Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
By now most of you have heard about the attempted terror attack yesterday in Detroit. There is still much information to be dissected and President Obama has asked Senator Jay Rockefeller to hold hearing to try and determine how it was so easy for this passenger to sneak supposed explosives aboard. Although it was first reported that the man was acting at the behest of al-Queda, it is now being reported by ABC News that this may not have been the case.
Senator Rockefeller had this to say about the President asking him to look into the matter:
"The White House has reached out to me and I have been in touch with other appropriate authorities about the incident that occurred on Delta Airlines flight #253 to Detroit," he wrote in a statement late Friday. "Any terrorist attempt on our citizens is extremely serious. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings in January to look in to this incident and related security matters."
http://www.politico.com/...
Senator Susan Collins was also briefed and had this to say:
"It is troubling that he was apparently able to bring explosive material on the airplane," Collins said.
"As I stated earlier, this incident is a disturbing reminder that the terrorist threat is still very real and that we must continue to be vigilant and alert. It also raises some serious questions, such as how was this person able to bring an explosive substance aboard a commercial airliner? And what is the Transportation Security Administration doing to address this type of threat?
Despite what the final truth may be of the man's motives and whether he acted alone or not a couple of things immediately jump out at me about this attack. Number one, this shows that sending our troops to Afghanistan and Iraq supposedly to "fight them there so we do not have to fight them here" is obviously playing out a flawed policy by the previous chickenhawks to go to war at all costs and even to a certain extent the current leadership. Their prescence there did nothing to stop this man from boarding plane and trying to blow it up. Perhaps it is better to have our troops here in America to protect the American people.
Secondly, the Patriot and FISA Acts which took away generations of American civil liberties at the behest of "keeping us safe" obviously do not work. If they did, why was it so easy for this man to get on this plane and do what he did if these measures were working?? Neither of these provisions did a damn thing to stop this and should be immediately repealed.
It is time for us to realize that the failed vision that allowed 9-11 and their knee-jerk reactions just simply do not work. Our greatest defense against the acts is tighter security at airports, more vigilant citizens, and our own local and national law enforement being allowed to do their jobs in a professional matter.
So no matter what comes out of this I hope that it is finally nailed home to the American people that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not made us one bit safer and all the Patriot Act and FISA bill did was shred the Constitution and they are not the least bit effective in deterring new attacks. The proof so to say is in the pudding.