Nov 18 2010
Incompetence Writ Large
I have written extensively about the mistakes made by this administration regarding terrorism. One thing Team Obama fears more than anything else is congressional investigations into how so many terrorists made it through our defenses and just barely failed to kill hundreds of innocent people, from the skies over Detroit to Times Square in NY City. Terrorist acts only stopped because of observant citizens and clumsy bomb making.
But today the incompetence of President Obama and AG Holder shines brightly, for all to see:
Is there any better proof that Team Obama’s preferred approach to fight ing terror — through civilian courts — is dangerously misguided than yesterday’s acquittal of one of the 1998 US embassy bombers on all but one of 285 charges?
Ahmed Ghailani, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in a civilian court, was convicted of only a single count of conspiracy to destroy government property and buildings using explosives.
Murder? No.
Terrorism? No.
He was up to his ears in a plot that took 224 lives, and he’s not a terrorist?
Preposterous.
One of the reasons Americans are getting a free sexual assault at airports these days is because Obama, Holder and Brennan dialed back our warning systems and took their eyes off our enemies. They naively assumed being political correct was better than being vigilant. Because they relaxed our defenses, going so far as to ban the terms ‘terrorist’ and ‘war on terror’, we have are now facing an increased threat because our enemies sense the weakness in our current leaders.
Now that Holder has proven how dumb he really is, it is time he retire – before someone gets killed.
Update: While reading Jennifer Rubin’s and Rep Peter King’s take on this travesty I had a sad epiphany:
In a case where Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was facing 285 criminal counts, including hundreds of murder charges, and where Attorney General Eric Holder assured us that ‘failure is not an option,’ the jury found him guilty on only one count and acquitted him of all other counts including every murder charge.
It dawned on me why Holder assumed he could use the court system to bring justice – he thought the American people sitting on juries would ignore the rule of law, especially on evidence, and rule the man guilty as charged no matter what! Liberals hate rules and break them all the time (it comes from their lazy intellects). To them rules are what rulers break due to their vaunted status.
I don’t think it ever occurred to Holder that a jury of citizens would follow the rule of law to the ‘T’, and ignore all information not presented as valid evidence in the courtroom. Holder really thought Americans would simply ignore the law and make a mockery of our court system and rule this obvious mass murderer guilty.
What does that say about the man charged to enforce this nation’s laws?
Oh, the other person? It is Barack or something similar.
Nice RoboMonkey!
Thanks!
AJ wrote:
“One of the reasons Americans are getting a free sexual assault at airports these days is because Obama, Holder and Brennan dialed back our warning systems and took their eyes off our enemies.”
I have to respectfully disagree with AJ on this point. I believe the true reason is much uglier than that. Please allow me to make my points.
I remember seeing a Fox News Channel report addressing Full Body Scanner (FBS) technology several months ago. In that article two competing technologies were compared. One was a naked body scanner type but the other one was much more discreet. It used infrared technology. The infrared unit precisely detected and displayed hidden objects underneath the clothing of the person being scanned without showing the skin. As it turns out the company making the infrared scanner is Isconimaging and the unit is a 1000D http://www.isconimaging.com/iscon1000D.htm. This unit is second generation FBS. The company even makes an incredible portable unit. (I do not have a financial interest in the company whatsoever).
Fast Forward to this month. Now I am witnessing the rollout of the Chertoff/Soros/Homeland Security/TSA preferred X-Ray based FBS technology and I hear all of the key administration appointees stating that this is the solution Americans shall accept and then it hit me!!! We are being scammed. The White House rushed out this invasive, perhaps dangerous and definitely inferior technology when the second generation technology was just about to be released.
How can I assert that the White House is involved? Well I did some checking and discovered that when President Obama went to India, he took as one of his industry trade representatives none other than the CEO of OSI, the parent company of Rapiscan which makes the X-Ray FBS naked body scanner!
http://investors.osi-systems.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=530184
“Deepak Chopra, Chairman and CEO, was selected to accompany US President, Barack Obama, to Mumbai and attended the US India Business Entrepreneurship meeting, which was held by the US India Business Council (US IBC). The goal of the meeting was to promote further trade between US and India.
Deepak Chopra, OSI Systems President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, ‘I am honored to be selected to play a role in this very important cause. Currently the trade between US and India is only one tenth of the amount of trade between US and China. There is substantial opportunity to improve the trade relations with India for mutual economic gain.’ “
Yes it appears that the President wants to help Rapiscan and no one else. Did he take anyone from Isconimaging, the maker of the discreet FBS along with him to India? Well I did the best I can do and checked the Isconimaging website news page. Lots of very important Isconimaging timeline articles but no trip to India there! Also you will find a press release dated March 9, 2010 illustrating how China has figured out which FBS is best.
A smaller non-ionizing radiation naked body scanner company Millivision, http://www.millivision.com has gotten some dog scrap business in some airports (no trip to India press release on their website either) but the winner is Rapiscan.
After the Christmas diaper incident, the President added 1,000 new FBSs (I am betting they are almost all Rapiscans) to his budget request. What budget and how it was approved is not quite so clear since there is no budget.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/obama-budget-adds-1000-airport-body-screeners/19340510
Am I the only one wondering about this mad rush to get Rapiscan out there? Of course not, see this link.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20022477-281.html
“For some reason TSA is rushing these things out,” says Charlie Leocha of the Consumer Travel Alliance. “They haven’t fully studied them. They haven’t tested them. They don’t know if it’ll detect the explosives you’re looking for…We’re at a perfect storm, but will TSA listen to anyone? I don’t know.”
What I am seeing though is a clear pattern to stop the best technology from being properly considered for implementation in our country’s airports and the reasons are purely political. The American people have been tricked into complaining and arguing about the wrong thing–FBS naked body imaging–while missing the real story altogether–political chicanery.
We now know that the Airlines Pilot Association and others have met with Homeland Security officials and the meetings are sensitive. They are directly related to allowing airline pilots to bypass the X-Ray FBS using biometrics.
http://nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/tsa-pilots-weigh-biometric-system-for-airport-screening-20101116
So what do the Airlines Pilots Association (APA) and the Homeland Security/TSA cabal know that we do not?
I am betting that they know that Isconimaging just released their brand new FBS with built-in biometrics capability. These units are an aircrew’s dream machine–no phony pilots flying into trade Centers anymore.
http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/8388/
By the way, guess what Congress put in the stimulus bill? One billion dollars of spending on airport explosive detection equipment including new “checkpoint” scanners. This spending was buried in the stimulus bill on page 49 (pdf format see quote and stimulus link below). Wow and 45 days to come up with a spending plan! How absurd, I wonder who got that money??
“For an additional amount for ‘Aviation Security’,
$1,000,000,000 for procurement and installation of checked baggage
explosives detection systems and checkpoint explosives detection
equipment: Provided, That the Assistant Secretary of Homeland
Security (Transportation Security Administration) shall prioritize
the award of these funds to accelerate the installations at locations
with completed design plans: Provided further, That no later than
45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary
of Homeland Security shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations
of the Senate and the House of Representatives a plan for
the expenditure of these funds.”
http://readthestimulus.org/hr1_final.pdf
The problem is that if these naked body scanners get put in place and the public rolls over, we will be stuck with them for a long time.
I believe that the President will be forced to fire Janet Napalatono and others when and if this story fully breaks. Can you imagine the anger the American people will feel when they understand that they have been sold a multi-billion dollar bill of goods? Goods that are dehumanizing, possibly dangerous, and certainly antiquated, and that they did this even as an incredible new technology was just becoming available that will not expose them to harmful radiation or treat them like cattle at the airport? Not to mention children can be scanned too, taking away the next generation terrorist attack technique—the flying child bomb; and look Mom no child porn image!
Well at least the Chinese got it right!