After 9-11, columnists from across the political spectrum were writing defenses of torture, calls for reducing liberty to achieve security and exhortations for the bombing of any number of Muslim nations. Today, a few of those still crop up every now and again. But reliable establishment weathervane David Brooks offers something different in the wake [...]

The Transportation Security Administration is sending agents to the homes of bloggers, intimidating them into revealing their sources for a leak of the TSA’s enhanced security procedures following the failed Christmas Day terror attack. Two days later, agents for the TSA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, visited both men at home, and [...]

Avi Zenilman, filling in at the Plum Line, has written a series of good posts about the Democrats’ failure to engage the debate around the failed Christmas Day “underpants bomber” attack. This has ceded the field to Republicans making no secret of their political aims, who have hammered the President almost from the moment that [...]

President Obama received information in a private briefing leading him to conclude that the failed Christmas Day attack by a Nigerian national could have been prevented, according to the New York Times. This would explain the consecutive days of televised statements and his assessment yesterday that there were “human and systemic failures” that led to [...]

In a sober statement, President Obama today acknowledged “human and systemic failures” which failed to flag the presence on Northwest Flight 253 of “known extremist” Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, who failed in his attempted terror attack on Christmas Day. Obama vowed for “accountability at every level” after the completion of two reviews about security procedures. Obama [...]

With Democrats belatedly vowing to hold a roll call vote for the nomination of TSA Administrator Errol Southers early next month, it’s worth delving a bit more deeply into Jim DeMint’s complaint about Southers, that he would move to unionize TSA screeners, which would have a deleterious effect on national security. Surely DeMint, the Republican [...]

Add Eugene Robinson to the list of those misrepresenting Janet Napolitano’s statements in the aftermath of the failed Christmas terrorist attack. Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s initial assessment of the Christmas Day airliner attack — that “the system worked” — doesn’t quite match the absurdity of “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” But [...]

The President discussed the Christmas Day “attempted terrorist attack” and the unrest in Iran in a brief statement just now from his vacation spot in Hawaii. On the attack, which Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has now taken responsibility for, President Obama gave a rundown of what we know now about the events, while [...]

On the Sunday shows, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to the underwear bomber by saying that the system worked. Today she walked back the remark. But the most you can accuse Napolitano of here is inartful language. When she talked about the system working, it was clear from context that she was referring to [...]

After the foiled attack on a Northwest flight in Detroit, the TSA has come up with some new meaningless guidelines to make us all think we’re being kept safe: But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in [...]