† Obama’s One-Two Cha-Cha-Cha: Two days after Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano absurdly asserted that “the system worked” because Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s efforts to blow a plane out of the sky were thwarted – by passengers who acted quickly and courageously to capitalize on their good fortune that the detonator of his homemade bomb malfunctioned – her boss, President Barack Hussein Obama, contradicted her, attributing the failed terrorist attack to “systemic” intelligence and security failures. The next day a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents at a U.S. base in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, and Obama was singing a different tune, reports The Daily Mail (London):

‘One day the President is pointing the finger and blaming the intelligence services, saying there is a systemic failure,’ said one agency official. ‘Now we are heroes. The fact is that we are doing everything humanly possible to stay on top of the security situation. The deaths of our operatives shows just how involved we are on the ground.’

And finally, a couple of days after that, in an interview on “FOX News Sunday” John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told Chris Wallace that rather than a “systemic” failure, “There were some lapses. There were some human errors. There were some failures of the system to allow that to happen at the speed of light [emphasis, The Stiletto]. So in the space of a week we circled back to “the system worked ... sorta.”

And speaking of circles, Brennan circled around and around two of Wallace’s questions without answering them – because you don’t have to be Mr. Spock to see the blatant illogic of the Obama administration’s national security and terrorism policies.

On why the administration will continue to transfer Gitmo detainees to Yemen now that we know several of them have assumed leadership positions with al Qaida in Yemen, Brennan stuck to the Obama playbook and first blamed Bush (“During the last administration, 532 detainees were transferred from Guantanamo … we have transferred 42.”).

Well, only 14 of those Bush released were Yemeni (or, 2.6 percent), whereas seven of the 42 Obama released were Yemeni (or, 16.6 percent). So Obama is not only getting Yemeni detainees back to work as jihadis at a much faster clip than Bush did, but Brennan said the president intends to continue the increasingly controversial policy because the facility “has served as a propaganda tool for al Qaida.” Um, won’t former detainees successfully carrying out terror attacks that kill Americans make for even better propaganda?

Brennan also said that the administration is determined to close Gitmo, but will not “do anything that is going to put American security at risk” and that “[w]e've had close dialogue with the Yemeni government about the expectations that we have as far as what they're supposed to do when these detainees go back.”

All of the 574 detainees repatriated to date have been deemed as being “low risk” – wrongly, in many cases, as we now know – so if safeguarding American security is the aim, then Gitmo would not be closed, especially as Obama is pretty much batting zero in getting other world leaders to meet his “expectations” (for a few examples click here, second item; here, third item; and here, eighth item).

Wallace then asked why Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is being charged as a criminal defendant and was allowed to get “lawyered up” – with a court-appointed attorney at taxpayer expense, BTW - rather than being treated as an enemy combatant and questioned by the CIA to get actionable intelligence about future attacks (that is, interrogated without being tortured or Mirandized).

Brennan spoke cryptically of “an array of tools that we will use … [to] maintain flexibility as far as how we deal with these individuals” and said the Department of Justice determined that trying Abdulmutallab in U.S. criminal court “was the best way to address” this case because … well, he never said why it’s better than Wallace’s suggestion or better than any of the other tools in the “array” that could have been used instead. [BTW, National Review’s Andy McCarthy offers plenty of reasons why civilian criminal trials is not “the best way to address” terrorism.]

Then – apropos of nothing – Brennan noted that “during the previous administration … Richard Reid, the shoe bomber; Zacarias Moussaoui; Padilla; Iyman Faris … were charged and tried in criminal court and sentenced, some cases to life imprisonment.”

Leaving aside the fact that the military commission option was not available to the federal government when Richard Reid was arrested, the terrorist confessed to attempting to blow up a jet with explosives he had hidden in his shoe; Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty to all six conspiracy counts against him stemming from the September 11, 2001 terror attacks; and Iyman Faris also pleaded guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda and conspiracy for providing the terrorist organization with information about possible U.S. targets for attack for his role in the plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

These prosecutions were successful because the defendants did not contest the charges; there is no guarantee that federal prosecutors would have won these cases, so Brennan’s citing them undermines the case for criminal prosecution of alleged terrorists. And in an added irony, leading Democrats were once opposed to the Obama administration’s approach - at least, when George W. Bush was president - as Senate Judiciary Committee member and former chairman Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) noted in a recent New York Post op-ed:

Democrats were highly critical of the Bush administration's decision to prosecute Moussaoui in federal court instead of a military commission. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, for example, said that it would be “ludicrous" to try 9/11 plotters in civilian courts.

The criminal complaint against Abdulmutallab charges him with destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities and willful attempts to do so, and prosecutors in Detroit said that the grand jury could be presented with additional or more serious charges to consider – the complaint against Reid charged him with interfering with an airline flight crew, but he was indicted on attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

However, Brennan disturbingly suggested that the administration could allow Abdulmutallab to plead to lesser charges – for instance, explosives possession or reckless endangerment - or otherwise receive leniency if he cooperates with investigators (“he knows that there are certain things that are on the table, and if he wants to, in fact, engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways that he can do that”).

Despite Brennan’s dubious assertions to the contrary, cutting plea deals with terrorists will not make Americans safer.

† Average Americans To Liberals: Existential Angst Over Torture? It’s All You.: According to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds 58 percent of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, while 30 percent oppose the use of these techniques:

Men and younger voters are more strongly supportive of the aggressive interrogation techniques than women and those who are older. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor their use more than Democrats.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22% say it should be handled by civilian authorities as a criminal act, as is currently the case. …

Most voters also said the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas by a Muslim Army officer should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act rather than by civilian authorities as a criminal act.

† Red Is The New Blue (Dog) (second item): After switching his party affiliation, Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) lost all but one of his Washington staffers, who resigned in protest, reports The Associated Press:

In a sharply worded statement, Griffith's former chief of staff, Sharon Wheeler, called the freshman congressman's switch a "mistake" that goes against the interests of his district, which relies heavily on federal funding for defense and aerospace jobs.

"We cannot in good conscience continue working for him," Wheeler said. "We do not know what the future holds, but we are taking a leap of faith with the belief we will soon find ourselves in the employment of principled public officials." …

In a statement, Griffith said the resignations were expected. He said all of his offices remain open and that he is confident he can fill the vacancies by Jan. 12, when Congress reconvenes after the holidays.

† Mortgage Loan Modification Less Than Advertised: Economists and real estate experts give a thumbs down to the Obama administration’s $75 billion Making Home Affordable program to bail out homeowners facing foreclosure by prolonging the real estate crisis, reports The New York Times:

Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. …

As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished while falsely assuming that loan modifications involved no negative reports to credit agencies.

Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

“The choice we appear to be making is trying to modify our way out of this, which has the effect of lengthening the crisis,” said Kevin Katari, managing member of Watershed Asset Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund. …

Only after banks are forced to acknowledge losses and the real estate market absorbs a now pent-up surge of foreclosed properties will housing prices drop to levels at which enough Americans can afford to buy, he argues. …

The biggest source of concern remains the growing numbers of underwater borrowers - now about one-third of all American homeowners with mortgages, according to Economy.com.

At last month’s hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel, chairwoman Elizabeth Warren wondered whether injecting $75 billion in taxpayer funds into the mortgage market will “reduce the number of foreclosures in the short term, but just kick the can down the road” so that economic recovery is hobbled by mortgage foreclosures “not just for a year or two, but for many years.” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner could not offer a solution.

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: The New York Times reports that one reason the economy is sluggish is that people are taking longer to pay their bills, which causes their creditors to take longer to pay their own bills, and so on:

An analysis by Sageworks, a financial information company, shows that a range of privately held businesses waited longer for payment last year than in 2008 or 2007. …

“When people are holding onto their cash, they’re feeling less confident,” said Drew White, chief financial officer of Sageworks. Once bills start being paid faster, the economy is more likely to behave like a well-oiled machine.

† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Nationalized Healthcare Always LeadsTo Rationing): New guidelines issued jointly by the American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging recommend mammograms starting at age 40 for women with an average risk of breast cancer and at age 30 for high-risk women, reports Reuters: