Successful Terrorist Attacks on US Homeland have begun.

A Nigerian Man, behaving as a terrorist boarded a Northwest Airlines plane flight 253 in Amsterdam on Christmas day December 25^th, 2009. The plane was carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew personnel and was bound for Detroit Michigan. The terrorist was able to get on board hiding a handmade bomb.

As the plane was descending to land at Detroit International Airport, the terrorist successfully ignited the bomb. Fortunately the bomb did not explode to its full potential and ended up severely burning the terrorist and possibly causing minor burns to at least  one heroic passenger that attempted to restrain the terrorist.

The end result of this attack is clear. A terrorist was able to find a way to circumvent all the policies, procedures and security measures installed at great expense and get on an American plane bound for Detroit USA. He was able to ignite the bomb but due to either poor design, workmanship, luck or divine intervention the bomb did not do enough damage to bring down the plane. However he was able to terrorize 278 passengers.

One has to conclude this is a successful act of terrorism on the USA homeland.

There seems to be some confusion on how to communicate in plain language between the Whitehouse and the press. According to Jim Irwin, reported by the Associated Press “The Whitehouse said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. It did not specify what those were.” As citizens we appreciate that the Whitehouse did not say, “it was caused by a man made disaster”.

If it was only attempted, and not successful, we need to know from the Whitehouse how many people must be terrorized, injured or killed before the Whitehouse considers it a successful act of terrorism.

The following press headlines have appeared: 

    "Nigerian in custody after alleged airline terror attack”  CNN Justice 

    "Passenger attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight from Amsterdam to Detroit”  Huffington Post 

    "Breaking News: Attempted terrorist attack on Delta Airlines”  The Spittoon

    "Attempt to blow up airliner foiled”  Associated Press

    "U.S. says al Qaeda linked Nigerian tries to blow up plane”  Reuters

To me this array of journalism is confusing. It focuses on the wrong issues. Are the journalists doing sound investigation work focused on whether our homeland is under attack or are they just finding creative ways to republish the Whitehouse spin.

The second act of successful terrorism occurred on November 5^th, 2009 at Fort Hood. 12 soldiers and one civilian were killed and as many as 30 people injured by Major Nidal Malik Hassan. According to several reports the Major is a Muslim with a history of radical Jihadist beliefs. 

The events above are 2 horrific acts of terrorism on our homeland in the 4^thquarter of 2009. It does not help to get into esoteric discussions about whether they acted alone, or how tightly were these individuals connected to al Qaeda. Nor does it help to have philosophical discussions about whether it’s a police matter or an act of terrorism.

The fact is we were successfully attacked on the homeland and our priority must be to the protection of our citizens. If we accept this as fact and we believe that there were no successful attacks on the homeland since 9-11 then we must ask; “What has changed since the new administration took charge in January and we have anew Commander in Chief?” So what do we know?

First our enemy al Qaeda and all radical Muslim’s that are supporting a Jihad against the USA have not declared a cease-fire, or an end to hostilities. In fact they continue to change strategy and are determined to succeed.

Second the new administration, led by the Commander in Chief, has dramatically reversed the policies of the last administration. The most significant are:

·     End the war against terrorism and protect our citizens on the homeland by treating these horrific acts as man-made disasters. Stop these acts from happening with police and FBI rules of engagement and give the perpetrators all the rights and protections of US Citizens.

·     The Commander in Chief articulated a policy on the campaign trail that has now become his administration policy to engage in a new strategy of diplomacy. This diplomacy strategy is to engage our enemies in conversations where we apologize for American arrogance in the past and expect to develop new endearing allies.

·     In order to show good faith to our enemies we are publishing many of our internal secret methods for keeping us safe in the hope that we will change the behavior of our enemies. We have gone so far as to put on trial CIA personnel.

·     Finally the Commander in Chief decided to bring enemy combatants, who have already pleaded guilty in a military commission of justice, to be tried in an American court of justice in New York City.

There are a majority of American citizens who do not believe this new strategy will work, but hope and pray that it will be successful. There are many who say we need to give our new President more time. Intuitively we believe showing weakness does not work but maybe this young, smart articulate President can change our minds and those of our enemies. 

One thing is for sure we would sleep better at night if our President stayed on the job after making a risky move of deciding to bring the 4 terrorists to New York for trial. Vacationing in Hawaii over Christmas holidays, a prime time for terrorist attacks, does not follow in the great leadership tradition of leading the charge into battle.