12/29/09

What Does the TSA Administrator Say About the Christmas Day Airline Bombing Attempt?

A recent post noted how the 23 year old Nigerian who apparently attempted to blow up a commericial airline flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day, should not have been allowed to fly:  Among other things, his father, a prominent Nigerian, warned the U.S. Embassy in November about his son's ties to al-Qaeda.

Instead, luckily, his explosive device apparently did not go off properly or immediately, and his attempt was thrwarted by a passenger.

But what does the TSA Administrator have to say about all of this?

We don't know, because we don't have one. 

Why? Ask South Carolina Senator Jim Demint, who reportedly has been blocking the nominee over concerns about TSA workers joining a union, or some such thing. 

Meanwhile, another site wonders what kind of stink the far right, rightly or wrongly, would be making about this if the situation were reversed:  That is, no TSA Administrator had been in place for several months, because a Democrat had been holding up an otherwise reasonable TSA appointment by a Republican Administration. 

Probably a big stink, even if the Democrat was well intentioned, and even if it had nothing to do with the foiled bomb attempt -- questions we don't purport to answer here. What is noted here is the veritable absence of attention paid to the fact that we don't have a TSA administratrator because Demint has been holding it up for months.