Washington – It was one of the most consistent critiques of George W. Bush’s administration: After screwup upon screwup, why does hardly anyone get fired?
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Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005; it wasn’t until Sept. 12 that heckuva-job Brownie was removed. The epic mismanagement of the Iraq war was well-established by 2004; it wasn’t until November 2006 that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got the boot. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales overstayed his welcome by at least a year.
In the wake of the near-bombing 14 days ago of Northwest Flight 253, Barack Obama is in danger of repeating Bush’s mistakes.
Yes, Obama looked like a man in charge on Thursday. He took responsibility as the administration released its preliminary report on the many failures that let Umar Abdulmutallab, despite a half-dozen flaming red flags, board that plane with exploding underwear.
That was admirable. Bush was infamous for not owning up to his mistakes. While Obama was at it, he calmly yet forcefully laid out a series of steps to tighten the screws on the intelligence, watchlisting and airport screening machinery.
The President is finally in front of the story – not getting run over by it.
Yet not a single head has rolled. Not one midlevel bureaucrat. Not a deputy secretary of anything.
How is it possible that nobody deserves the sack? The average American simply won’t understand.
Obama says he isn’t interested in creating scapegoats. He said, “It appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies.”
But it’s not one or the other. Systems are built by and made up of people. To work effectively, especially in a huge bureaucracy, those people need to get the unequivocal message that there are serious consequences for nearly fatal blunders. Even one firing can send that message 10 times more clearly than an executive order or a commanding speech.
The administration’s review leaves no doubt individuals were to blame here: “A series of human errors occurred – delayed dissemination of a finished intelligence report and what appears to be incomplete/faulty database searches on Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name and identifying information.”
By whom? Who was supposed to train them? Why are they still on the job?
Also still on the job is Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who made a fool of herself in the immediate aftermath of the attempted attack. She hasn’t been fired or reprimanded.
As is Michael Leiter, head of the agency responsible for connecting the dots to identify and interrupt potential terror plots. He went on vacation with White House permission after the attacks.
Someday soon, Obama has to show the same cold willingness to kick people to the curb he exhibited when he campaigned for President. There was foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, who called Hillary Clinton a “monster”; there was veep vetter James Johnson, who got preferential loans from subprime lender Countrywide; there was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Gone, gone, gone.
Now, the stakes are higher. He doesn’t just have a campaign to win. He has a nation to protect.
How about replacing the head of the Transportation Security Administration? After all, that is the agency that is directly responsible for aviation security.
Oops, he wants to — but Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has been holding up confirmation of President Obama’s nominee because he thinks that the nominee, Erroll Southers, is too sympathetic to labor unions. I wish I were making this up.
the way to put it is as follows: if the plane would have blown up, would someone have been fired?
Not true one does not have to do with the other!!
he’s all talk and no real action!
He should fire himself if is the one whos been trying to make peace with the arabs
What about intelligence? Don’t they talk to each other??
OBviously its not any one person that messed up. Its a system-wide failure. We just didn’t have scanners up that can detect what’s in underwear. If you want to fire people fire the Europeans who let him on the plane!
If the plane would have blown up, we would not be having this conversation. We would have heard out of Washington “Delta has technical difficulties that will be worked out to assure the safety of the American people.” Unfortunately for Mr. Obama there were 288 witnesses to the would be bomber and it couldn’t be covered up.