A recent posting on a jihadist website encourages individuals to place bags with innocuous items in public areas. Suspicious package calls into 911 are increasing and some properties have had packages left in front of their buildings by suspicious persons.

The intended purpose of leaving bags is to cause an increase in public disruptions, desensitizing police and security teams, and using up valuable resources. An additional motive for the placement of the device is its use as a test of the response mechanism of law enforcement and security.

Two arrests are made for terrorism in New Jersey, Carlos Almonte and Mohamed Alessa. The subjects were planning to go to Somalia to fight for the cause. They were willing to study, train and die for what they came to believe in. They have American passports and can travel freely.

The problem with this story is not any of the above issues. No, we have and will continue to see this story repeated many times. The problem with this case is the age of the subjects.

According to reports filed, the case has been going on for six years. The subject is now 20 years old, which makes him 14 years old when he was radicalized to a jihadist belief. At a time when he should be taking an interest in women, and engaging in adolecent behavior, he is watching recruiting videos to prepare himself to commit jihad.

The investigation into the Time Square bombing ¹ case led to three men being picked up on administrative charges for immigration violations. It is believed these men supplied money to Faisal for a yet to be determined purpose.

The tracing of money and the use of ICE teams are a great use of resources available to the investigators. While the amount of money may be small in the scope of things, the intelligence value cannot be overstated. Using these resources, we will be able to get a better understanding of how a guy like Faisal operates, and who his friends are. People like this go largely undetected for a long period of time.

This administration is taking political advantage with our national security. Desperate for a “win”, they capitalize on an opportunity where from their perspective it’s a “win-win” situation. How?

After the debacle that was the Christmas day terror attack, where our Commander in Chief and his top intelligence officer remained on vacation not to interfere with much needed and valuable “family” time, the administration sends FBI agents to Nigeria to meet with Mr. Abdulmutallab’s family. This kinder, gentler approach produces a talkative terrorist who reveals who he trained with and where, as well as other pertinent information they refuse to divulge under National Security issues. However, administration officials are comfortable enough to discuss openly what type of information they have received to give us insight to what they are doing and why their approach worked so well. Now we have information that the next attack is “certain” within the next three to six months. (Note: no increase in threat level).

The recent news developing about the KSM trial being moved from NYC to parts unknown has created a flurry of discussions about where and at what costs. Most importantly I believe is the plain fact that regardless of where we try him and his group, the risks will still remain high.

One of the key underlining problems with Americans today, are we believe the problem is always someone else’s. Things happen to other people; not here, not in my backyard. History has shown us this is not always the case. The Oklahoma attack by McVey, the World Trade Center attack in 93, and September 11, 2001 just to name a few.

I feel a great amount of frustration as I watch the evolution of the December 25th 2009 attempted terrorist attack event follow a course we have been down before. As Yogi Berra once said-”it’s déjà vu all over again”.

One cannot ignore the reaction similarities of this event compared to 9/11. The responses to both incidents are strikingly similar. To begin with, the attacks or attempted attack occurred. We then have a rush to respond. Air travel saw increases in security measures with secondary security checks at gates during 9/11, and the taking away of blankets and in-flight entertainment systems in the December event.

Next is the finger-pointing. Who knew what, when, who failed to connect the dots, and how a system failed us. In both cases, our leadership tells us it will never happen again.

The President addresses the American public yesterday trying to explain the failures which have occurred in our intelligence system. He stated no one person can be blamed. This is true; when systemic failures occur, the entire operation fails. Multiple problems existed before this most recent event; some he inherited, some he created.

First, you can’t blame the head of Counter Terrorism for going on vacation during a terrorist attack. He was filing his reports to the President who was on a beach in Hawaii, also on vacation. The country is under terrorist attack and the President is asking for a fax a few times a day about it? Talk about man made disasters and catastrophes!

As a result of the most recent attempted attack aboard a commercial aircraft, a new policy is in place which mandates flyers can no longer stand up during the last hour of an international flight. Additionally, nothing on your laps will be allowed (blankets will be taken back), and all items must be stowed. All as a result of an examination of methodology of the latest attack, and government’s belief it must do something.

Of course we will do this and issue the new mandates. Officials are “duty bound” to do something. Let the public think they are safe. Shoes were x-rayed after the shoe bomber incident. This person sewed explosives into his underwear. So what’s the next natural step in our response? Mandating all undergarments be x-rayed as well? How far away are we from the FAA or Homeland Security mandating that all underwear must be checked?

The bickering between investigative organizations at the federal level and the local levels is as bad as the bickering of a married couple. This past weekend it was reported the White House entered into the terror Intel dispute between the FBI, who claims a release of information could compromise some of their investigations and local officials who believe they need to be informed so they can identify threats in their communities.

I have long held that one of the reasons that we have not suffered an attack within the United States since 9/11 from Al Qaeda is due to the belief the mere threat of them is the actual attack. Bin Laden has stated he wants to attack us by all means possible, including economic attacks. Since the occurrence of 9/11, he and his organization have been able to be the bully on the block, forcing us to respond in what we believe to be an appropriate response to their threats. This response mechanism has caused us to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and upwards of 1 billion dollars of economic impact for isolated incidents.