Posted on 12/31/2009 4:06:29 PM PST by Schnucki
Heads are set to roll in the U.S. intelligence community as an angry Barack Obama fends off criticism over the attempted bombing of a passenger plane on Christmas Day.
Publicly the White House is standing by the top spymaster in the U.S., intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair.
The four-star admiral, who is responsible for coordinating intelligence gathering between 16 agencies, has the full confidence of the president, aides are insisting.
But speculation was rife that Blair or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could be forced to resign after Mr Obama said on Tuesday there had been a systemic failure by the country's security agencies to prevent the botched Christmas Day attack.
Napolitano has been lambasted by Republican critics, and in the media, for initially saying the air security system worked. She quickly back-pedalled, claiming she had meant the system of beefing up measures worked after the incident had occurred.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Napolitano had the president's support, and Obama referred to her in his public comments on Tuesday, supporting her statement that correct actions were taken after the attempted attack.
But Kurt Volker, a former CIA analyst and until recently U.S. ambassador to Nato, said Blair and Napolitano were facing the traditional Washington blame game.
'That's politics. It's the way politics goes, that you look for whom you can blame so you can say, 'if my party had been elected instead of yours, things would have been better,'' said Volker, now at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
A senior aide said Obama would seek accountability at the highest levels for the failure, a remark some observers took to mean that heads would roll.
Obama, a Democrat, is under pressure from Republicans, who fault his administration for not preventing the attack and the
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
If Bummer is smart he is likely trying to persuade Joe Biden to say he will step down too if Bummer steps down. One thing conservatives would like even less than a Bummer presidency would be a Pelosi presidency.
No picture available of Hillary cleaning the toilets, hey?
Is he capable of doing anything that actually makes SENSE?
The White House right now must be like a very sick codependency.
It seems to me that one of the problems is that Obama and his underlings tend to shoot off their mouths about things, and then have to clean things up, rather than collecting a few facts and then giving a rational response. It's all part of the amateur hour....
ON YOUR WATCH BOZO!
Could it be like was reputed for JFK, that he is so volatile (or Rahm so volatile if that’s the go-through channel) that the people who really do know are afraid to tell him? This could be one reason why he didn’t hear about Panty Bomber until almost three hours later.
I completely agree. Sadly, he will show how tough he can be on the people who are supposed to be protecting Americans, rather than those trying to kill Americans.
I would suggest that the first move he makes is have all those on the watch list transferred immediately to the no-fly list. That may, in the least, help the airline industry and alleviate some fear out there.
YES this makes great sense which is why he likely will weasel around it. He’s Mr. Eloquent Apology, certainly he can bow and scrape to the countries most affected by the no-fly and say that he’s working as hard as he can to sort out the list and the meantime, here’s a few million to enjoy yourselves locally?
You may be right... and also, they may be protecting him from his own shortcomings by trying to provide him with a consolidated recommendation -- shaping the message for him, as it were. I seriously doubt that he deals well with partial or conflicting information.
Hey Obama, America doesn’t like your style. Even libs are starting to slowly admit that. You are too cool, too detatched, it isn’t working. We know you don’t give a crap about this country and we know all you care about is your family and friends and going to the stupid gym. You are a terrible president, the worst. I know you you read Free Republic /s.
I sense Hilldawg is embarrassed. She’s a hawk in some ways and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see her run in 2012.
Oh my gosh yes. A President Hillary would be on this like white on rice. She’d be at least as competent as her husband was. Why, why, did the Democrats have to pick based on race and then pick a STUPID one? Don’t they realize they might actually win then all of us living here have to put up with the result?
A Kirby instead of an Oreck. Figures.
These activities had political purposes.
The lefties are deserting him in droves because they didn't get the public option and Zero became a war President.
He was hoping to get back some of them with some darling photos of he and the girls doing cutesy family stuff.
Now his numbers are going down BECAUSE of those carefully crafted activities which now look terrible because of the recent attacks. The One can't win for losing. Hehe.
I’m pretty sure you are right and Panetta has whatever he needs.
Hillary has to know she was had when she was asked to be Secy of State. She thought it would get her some foreign policy experience under her resume> Now Obama could really throw her under the bus if she decides to resign and she could put this whole mess on her.
It is going to be very interesting in 2010.
All I know is that people are really catching on to the affirmative action mistake and catching on to Obama in general. And I’m not an optimist. He is very unlikeable and now everyone is starting to see it. And you’re so right, he’s dumb. Hell even I know that perception is everything, the way he gave a shout out about Ft. Hood and now Snorkle Boy after the Detroit flight, what an idiot! I would love to see Hillary win the dem nom. If she runs it will be Christmas and NYE all wrapped into one for me. Then let it be the catfight of the century!
There is something not quite right about using the metaphor of heads rolling when referring to our reaction to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
-PJ
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