Bomb Plot Fallout

We talked a bit about the bomb plot last year (yes!  Last year!), and about how the plot was foiled.  It’s time to look at the more political aspect of this attack, and how it’ll effect Obama:

Okay, first of all, the bomb plot didn’t happen, so that’s a plus in Obama’s column.  But it didn’t happen because of the passengers.  The terrorist was able to get through U.S. red tape, secure a visa, and security checkpoints in the Amsterdam airport before getting on the plane and attempting to blow up a bomb in his underpants while landing, only to be stopped by alert passengers.

So that’s a minus in Obama’s column.  And I know the excuse that can be applied to Obama:  that he didn’t actually have anything to do with any step in that procedure, but for the sake of political argument, let’s just make it clear that the buck stops with Obama, just as September 11 stopped with Bush.

The alleged terrorist’s father had actually told American and British authorities in November that he feared that his son had become radicalized and was then in Yemen, but his visa was not revoked, and a deeper investigation did not take place.  He wasn’t even searched thoroughly enough.  So clearly something is wrong with our terror watch program.  The alleged terrorist, Abdulmutallab, had been on a large watch list, but not the actual no-fly list.  The larger watch list is people of interest, a particularly large list of 550,000 suspected terrorists, people who aren’t no-fly but should merit some extra screening.  Abdulmutallab allegedly had no luggage and a one-way ticket.  In retrospect, it makes you kind of want to smack someone.

Of course, Dick Cheney has decried Obama’s response for blah blah blah, but I don’t think this will have as much impact.  The Bush Administration put such half-assed measures into place everywhere they went that only the hardcore neocon zealots would still listen to what Cheney said and not swoon from an overexposure to hypocrisy.  But Obama does need to fix the airport security lists.  And many more attempts like this one will reflect poorly on his homeland security record.

The controversy now is whether or not to employ the “Naked” scanners, which do exactly what they suggest, leading to outcries over personal privacy and whatnot.

The fallout appears to not be hitting Obama too hard – even the most virulent Obama haters remember Richard Reid – and it seems that the greatest effects this will have on the 2012 Election is highlighting homeland security – as if that was ever in doubt – and escalating U.S. interest in Yemen, which is currently experience a significant upheaval and is also the place Abdulmutallab was trained.  All rhetorical jockeying on the part of Obama and Cheney alike isn’t going to be anywhere near as important as the response to these two issues.