Security Theatre and the Unwillingness to Admit Error

Here's a posting by Andrew Sullivan on his Atlantic blog site that hits the nail on the head concerning the "security" offered by DHS and TSA (with regard to the Nigerian fanatic who tried to blow up a plane flying into Detroit).

Heckuva Job, Janet

The head of DHS had the gall to say that "the system worked." What she meant is that after the incident in Detroit, the response was good. Fine. But she has no assurance that this could not happen again, and even declared that the would-be terrorist was properly screened.

More to the point, she evinces no sense of responsibility for this lapse in security. I'm sorry but that's her job and instead of preening about how she handled it after the fact, she should be apologizing for yet another instance of government incompetence and complacency. She is stonewalling and smug.

Really: disgraceful, glib, complacent, moronic. I want to know who is being fired for not taking the warning about this ooon seriously enough, and if Napolitano really believes that a near-miss, averted by the terrorist's incompetence and the passengers' courage, is a sign that the system is working, then she needs to be fired as well.

I understand the imperative to remain calm, not give these incidents more media oxygen than they deserve, not responding with hysteria or panic. But this interview went far too far in the opposite direction. She sounded like Brownie during Katrina. I have no confidence in her as head of DHS if this is her attitude. It's reminiscent of the Bush-Cheney years: arrogance and a refusal to take responsibility.

Obama comes across as more intelligent than Bush, but he has the same distracted inability to come to grips with problems, to take responsibility for things, and to act in a timely way. The "Heckova Job Brownie" label -- sadly -- applies to the Obama administration just as it did the Bush administration. The American people deserve better than this.