It Isn’t the System, Mr. President

Jena McNeill / January 06, 2010

Yesterday’s address by President Obama on the Christmas Day plot was filled with lots of “well-duh” information that Americans already knew. The fact that the government failed to do its job isn’t much of a revelation. But the one message that was clearly communicated to the American public, in both yesterday’s speech and other White House press junkets, is that President Obama thinks the “system”—the one used to stop terrorists in the United States is flawed. Translation: the Bush Administration’s counterterrorism efforts didn’t work, aren’t we lucky that the Obama Administration is here to save the day and really fix things.

Well let’s deconstruct that argument a little bit. If the system itself was flawed—why has U.S. law enforcement (at times working with other nations) prevented at least 26 terror plots since 9/11? (There have been at least 28 foiled, but 2 were the result of sheer luck) Why were we successful in stopping a very similar plot in 2006, where terrorists planned to use liquid explosives to blow up 10 planes at once? In that instance, U.K. authorities discovered valuable information, shared it with the U.S., and the U.S. made sure that necessary authorities knew about and stopped it. (more…)