Terror prevention system failure
December 29, 2009 | By Amanda Reinecker
On Christmas Day, a 23-year-old Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a homemade bomb onboard a packed Northwest Airlines flight headed for Detroit. Thanks to a faulty detonator and a few brave passengers, the young terrorist's bomb failed to go off. But this close call raises many serious concerns about airport security.
To put it simply, "the system failed," writes Heritage's Conn Carroll. Even though the explosive Abdulmutallab used can be easily detected and the young man's father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria about his son, the attack very nearly happened. A proper screening process would have exposed both of these findings and kept this enemy combatant from boarding any aircraft. In short, Carroll argues, "the Flight 253 incident was an intelligence failure."
There have been 28 foiled terror plots against the U.S. since 9/11. The vast majority of these -- 26 -- were foiled directly by the important counterterrorism tools the U.S. has adopted since the September 11 attacks. But the Detroit terror plot last week was foiled by luck and courageous bystanders. It exposed the shortcomings of these national security measures and the need to improve and strengthen them.
"Throwing more money at airline security" is not the way to go, Heritage expert James Carafano explains. Instead, as Carroll notes, "the most effective means of stopping terrorist attacks is to disrupt them as early as possible." This means stopping terror plots before they even start. Specifically, the U.S. should:
- Support and strengthen existing counterterrorism tools. Tools such as the PATRIOT Act and the Terrorist Watch List exist to aid in the detection of suspicious persons through the use of modern intelligence. Unfortunately, their use is hampered by laws and regulations that keep this intelligence from security screeners and prevent them from "connecting the dots."
- Strengthen our international anti-terror coalitions. Heritage expert Jena Baker McNeil explains that the Christmas plot was truly international. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, resided in London and his plane left from Amsterdam. Congress should place a stronger emphasis on sharing intelligence with other countries.
- Target the root. Al Qaeda has reportedly taken credit for the Christmas terror plot, demonstrating the terrorist network's global reach. This claim (which has not yet been confirmed) emphasizes the need to continue fighting them wherever they take sanctuary.
"America just got lucky," Conn Carroll explains. "The plot [last week] was clumsy and the passengers and crew responded bravely and quickly." The Administration and Congress have to start taking the fight against terrorism more seriously and use our counterterrorism tools more effectively – all of the time. Because next time -- and there will likely be a next time -- we might not be so lucky.
Where things stand with Obamacare
The Left may be celebrating Obamacare's success a bit too prematurely, writes Heritage expert Brian Darling: In fact, "the health care reform fight is not over."
Though the Senate passed its health care "reform" bill on Christmas Eve, it isn't yet law. The legislation must be reviewed and approved by the House, which has passed a markedly different health care bill. The bill can only be signed into law once the House and Senate reconcile their differences. And, as Heritage health care experts Nina Owcharenko and Bob Moffit explain, that reconciliation might take a while.
The bill that the Senate approved on a party-line vote last week does not contain a government-run health care plan (the so-called "public option"), imposes taxes on expensive health care plans and employs very weak language prohibiting federally subsidized abortions. The House bill, on the other hand, heavily relies on a "public option," imposes an income surtax and explicitly excludes federal abortion funding. These are major discrepancies that may prove difficult to settle.
"Presumably the Senate bill can't pass the House, because of the more liberal abortion language, the radically different tax provisions and the lack of a public option," explains Darling. "That leaves a so called 'ping-pong' strategy where the House can either take up and pass the Senate version of Obamacare or they can take up the Senate bill, amend it, then send it back to the Senate."
Whichever route legislators choose, it will take time. The House will not resume session until January 12 and the Senate until January 18. That gives Americans several weeks to educate themselves further about Obamacare -- and public opinion continues sour on the Left's proposals.
Other Heritage work of note
- The Department of Agriculture recently reported that as many as 49 million people experienced "food insecurity" in 2008, which prompted USA Today to write that one in six Americans went hungry that year. While poverty and hunger are not to be taken lightly, Heritage President Ed Feulner argues, "'food insecurity' isn't as dire as it sounds." The number of people who actually went hungry is more like three percent.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration is applying the wrong lessons, and plans to spend an unsustainable $10.3 trillion to fight hunger and poverty. But there's a better way, Feulner writes: "to give the poor a hand up, not a hand out." Creating more programs that actually help the poor become self-sufficient is the only way to truly eradicate poverty.
In other news
- Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez said in a New Year's address that the Obama "illusion" is over and accused the President of reverting to America's "imperialist" tendencies. Chavez called for a renewal of socialist and Christian principles to correct the alleged wrongs of capitalism.
- According to Rasmussen Reports, nearly four in five American voters now think there will be another terrorist attack in the United States within the next year.
- Also according to Rasmussen Reports, government employees have a much more optimistic opinion about the economy's prospects than do private sector workers. Perhaps this is because government continues to expand at the expense of the private sector.
- Iranian authorities cracked down on the country's burgeoning opposition movement Monday. The government rounded up political activists and, in an apparent effort to stem further protests, seized the corpse of one leading dissident's nephew.
- The defense appropriations bill signed by President Barack Obama this month contains 97 pages listing nearly 1,000 congressional earmarks.
Amanda Reinecker is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward, the Editor of MyHeritage.org, contributed to this report.
