WASHINGTON (Fox News) December 28,
2009
—
Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano conceded Monday airline
security failed in allowing a Nigerian
on a terror watch list and allegedly
armed with explosives onto a
Detroit-bound flight, a turnaround from
her declaration a day day earlier "the
system worked."
The secretary's comment Sunday was
widely criticized, given suspect Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab was foiled because
his explosive mixture did not properly
detonate and he was stopped in his
tracks by vigilant passengers.
The suspect, who carried the explosive
in his underwear, passed through
security at two airports — in Nigeria
and Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Plus he was not on any "no-fly" list,
even though he was on a massive federal
database of people with suspected ties
to terrorists and his father apparently
had warned U.S. embassy officials in
Nigeria about his son.
"Here, clearly, something went awry. We
want to fix that problem," Napolitano
told Fox News on Monday.
She said officials are doing a complete
review to determine what needs to change
to prevent such a passenger from
clearing security in the future.
"No secretary of homeland security would
sit here and say a system worked prior
to this incident which allowed this
individual to get on this plane,"
Napolitano said.
Her comments marked a change in tone
from the day before, when she lauded
security officials' handling of the
affair.
"I think the important thing to
recognize here is once this incident
occurred, everything happened that
should have," she said on ABC's "This
Week" on Sunday. "We trained for this.
We planned for this."
On CNN's "State of the Union," she said:
"One thing I'd like to point out is the
system worked."
The statement was swiftly condemned.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told CBS' "Face
the Nation" the system "failed in every
respect."
On Fox News, Napolitano clarified Monday
she was referring to security
precautions that went into effect for
other flights following the incident in
Detroit.
"My comment was once this incident
occurred we were able to immediately
notify the 128 flights already in the
air from Europe," she said. "We were
able to immediately institute new
security precautions. ...
And we were immediately able to
provide additional security for the
traveling public."
She said the current system was in place
before she took the helm at the
Department of Homeland Security, and she
was "familiar" with that system.
She said officials will now look
"backwards" to determine what went
wrong.
"This individual was able to get on this
plane with this material. That should
not have happened," she said.
Some lawmakers continued to express
concern Monday about the
administration's response to the
incident, and warning signs that were
missed.
Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority, said
Abdulmutallab paid cash on Dec. 16 for
the $2,831 round-trip ticket from Lagos,
Nigeria, to Detroit via Amsterdam — a
ticket that came from a KLM office in
Accra, Ghana. Demuren said Abdulmutallab
checked into his flight with only a
small carry on bag.
King said that alone should have
qualified the passenger for "secondary
screening."
"What more do you need to at least give
the guy a pat down?" he told Fox News,
adding Napolitano needs to show some
"intensity" over the attempted attack.
"Janet Napolitano has now told two
different stories in two days. First she
said everything worked. Now she says it
didn't work," King said.
"Success is stopping these attacks, not
responding to them," Rep. Pete Hoekstra,
R-Mich., told Fox News.
Law enforcement officials believed the
suspect tried to ignite a two-part
concoction of the high explosive PETN
and possibly a glycol-based liquid
explosive, setting off popping, smoke
and some fire but no deadly detonation.
An apparent malfunction in a device
designed to detonate the PETN may have
been all that saved the 278 passengers
and the crew aboard Northwest Flight
253.
No undercover air marshal was on
board and passengers and crew subdued
the suspect when he tried to set off the
explosion. He succeeded only in starting
a fire on himself.
Security experts said airport "puffer"
machines that blow air on a passenger to
collect and analyze residues would
probably have detected the powder, as
would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on
search using a swab.
Most passengers in airports only go
through magnetometers, which detect
metal rather than explosives.
Abdulmutallab was treated for burns and
was released Sunday to a prison 50 miles
outside of Detroit.
The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
