ABC News: Did Obama Respond Too Late to Terror Plot? Critics Assail President

[RamboLiberal]

The Obama administration is under fire from critics who say the president waited too long to address publicly the Christmas Day terror plot and that his administration has not been tough enough on terrorism.

The mostly partisan attacks come in the wake of an attempt Friday by a Nigerian national to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it approached Detroit. Terror plots in the past have tended to unite the two parties but recent attacks have been a departure from that norm.

President Obama has ordered a sweeping review of how the suspect managed to board the flight from Amsterdam, but that has done little to appease his critics.

Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, blamed the Obama administration for taking its eye off the threat of terrorism from abroad.

"I think there's enough blame to go around here," Hoekstra said Monday in an interview with ABC News. "The bottom line is we ended up with a bomb on a plane with a detonator ready to go off. That's totally unacceptable. There's probably failures at every step of the way, in Nigeria, in the Netherlands, and in the overall procedures. Early on in this administration, I think that this administration sent a clear signal that they believed that the threat to the homeland was not as significant as what it really is."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/al-qaeda-responsible-terror-plot-president-obama-criticism/story?id=9439744

But not a damn one of them dug deep in to the August 6th PDB and other briefings Bush received prior to 9-11 or the slowness of Bush Admin to respond to Clinton Admin warnings on Al Qaeda. Nor did they ever criticize Bush sitting like a doofus in the classroom for 7+ minutes in the classroom or even going in to that class room photo op knowing the country was under attack. Nor his photo ops while New Orleans drowned.

[babylonsister]

1. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Why isn't anyone

publicly chastising Hoekstra for trying to make money off this? Has abc investigated that? I didn't think so. :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7347541
Hoekstra Uses Airline Attack To Raise Money For Gubernatorial Campaign

[Captain Hilts]

2. He reacted exactly as he should have. No knee-jerk. No preening for photo ops, etc. Well done. nt

[progressivebydesign]

3. those fucking assholes. The guy was passed over in 2008!! (Bush's reign) NOT 2009.

Don't you love how they're all on tv trying to make this another reason to hate the President? Umm.. the guy's dad went to the US embassy in 2008. Before Obama took office. It was BUSH'S people that decided he wasn't a threat. I fucking hate republicans... every day I hate them more. They have no morals.

[peaches2003]

6. I think the father went to the embassy to report his son

in November 2009, not 2008.

[WI_DEM]

4. does anybody remember a president who froze with fright when told about a current terrorist plot

then happening and spent five minutes with a bunch of kids reading "My Pet Goat"? Then he hid for several hours afterwards.

[high density]

5. Repukes think they can win on terra

It certainly worked in 2004. It's all about politics to these guys.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. It didn't work in 2006 and 2008

Although now that a Dem is POTUS, I'm sure that they will continue to criticize Obama relentlessly about his decision not to allow "enhanced interrogation", indefinite detention, and close Gitmo and spin every single terrorist attack, foiled or not, as some kind of *failure* on Obama's part- as though "enhanced interrogations, indefinite detentions, and Gitmo are the only things standing between us and the fall of our country to a bunch of ragtag terrorists. :eyes:

[rocktivity]

7. Rocktivity: If Obama Had Acted Soon Enough For The Critics

They Would Then Be Assailing Him For Trying To Politicize The Event

:boring:
rocktivity

[jenmito]

8. The Obama admin. stopped at least 13 attacks according to LIEBERMAN...

and so for Repubs. to claim Obama is "weak on terrah" is BS. He just doesn't believe in scaring (or terrorizing) us while keeping us safe.

[msongs]

9. once again repubs control the PR lol nt

[FrenchieCat]

13. Yeah...that's hillarious!

Real fucking funny that corporations own the fucking media.

[Cha]

16. Just in your hysterical thoughts...the fucking media is the

gop.

[LiberalAndProud]

10. DeMint. DeMint. DeMint.

The Republicans give a shit about stopping terrorism or keeping American citizens safe. It is clear this is all about winning the next election, at any cost, and with a big fuck you to the American people. And I, for one, have noticed.

[Vinca]

11. Yep. It was so much better when a long line of Bushies would

line up to scare the pants off us everytime a brown person looked cross-eyed on a plane. Obama, unlike King George, is not using terror for political gain.

[Arkana]

12. No. Republicans are whining. Next question.

[timeforpeace]

14. He's addressed it twice in the last two days. What do they want?

[SpartanDem]

15. more fearmongering

[jasi2006]

17. Too late for what eactly?

It takes time to find out exactly what happened. This is no 'seat-of-the-pants' President. Obama does not control the "watch list/" Please, just ignore the ignorat people out there. The President is doing his job. Let's hope the rest of the Feds do the same.

[Cha]

21. That was going to be my question after

reading the caption again.

The so called "media" is like a celebrity rag..they have to create controversy in order to give the dead in the water gop a pulpit to stand on.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

27. Obama should have been ON THE PLANE...

and he should have PERSONALLY tackled the terrorist. You know, just like Harrison Ford in "Air Force One."

[Phx_Dem]

18. And everyone one of this assholes voted AGAINST the explosive detection

equipment and other security measures that were included in the 2010 Homeland Security appropriations bill. And if they want to politicize national security, they'd better be prepared to see their "no" votes used against them in campaign ads.

As Republicans seek to put the blame for the widespread perception of ineptness at the Transportation Security Administration on the Obama administration, Democrats are arguing that Republican legislators bear part of the blame and that they're politically vulnerable on the subject.

Perhaps the largest impediment to change at the agency: South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has a hold on the appointment of a TSA chief, over his concern that the new administration could allow security screeners to unionize.

Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure that the 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Joe Wilson. (uh oh!)

The conference bill included more than $4 billion for "screening operations," including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems, with $778 million for buying and installing the systems.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1209/GOP_blame_at_TSA.html#

[GoCubsGo]

19. It's ABC...

I expect nothing more than this sort of BS from them. They are about as bad as PoxNews.

[Born_A_Truman]

22. Did they cry foul over W's handling of the shoe bomber...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/29/bush-waited-nine-days-to_n_406307.html

[agentS]

23. Well, what do they want the President to do? Invade Nigeria????

I'm sorry, but there isn't a whole bunch more that the president can do when a terror plot by a lone man is foiled. a press conference and review are clearly the proper steps, not mass panic or canceling vacations or telling people to wrap their houses in Saran Wrap and Duct tape. I remember that bullshit vividly.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

28. Shut the Hell UP!

You know that's EXACTLY what they want to do. Nigeria produces 2 million barrels of oil per day. Plus if you're not for us, you're supporting terrorism. Now salute the damned flag!

I'm just teasing you -- you know that, right? :)

[goclark]

24. Where was Bush on 9/11? When Katrina happened?

He was in hiding after he read that book on 9/11 after we saw that deer in head lights stare.

Give us a break!

[jeanpalmer]

25. Neither Obama nor the Republicans

want to face up to the obvious lesson to be learned from this attack: bombing them over there causes terrorism against us over here. No one talks about this aspect of it, and I can see why, especially Obama whose attacks in Yemen brought on this attempted airplane bombing. Instead, he blames lax security and intel failings. This is what I don't like about him. He knows very well that his attacks in Yemen caused this incident, nearly costing the lives of 250 people. But he's disingenuous about it, blaming others.

We need to rethink this problem, and we desperately need a President who can lead that reassessment. Obama unfortunately has decided to follow the course of his predecessor on this issue.

[Kdillard]

26. Sigh. Ridiculous but par for the course with our media. Everything that

Should have been done was done the only thing missing was the preeniing for the cameras filling us with terra, terra. However the media and GOP saw to that nicely.