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MATT LAUER: You made a comment over the weekend and I want to call attention to that because a lot of people are disagreeing with it this morning. You talked about this incident aboard this Northwest flight and you said “when it came right down to it, the system worked.” A lot of people don’t think the system worked at all, that the only thing that prevented disaster was luck. Can you respond to that?
JANET NAPOLITANO: Sure, I think the comment is being taken out of context. What I’m saying is that once the incident occurred, moving forward, we were immediately able to notify the 128 flights in the air of protective measures to take, immediately able to notify law enforcement on the ground, airports both domestically, internationally, all carriers, all of that happening within 60 to 90 minutes, so –
LAUER: So you’re only talking about what happened after this man tried to ignite this explosive device on the plane.
NAPOLITANO: Indeed.
LAUER: You would then concede that the system prior to that, the system that’s supposed to prevent something like this from happening, failed miserably?
NAPOLITANO: It did. And that’s why we are asking a lot of the same questions I heard you asking before this interview. How did this individual get on the plane? Why wasn’t the explosive material detected? What do we need to do to change perhaps the rules that have been in place since 2006 for moving somebody from the generic database to more elevated status. All of that is under review right now.
LAUER: So many man-hours, so much money, Madam Secretary, has gone into securing fliers in this country and around the world, and so let’s talk about it: how does a guy who’s on this general terror list, who then buys a one-way, trans-Atlantic ticket with cash, checks no luggage, a man whose own father has written a letter to authorities both in his own country and U.S. embassy authorities, saying he’s worried that his son has become more radicalized and might attempt some kind of suicide mission. How is this guy not the perfect candidate for a strip search or a full-body scan?
NAPOLITANO: I’ve asked the same question.
I hope she doesn’t get dizzy from all that spinning.
She was certainly not implying that the system succeeded because of what happened in the aftermath of the incident. She was outright saying that because the plane didn’t blow up, her job was done and done properly. This “after the incident” clarification is pure crap and anyone who buys it is too stupid to watch the news.
The “system” failed. At every point, and at every level. If we’re going to call it a success because a plane didn’t blow up then we need to just let every passenger fend for themselves and stop bothering with the security checks because if that’s the new “system,” we’re only wasting time taking off our shoes and walking through metal detectors.