9/11 All Over Again

I cannot believe that we are reliving 9/11 all over again. No, very luckily we have not had a plane brought down by some terrorists from Saudi Arabia. That’s where they came from last time. (Alas it was not a result of an action by one of the many Government Agencies setup to protect us.) What saved us this time was the action of a passenger on the plane.

After 9/11 by the time the smoke cleared and the debris from the WTC was carted away, all the explanation we got from the White House was “a failure to connect dots.” Man, if that wasn’t the biggest dose of White House bullshit. I can’t remember any bigger. There was an FBI agent in Minneapolis, Miss Crowley, sending memos to headquarters in Washington that some Muslims were learning to fly big airplanes, but not land them or takeoff. (Maybe they wanted to fly them at 30,000 feet just for the thrill of it?) But no one connected the dots. Hey, maybe they were going to smash these suckers into something and that’s how they would land them? But no one connected the dots.

What pissed me off back then is that in spite of billions of dollars spent on agencies like the CIA and the FBI, they were failing to do what the taxpayers were paying them for. Not one single person back then in the Bush years was fired for incompetence as a result of 9/11. Not one single person held responsible. Can you believe that?

Okay, so here we are again. The father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young man from Nigeria, warned the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son was getting cuckoo as a result of too much training in Jihad. The father warned that his son could be up to no good. Now the first thing that SOMEBODY in the Embassy should have done was lift the Visa that permitted him to travel by plane to the USA. It wasn’t done. He or she should be fired.

The National Center for Terrorism in the US, a super agency setup after 9/11 and headed by Dennis Blair, was sent a memorandum from the British M1 saying Abdulmulallaro was suspicious and they had put him on a no fly list. The agency did nothing. Dennis Blair should be fired. Next comes the CIA that also got information about Abdulmulallaro, and they failed to connect the dots. Sorry, but nice old Mr. Pannetta was put there because the Obama folks’ couldn’t find a bright young policeman who might have had a better idea than to keep thinking about dots. Pannetta should be sent packing back to California where he much prefers to be anyhow.

My whole point here is that the unwritten Washington law states “no matter how badly officials screw up, nobody gets fired.” That simple rule came into effect in order to protect them all. Talk about a union. There’s one that covers the collective asses of all those high on the Federal tit. I am just anxious to see whether or not Obama can deliver at least some of that promise of “Change” so loudly touted in the campaign.

Yes Mr. President, there are times you need to use your authority as the Commander in Chief (the equivalent of the CEO) and simply say to Ms. Napoletano, Mr Pannetta, Denis Blair, and the State Department Head of the Nigerian Embassy, “Sorry folks, you simply failed to do you jobs so you are out of here.” Wow, wouldn’t that be refreshing. Maybe I’m just dreaming, but hopefully maybe not.

Lest I forget, A very happy New Year to youall. Kate and I danced in 2010 as we have done for the last 22 years.

Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y.