
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
January 11, 2010
/ 25 Teves 5770
Imagine Waugh writing about the Christmas bomber
By
Michael Barone
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In Evelyn Waugh's novel "Scoop," the best book on journalism ever written, Lord Copper, proprietor of the Daily Beast, is followed around by a flunky who responds to every statement he makes. When Lord Copper says something that is true the flunky says, "Absolutely, Lord Copper." When he says something that is false, the flunky says, "Up to a point, Lord Copper."
American politicians and public officials are not followed around by such aides. But the press and public opinion can and often do perform the function of Lord Copper's flunky.
Such has been the case in the Obama administration's responses to the would-be Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
On Dec. 27 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano went on the Sunday shows and said, "The system worked." The response was loud and unmistakable. Up to a point, Madame Secretary.
The next day Barack Obama briefly interrupted his Hawaii vacation and, before hitting the links, referred to the "alleged" bomber as a "suspect" and "an isolated extremist." The response was less strident but plain. Up to a point, Mr. President.
In "Scoop," Lord Copper seems unflummoxed when his flunky responds to his declaration that Tokyo is the capital of China, "Up to a point, Lord Copper." On the Christmas bomber Obama and his appointees have shown themselves capable of learning, albeit slowly, from the responses of the public and the press.
Thus, late in the afternoon on Jan. 7, the 13th day after Christmas, in a twice-postponed press appearance, we heard the president, Napolitano and terrorism adviser John Brennan admit that the system didn't work and that the would-be bomber was not isolated and was a very specific and familiar kind of extremist.
Obama confessed "a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already had." And the president who has junked the term "war on terror" conceded, "We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, and that is plotting to strike us again."
Absolutely, Mr. President.
A chastened Secretary Napolitano acknowledged "systemic failure."
Absolutely, Madame Secretary.
The six-page summary of the White House review compiled by Brennan, rather than attacking the Bush administration's policies as Obama has so often done, noted that "the work by America's counterterrorism community has had many successes since 9/11." It confessed that analysts missed available "derogatory information" that should have put Abdulmutallab on the terrorist watch list and, astonishingly, that "a misspelling of Mr. Abdulmutallab's name resulted in the State Department not believing that he did not have a valid U.S. visa."
Absolutely, Mr. Brennan.
Left unaddressed by Obama, Napolitano and Brennan on Jan. 7 was the administration's almost instant decision to place Abdulmutallab in the criminal justice system, where he had a right to a lawyer who could advise him to remain silent, rather than keep him in military detention, as permitted by law. Abdulmutallab was talking to authorities when he was originally detained but, once provided with a lawyer, seems to have shut up.
That left the government unable to question him about what he did in Yemen, who recruited him, who had dispatched him on his mission, and who trained him in the use of chemical explosives. We couldn't find out what he knows about paramilitary training facilities or the identities of the other terrorists who he reportedly said were ready to launch other attacks.
On a Jan. 3 Sunday talk show Brennan, ignoring such considerations, said there was no downside in putting the terrorist in the criminal justice system.
Up to a point, Mr. Brennan.
It has been argued by no less a polemicist than Michael Kinsley that the decision was right because Abdulmutallab was in the United States. But it was not his intention to enter the United States (except as body parts) nor did customs admit him legally to the country.
Not surprisingly, Obama has avoided this issue in public. On Jan. 7 he asserted that "the buck stops with me" and said, "As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people."
Sounds good. But if you connect the dots, including the decision to give the Christmas bomber a lawyer and to allow him to clam up, the response has to be: Up to a point, Mr. President.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.
Michael Barone Archives
© 2010, Washington Examiner; DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|