Detroit Bomber

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab fashioned a bomb using pentaerythritol trinitrate (PETN), a colorless and odorless high explosive. He tried to smuggle the bomb inside he underwear and planned to used a chemical igniter to set the bomb off. He planned to board a Northwest Airlines flight in Amsterdam bound for Detroit. According to Abdulmutallab himself, he received the training and materials to make the bomb in Yemen.

The incident created a cascade of embarrassments for world leaders. Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was first quoted as saying the system worked and then changed her statement admitting the system had failed. Not to be outdone, former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff proclaimed that by mandating full body scanners the Detroit bomber could have been prevented. His credibility was immediately questioned when it was revealed that he worked for the one of the manufacturers of full body scanners.

President Obama assured the public that heads would roll. The CIA had identified Abdulmutallab early on and had recommended his name be put on the no-fly list. His name was forwarded to the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) which maintains all of the no-fly lists. Somehow his name was never published. It was also revealed that Abdulmutallab’s father went to the US Embassy to report that he feared Umar had become radicalized. Despite these revelations, Secretary of State Clinton and National Security Advisor Jones have remained out of the spotlight.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown felt his political career slipping away as reports surfaced that MI-5 had information about Abdulmutallab and his plans to board an aircraft with a bomb. Apparently this information was not shared with the Americans or Dutch.

While the world watched the finger pointing, another interesting thing happened in Newark, New Jersey. A man walked the wrong way down the exit terminal. TSA personnel were unable to stop him before he disappeared. TSA locked down the airport for hours as they tried, in vain, to find the individual. Apparently one of the TSA cameras in the terminal had been malfunctioning for six days! It took TSA several more hours to contact Continental Airlines to look at the camera footage. As of this writing, the man’s identity remains unknown.

The world in general, and the United States in particular, has become so enamored of technology that we see it as a solution to human failings. There is no reason why Abdulmutallab should have been able to execute as much as his plan as he did except for people failing to share information. The terrorists have this figured out and are going to continue to exploit it until they get it right.