Obama: Terror Statement, December 29 (Transcript and Video)

Obama tried to get it right on Tuesday, but he didn't.

On Monday, when Obama finally got around to addressing the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253, Obama sounded very detached and interested in getting back to the golf course. He was robotic, sounding like a bad lawyer rather than an effective war president and leader of the Free World.

Inexcusably, the White House hasn't posted the transcript of Obama's Tuesday remarks yet, so here's the transcript as provided by the Washington Post:
(Note: As of December 30, 6:30 PM CT, the transcript is STILL not posted on the White House website.)

OBAMA: Good morning. Yesterday, I updated the American people on the immediate steps we took, the increased screening and security of air travel to keep our country safe in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

And I announced two reviews, a review of our terrorist watch list system and a review of our air travel screening so we can find out what went wrong, fix it, and prevent future attacks. Those reviews began on Sunday and are now underway.

Earlier today, I issued the former guidelines for those reviews and directed the preliminary findings be provided to the White House by this Thursday. It's essential that we diagnose the problems quickly and deal with them immediately.

Now, the more comprehensive formal reviews and recommendations for improvement will be completed in the coming weeks. And I'm committed to working with Congress and our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security communities to take all necessary steps to protect the country.

I wanted to speak to the American people again today, because some of this preliminary information that has surfaced in the last 24 hours raises some serious concerns. It's been widely reported that the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned U.S. officials in Africa about his son's extremist views.

It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list.

There appears to be other deficiencies, as well. Even without this one report, there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together.

We've achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks, but it's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.

Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence, and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.

Now, the professionalism of the men and women in our intelligence, counterterrorism, and law enforcement, and homeland security communities is extraordinary. They are some of the most hard-working, most dedicated Americans that I've ever met. In pursuit of our security here at home, they risk their lives day in, day out in this country and around the world. Few Americans see their work, but all Americans are safer because of their successes.

They have targeted and taken out violent extremists. They have disrupted plots and saved countless American lives. They are making real and daily progress in our mission to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaida and other extremist networks around the world. And for this, every American owes them a profound and lasting debt of gratitude. Moreover, as Secretary Napolitano has said, once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, after his attempt, it's clear that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems, and our aviation security took all appropriate actions.

But what's also clear is this: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.

The reviews I've ordered will surely tell us more, but what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.

I fully understand that even when every person charged with ensuring our security does what they are trained to do, even when every system works exactly as intended, there's still no 100 percent guarantee of success. Yet this should only compel us to work even harder, to be even more innovative and relentless in our efforts.

As president, I will do everything in my power to support the men and women in intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security to make sure they've got the tools and resources they need to keep America safe, but it's also my job to ensure that our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security systems and the people in them are working effectively and held accountable. I intend to fulfill that responsibility and insist on accountability at every level.

That's the spirit guiding our reviews into the attempted attack on Christmas Day. That's the spirit that will guide all our efforts in the days and years ahead. Thank you very much.

Here's the complete audio of Obama's remarks:



Here are video clips of Obama's remarks.

Michael Goldfarb, The Weekly Standard, points out some oddities and inconsistencies in Obama's Tuesday remarks. Goldfarb also raises some pressing questions.

What did Obama and his administration know and when did they know it?

Per the Washington Post, administration officials only got information indicating a "linkage" with al Qaeda on Monday night. But the media were already reporting those ties on Monday -- al Qaeda had claimed responsibility by Monday morning! Was it just that nobody wanted to disrupt the Obama's Christmas vacation? How could Obama have been the last to know?

Again per the Washington Post, Obama only learned about the contact between the CIA and the Nigerian's father on Tuesday morning in a conference call National Security Adviser Jim Jones, his top counterterrorism expert John Brennan, and deputy National Security adviser Tom Donilon. Why are the peole mentioned as being on the conference call all White House? Has the president spoken with Panetta since Friday? With Blair?

If yesterday Obama really didn’t know any or most of what’s now coming out -- which was 72 hours after the incident -- even though parts of the IC must have known...isn’t that a little scary?

And didn't Obama at least know enough yesterday to know that he wasn't an "isolated extremist," as he told reporters in Hawaii in his first attempt to set the record straight on the threat this attack posed?

Why was the Nigerian turned over to the criminal justice system immediately? Did the administration simply prefer a nice, straightforward, uncomplicated trial to culling whatever intelligence this guy has to offer?

As late as Sunday, the FBI was still telling reporters that they were operating on the assumption that the Nigerian had "acted alone." Obviously there were numerous elements in the intelligence community that knew better at that point. Why was the FBI still so completely out of the loop more than 24 hours after the attack?

Who are the two officials who told CNN that we are now considering retaliatory strikes against Yemen in conjunction with Yemeni leaders? Is that even remotely defensible -- to leak information about the planning of sensitive military planning? Were these two career guys or are they political? And if the leaders of the U.S. and Yemen are joining together (in a publically private agreement) to engage in lethal military strikes killing members of Al Qaeda -- removing them from society and their families without benefit of due process or humane considerations -- how would closing Gitmo remove the stain of injustice from America?

Those strikes could include Alwaki, who is an American citizen. If we kill him -- without even getting a warrant! -- does Obama get a pass from the left? From the media? From young Muslims whose seething anger at the injustice of Gitmo compels so many to try and kill American civilians?

Is the Obama administration seriously still considering sending some 90 Yemeni detainees now being held at Gitmo back to their country of origin, where al Qaeda are apparently running around with impunity?

Obama and his administration are really screwing this up royally.

Obviously, they realize that they have mishandled the matter. It was a major mistake for Obama to make no public comments on the attempted attack for three days.

His first statement was sloppy, and his second one wasn't much better. Will there be a third? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Is that it?

What was really sleazy, and so typical of Obama, was the way Obama shamelessly tried to blame the Bush administration for the failures that resulted in this very close call.

There now are three things in life that are certain: Death, Taxes, and It's Bush's fault.

"[I]t's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have."

That's disgusting.

No, what's clear is that Obama is too wimpy to man up and take responsibility. The buck stops with him, but he wants to slither his way out of that reality.

I can't stand the way this is all playing out.

Obama can't get it right for the simple reason that he's fundamentally wrong in his approach to address terrorism.

We're at war. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab isn't a criminal. He's an enemy of the United States. He's not a "suspect," as Obama said on Monday and again on Tuesday.

Soldiers, like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aren't "suspects."

Here's the problem: Obama doesn't want to be George W. Bush. But he really doesn't have a choice, unless he wants to put the lives of Americans at risk.