Airline Disaster Averted By Dutch Citizen, Not Security

"The system worked," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said on the Sunday morning talk shows. The fact is, Secretary Napolitano, the system did not work. What did work was an alert Dutch citizen on board the incoming flight to Detroit who leaped over rows of seats and restrained the terrorist as he sat with his trousers on fire.

There are reports that President Obama was not notified for three hours after the incoming flight was first recognized as a problem. Then, after the initial briefing which lasted several minutes, he went out and played golf. Imagine if that scenario occurred with President G.W. Bush. Remember the nasty criticism he received for his imagined slow response to the news of the attacks of 9/11/01? According to the far left of the political aisle, Bush should have immediately jumped up and jetted back to Washington, D.C. Never mind that the group of very young children to whom he was reading would have been needlessly freaked out. Granted, the events of 9/11/01 were far more extreme but the passes given to this current president are daily and obvious.

The 23 year old Nigerian responsible for the botched terror attack on the Delta/Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit is yet another young Muslim male that destroys the stereotype that the guilt-ridden liberals in America would have you believe fit the pattern for those who plot to kill us. Like the 9/11/01 Muslim terrorists and others who have been thwarted since, as well as the attack on Fort Hood recently, the terrorists are well educated, from affluent families, and have chosen to take the beliefs of a violent arm of Islamic religious views. Guilt-ridden liberals would have you believe it is poor, uneducated Muslim young men without hope for the future that plot to kill us. They would have you believe it is simply young Muslim men without a bright future in need of hugs from the West - in other words, it is the standard pap from the left that it is our own fault that they hate us.

Then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama promotes this world view. Days after the attacks of 9/11/01, he gave a speech in Illinois that said as much. He insisted we just need to provide outreach to the Muslim world and they would realize we aren't really so bad after all. This train of naive thought is equivalent to burying our heads in the sand. By refusing to accept the flaring fact that there is a sect within the Islamic religious community that wishes to destroy Westerners and revert back to a past of Islamic dominance, is to squelch our ability to destroy them first.

This young man is the son of a wealthy, connected, respected Nigerian - a former economics minister of Nigeria and newly retired chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria. The 70 year old man is still on several boards of Nigeria's biggest firms, according to an article in The Independent in London. The son lived and went to university in London. The family townhome in London is worth several million dollars. The son is described by a former classmate as only showing up for classes and doing the bare minimum to attain his degree - a degree in mechanical engineering.

Thanks to Jasper Schuringa, a resident of Amsterdam en route to Miami for Christmas, the terror plot was foiled. Mr. Schuringa is the hero who leaped into action after hearing the initial 'pop' from the explosive device. He sustained burns to his hand in the process. As quoted in The Independent article: "I basically reacted directly...when you hear a pop on the plane, you are awake. I just jumped. I didn't think, I just went over there and tried to save the plane...and we did." Hundreds of families are grateful to him this holiday season.

Abdulmutallab was a test to international security measures for air travel. The system failed. He left Lagos, Nigeria with a ticket purchased on December 16 with cash. He had only one carry-on bag. His story was that he was going to spend two weeks in Detroit so that was suspicious. The flight went to Amsterdam. This is a common flight. My own husband has traveled to Nigeria for business and has taken the flight many times. Amsterdam is known for good security measures but this has been disputed by others in light of this story.

Fortunately for everyone involved, this wannabe terrorist was not so bright. He failed in the execution of his attack. He claims to be a member of al-Qaida. It is thought that he is a recent visitor to Yemen. His own father turned his son's name over to authorities out of concern of this son's radicalization. He was on one list of potential terrorists but not on the no-fly list. He was in possession of a multi-use visa and allowed to travel to the U.S. None of this adds up.

Profiling works. It is time to be honest in this struggle and wake up to the fact that we are at war with those who wish to kill us. The Obama administration made much over changing the term 'war on terror' to some inane description of 'man made catastrophes'. The world watches and terrorists laugh at us. Ignoring the danger doesn't stop it.