• Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Video: Janet Napolitano Now Says Quote Taken Out of Context and System Failed Miserably

    +++++Updated Post+++++

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    Here is the original quote from yesterday:

    NAPOLITANO: What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action.

    Wow! What a change of heart in less than 24 hours. Guess Rahm must have called the dear Secretary.

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a kidding, right, when she said the “system worked?”

    Understandbly, the White House is trying very hard to get out in front of the would-be Christmas bomber story. The head of the Department of Homeland Security isn’t helping. I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the “system worked” because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was “foiled” by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is “working” when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it’s fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical — turned in by his own father — can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn’t go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have “worked” since it has done everything right.

    NOT very reassuring, if you are going to fly home or back to college in the next few days. The system failed and Napolitano must be held responsible.

    But……

    I am waiting for the Obama Administration to blame the whole debacle on George W. Bush.

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    The Day By Day Archive


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  • Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Day By Day December 28, 2009 – Sharp Dressed Man

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a kidding, right, when she said the “system worked?”

    Understandbly, the White House is trying very hard to get out in front of the would-be Christmas bomber story. The head of the Department of Homeland Security isn’t helping. I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the “system worked” because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was “foiled” by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is “working” when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it’s fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical — turned in by his own father — can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn’t go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have “worked” since it has done everything right.

    NOT very reassuring, if you are going to fly home or back to college in the next few days. The system failed and Napolitano must be held responsible.

    But……

    I am waiting for the Obama Administration to blame the whole debacle on George W. Bush.

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    The Day By Day Archive


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  • Barack Obama,  Canada,  Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Canada Asks: How Did United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano Get Her Job?

    dem-govs03

    Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security

    Well, Napolitano is a former Democrat Governor of Arizona and a Democrat Party political hack. But, Canadians have a point in asking the question.

    In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that “suspected or known terrorists” have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

    All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

    Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: “I can’t talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here’s the future. The future is we have borders.”

    Just what does that mean, exactly?

    Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada’s border to Mexico’s, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

    In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?

    What an embarassment.

    President Barack Obama should ask for Napolitano’s resignation.


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  • Canada,  Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Blames Canada for 9/11 Hijackers?

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, right, and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., speak on their way to a news conference after touring the Los Angeles port complex at the Port of Los Angeles Coast Guard Station on Monday, April 13, 2009, in Los Angeles

    Well, first it was the release of the DHS report on right wing extremists and now it is a FLAP with Canada over 9/11 for Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

    Ottawa was rushing to defend its border security on Tuesday amid a diplomatic scuffle with the U.S., which erupted after Washington’s homeland security chief suggested that the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.

    U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Canadians on both sides of the border.

    In recent years, Ottawa has invested a great deal of effort into dispelling perceptions among Americans that Canada’s border is an easy entry point for terrorists planning attacks on U.S. soil.

    “Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from,” said Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador in Washington.

    “As the 9-11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9-11 terrorists came from Canada.”

    Clearly, Napolitano is incapable of doing the job. Now, she insults Canada for no apparent reason. But, tries to backtrack:

    Later, Napolitano’s staff attempted to tamp down the controversy by blaming the comments on a simple misunderstanding, said Wilson, who was the keynote speaker at the Border Trade Alliance meeting in Washington Tuesday.

    “Her comment from her people is that she misunderstood,” Wilson said, adding that he was planning a personal meeting with Napolitano in the near future.

    The furor began when Napolitano was asked to clarify statements she had made about equal treatment for the Mexican and Canadian borders, despite the fact that a flood of illegal immigrants and a massive drug war are two serious issues on the southern border.

    “Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn’t have a drug war going on, it didn’t have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year,” she said.

    “Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.”

    When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added: “Not just those but others as well.”

    However, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan downplayed the comments and said that Napolitano is well aware that Canada was not the source of the 9-11 terrorists.

    “We spoke about it back in March, and we were sharing a chuckle at the fact that the urban myth does circulate,” he told CTV’s Power Play.

    “Ms. Napolitano understood quite clearly, then and now, that none of the September 11 terrorists came through Canada, as the 9-11 Commission found.”

    Secretary Napolitano should apologize and then resign.

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    Video: One Question Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on MSNBC Avoids Right Wing Extremism Report Flap

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano APOLOGIZES To Veterans Over DHS Report


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  • Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Video: One Question Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on MSNBC Avoids Right Wing Extremism Report Flap

    Joe Scarborough on the DHS Report classifying Veterans as right wing extremists

    Now, the White House is trying to contain Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her access to the media. 

    “Apparently, when the Democrats promise an open administration, they really only mean open as long as you ask the questions they want asked and no follow-ups on controversial topics that everyone is reporting on…..”

    How embarassing that “The Obama Network” of MSNBC is even revolting. One question ONLY?

    How long will it be before Obama throws Napolitano over the side?

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    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano APOLOGIZES To Veterans Over DHS Report


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  • Homeland Security,  Janet Napolitano

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano APOLOGIZES To Veterans Over DHS Report

    Napol-and-radicals

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was feeling the heat over the Obama Administration’s controversial DHS report targeting rightwing extremism.

    Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists.

    House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

    The agency’s intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country’s first black president to recruit members.

    The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence.

    “To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable,” said Boehner, R-Ohio.

    The commander of the veterans group the American Legion, David Rehbein, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

    Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh, cited in the report, was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

    “To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical ‘disgruntled military veteran’ is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam,” Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

    Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

    “Let me be very clear — we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States,” Napolitano said in a statement. “We don’t have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence.”

    Now, the Secretary has apologized – finally and belatedly.

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized to veterans after a report issued by her department said troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were at risk for being recruited by right-wing extremists.

    “To the extent veterans read it as an accusation … an apology is owed,” she said during an on-air interview on FOX News Thursday, a day after veterans’ groups and members of Congress blasted her for the report, which they said libeled members of the armed forces.

    “This was an assessment, not an accusation,” Napolitano continued. “It was limited to extremists those who seek to commit violence within the United States. And all this was meant to do was to give law enforcement what we call ‘situational awareness.'”

    “The last thing I want to do is offend or castigate all veterans. To the contrary, let’s meet and clear the air,” she said.

    A footnote in the report, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” said that while there is no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of violence, such acts could come from unnamed “rightwing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions on firearms — and singled out returning war veterans as susceptible to recruitment.

    “If there’s one part of this report that I would rewrite … it would be that footnote,” Napolitano said.

    Obviously, someone in the Obama administration has gotten to the Secretary and instructed her to apologize and let the flap blow over. I don’t think it will and her ill-timed remarks has alerted the public to the heavy handed tactics of this Secretary and Obama.

    Comparing American veterans to a domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh is over the top. And, the broad generalizations about veterans, pro-life groups, federalists and supporters of gun rights is BIAS and an unfair political characterization.

    Will such pro-life organizations like the Knights of Columbus be visitied by your friendly DHS agents for possible subversive activities? How about the Catholic Church? The National Rifle Association?

    Now, Secretary Napolitano should RENOUNCE this report and then RESIGN.

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    Department of Homeland Security Sends Police 9 Page Report Warning of Rightwing Extremist Activity


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  • Homeland Security

    Department of Homeland Security Sends Police 9 Page Report Warning of Rightwing Extremist Activity

    Homeland-security

    Believe it or not? The Obama Administration is warning local law enforcement officials of “rightwing extremist activity.”

    The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

    A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

    “It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.

    Here is the report (Pdf).

    Most notable is the report’s focus on the impact of returning war veterans.

    “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to right-wing extremists,” it says. “DHS/I&A is concerned that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize veterans in order to boost their violent capacities.”

    And, last month, the chief of the Missouri highway patrol blasted a report issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked conservative groups to domestic terrorism, assuring that such reports no longer will be issued. The report had been compiled with the assistance of DHS.

    The report warned law enforcement agencies to watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers for third-party political candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

    It further warned law enforcement to watch out for individuals with “radical” ideologies based on Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes.

    Looks like the Department of Homeland Security has been politicised by the left-wing Obama Administration. Time for some Congressional hearings.

    By the way, if you see some guys/gals in suits, plus sunglasses tomorrow at the Tea Party Tax Protests, figure it is FBI or Homeland Security agents compiling their list for the police.

    Now, what did the LEFT say about dissent and patriotism? Big (Obama) Brother has arrived.

    rightwing-extremism

    Update:

    The American Legion responds to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)


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  • Homeland Security

    Homeland Security Watch: Iraqi Detained at LAX

    homelandmarch6aweb

    KTLA(Via MM and Hot Air): Iraqi Man Caught at LAX with Weird Item in Body Cavity

    Security officers detained an Iraqi national at Los Angeles International Airport early today after a “metal object” was found in the man’s rectum during a body cavity search.

    Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, was selected for a more thorough check by screeners in Terminal One of the airport, who found the item at about 5:40 a.m, federal and airport officials said. Al-Maliki, who lives in Atlantic City, N.J., was taking a US Airways flight to Philadelphia.

    Dang….Flap will never complain of those long security lines at Terminal One again.

    Now, don’t we need those super-duper “Backscatter” X-ray machines that can look through clothes and skin?

    The flight took off with al-Maliki’s luggage on board. The airplane was ordered to land in Las Vegas, where the passengers got off and the luggage was searched.

    Al-Maliki’s luggage was “clean,” officials said at a news conference this afternoon at LAX.

    Stay tuned for more of the story. The video is here.

    Charles suggests a massive security hole at LAX…..


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