DON’T TRUST MS. NAPOLITANO FOR A TERRORIST-FREE NEW YEAR’S EVE

There were no terrorist incidents over Christmas, for which we can all be thankful.  But you may suspect, as I do, that our good fortune was due more to luck than to government vigilance.

On the morning of Dec. 20, police in Britain arrested 12 Moslem men who police said were plotting terror.

The threat wasn’t necessarily imminent, but was potentially very serious, British terrorism expert Michael Clarke told the Voice of America.

"The police are very clear that this is the edge of quite a big plot," Mr. Clarke said.  "The sort of statements they have made, their demeanor, their attitude, they think they have blown something that was really significant."

Later that day, ABC’s Diane Sawyer asked retired Air Force LtGen. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, what he thought about the plot in Britain.  He didn’t know about it, Mr. Clapper admitted to Ms. Sawyer.

After the broadcast the office of the DNI rushed out a statement implying our nation’s top intelligence officer had in fact been aware of the arrests that had been all over the news for many hours before Ms. Sawyer’s interview with Mr. Clapper, but was confused by her questions.

"The question about this specific news development was ambiguous," that statement said.  "The DNI’s knowledge of the threat streams in Europe is profound and multidimensional, and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate."

That was a lie, as DNI spokesperson Jamie Smith acknowledged a day later. 

"Director Clapper had not yet been briefed on the arrests in the United Kingdom at the time of this briefing," she said.  "He wasn’t immediately briefed on London because it didn’t appear to have a homeland nexus, and there was no immediate action by the DNI required."

Even so, CNN media critic Howard Kurtz isn’t alone in thinking the DNI really ought to have known as much about the arrests as did casual watchers of television news.

"For the president’s top intelligence officer not to be intimately familiar with the case — and not to have been briefed before a network interview — is stunning," Mr. Kurtz wrote. 

"It inevitably calls to mind the moment during Hurricane Katrina when FEMA’s Michael Brown was unaware during a Nightline interview of deteriorating conditions in Louisiana‘s Superdome, despite constant news reports that day."

In the same disastrous interview, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Ms. Sawyer that under her guidance, "thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe." 364?

On Christmas Day, prosecutors in the Netherlands announced the arrest of 12 Moslems suspected of plotting terror.  Arrests of suspected terrorists in Germany, Spain and France, and the (thankfully premature) detonation of a suicide bomber in Sweden lend credence to reports al Qaeda is planning massive attacks this holiday season.  So let’s hope the day a year Ms. Napolitano suggested her people aren’t working isn’t New Years Eve.

Ms. Napolitano obviously misspoke.  But her department has serious deficiencies.

The ABC affiliate in Houston ran a story Dec. 17 about a local businessman of Iranian descent who, near Christmas a year ago, accidentally carried a loaded .40 mm Glock pistol onto an airplane — and TSA failed to detect it.

The pistol was in a carry-on computer bag, Farid Seif told KTRK.

"There’s nothing else in there," Mr. Seif said.  "How can you miss it?"

Security at airports has gotten "objectively better" since last year, Ms. Napolitano told CNN Sunday.

ABC News doesn’t think so.  The KTRK report continued "Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret.  Experts say every year since the Sept. 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

"A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports.  Two weeks ago, TSA’s new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports."

One would think Ms. Napolitano would have her hands full trying to fix that.  But at a White House conference Dec. 16 — while most of the world is experiencing record cold — Ms. Napolitano announced the Department of Homeland Security is forming a task force to fight global warming.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.