John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, went on “Fox News Sunday” last week to defend intelligence agencies that failed to identify the threat from attempted bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.“There was no smoking gun,” Brennan contended. “There was no piece of intelligence that said, ‘This guy's a terrorist. He's going to get on a plane.' No, not whatsoever.”
No, not at all. Not his father denouncing him to the CIA, not the extended vacation in blissful Yemen, not the one-way ticket paid with cash or the lack of checked luggage. As Inspector Clouseau might have said, “Neuw one told us he had behm.”
Brennan was using the language of the CYA, the governmental bureaucracy that exists solely to protect its members' posteriors. It was the same language used a week prior when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — who was thoroughly chastised — and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs — who curiously was not — suggested that the Undiebomber's failure represented some sort of success.
Americans don't like to hear CYA, especially when national security is involved. Which is why four days after the attempted bombing and two days after the bumbling of Napolitano and Gibbs, President Obama belatedly recognized the need to talk about “systemic failure.” And it's why three days after Brennan's gaffe about insufficient intelligence, Obama used some of his toughest words yet in the war on terr ... er, man-caused disasters.
“The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack,” the president said. “But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots.”
I AGREE. CALLED BRENNAN A CYA TURD A FEW DAYS AGO HERE.
YES: THE "COMMUNITY" FAILED.
BUT THE PERSON WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE SURE THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN WAS BRENNAN.
HE MUST GO. KEEPING HIM SENDS THE WRONG MESSAGE.
No comments:
Post a Comment