophic. In fact the Christmas bomber said so himself, telling an investigator that “there are more just like me who will strike soon.” By all means, Mr. President, fix the holes in our security that we know are there – but terrorists who are suicidal religious zealots and very creative will sadly very likely strike again soon. This year certainly proves that.
Our nation is clearly becoming more and more anxious and concerned over the rash of radicalized Muslims. Is it not time for you to acknowledge that terror is a simply a symptom of a more profound deeper underlying disease? That disease is political Islam.
Hopefully you will realize that we can only defeat an enemy we can name, describe, and understand. As Thomas Friedman and others have recently reminded us, the only answer to jihadists, Salafists, and Islamists is a narrative from within America, and most important from within Islam, that counters the global supremacism of political Islam. Until you say exactly that, we will continue to flail in this conflict.
I hope after Nidal Hasan, after the American jihadis in Pakistan, and now after the Christmas bomber radicalized in London, that you see our need for clear leadership against political Islam and its ubiquitous permeating militant manifestations. We need a leader who recognizes that this conflict is most significantly within Muslim communities as we Muslims struggle with the conflict between theocracy and democracy, sharia and liberty, Islamism and freedom, and salafism and modernity. The longer you squander your leadership and stay silent on this, the more vulnerable we will be.
much more here..
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bg commented:
++
Chisum @ 3:56 pm #30
thanks..
you need to post that here as well as anywhere possible..
and i’m also relieved someone who has proof agrees with me!!
==
Colorado2993 commented:
Can anyone remind me how much time Bush spent on his ranch? And has anyone considered the possibility that maybe the reason so many “terror related events” have happened this year is that while Bush was in office, Democrats wouldn’t acknowlage “terror related events” because that would conflict with the idea that radical Islam posed no threat, and republicans refusing to admit that Bush didn’t keep this country safe from “terror related events.” I’m not saying That Obama deserves a “solid B+” on national security, I’m saying you are all being hypocrites.
bg commented:
++
Colorado2993 @ 11:50 pm #34
what??
could you try & un-twist that for me??
meantime i’ll respond in order to assist you..
An Absentee and Complacent President
[And while President Obama was enjoying the sun, sea and sand of Hawaii’s beaches, which were closed to military personnel so he could have private access, what words of encouragement was he sending the voices of change in Iran? America has always been a beacon of hope for oppressed people, and citizens begging to break the bonds of authoritarian rule. But not this weekend, and not this summer. While President Obama has “engaged” Iran this year, the people’s fight has been bloodied and the race towards nuclear arms has quickened. And today he repeated the refrain that we “bear witness” to their struggle. The Iranian people are surely looking for more encouraging words than that, especially since this is practically the same statement he gave on June 20.
Being the president is not an easy job. The man deserves a vacation. Just as President George Bush did when he went to Crawford, Texas or Ronald Reagan to California or Bill Clinton to Martha’s Vineyard. President Bush on these “vacations” found time to visit with nearly twenty heads of state in Crawford, and in 2002 he wired his ranch so secure video conferencing with intelligence officials could take place. In other words, Crawford, TX was indeed the Western White House. Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard has so far not given President Obama that same ability to project leadership.
Of course, this past year, the President has not given Americans any further proof that he takes the War on Terrorism seriously, or the role of American leadership. Engaging usually meant apologizing. War on Terror became a Contingency Operation. Military tribunals became constitutional rights for non-American enemy combatants. The CIA became a convenient target rather than a critical weapon. When protesters died in the streets of Tehran, he was silent.]
The Invisible Legacy of President George W. Bush
oh. and puh-leeese!!
every time Bush even thought of mentioning
terrorism he was pounded into sand.. duh!!
==
bg commented:
++
AnnS @ 2:16 pm #20
[The Obama Administration is attempting to shift blame for Abdulmutallab, pointing reporters to information that the Nigerian was given a visa by the U.S. embassy in London to travel to the U.S. in 2008, around the same time that he graduated from University College London, a well-respected university. But the State Department source says at that time Abdulmutallab was not on a watch list and traveled to Houston on that visa without incident. A year later, in May 2009, his application for a student visa to return to Britain was rejected because the college Abdulmutallab claimed he would attend was "bogus," and that red flag was shared with U.S. State Department, Homeland Security Department, U.S. Justice Department, and almost certainly U.S. intelligence agencies.]
wow, that filled in a lot of blanks so to speak..
thanks..
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