United Liberty

If you’ve watched the news in the past few days, you’ve likely heard about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man that tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Christmas day.

One of the details now emerging is that the father of the suspect warned United States officials about his son six months ago:

A close family source said that the father left his hometown of Katsina, in northern Nigeria, to speak with security agencies on Saturday.

Family members said the father had become uncomfortable and concerned about his son’s fanatical religious views in recent months. They said, as a result, he reported his son’s activities to the U.S. Embassy and Nigerian security agencies six months ago.

The father was reportedly devastated to hear the reports about his son’s arrest and alleged role in trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane.

A close friend said the father was shocked to learn that his son was even allowed to travel to the U.S. after he had reported him to U.S. authorities, the paper reported.

Today DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told Jake Tapper on This Week that “everything went according to clockwork” in reaction to the attempted attack. Well, yes, the actions of private citizens kept this terrorist from killing a plane full of people. However, this man would have never have been allowed on a flight to the United States if security officials had been doing their job.

What’s more, the TSA is now taking new measures in response to this attack that, frankly, do not make much sense, such as not allowing any passenger to get out of their seat in the last hour of a flight. Radley Balko is puzzled by the new restrictions:

In addition to keeping with its usually tradition of making policy on a reactionary basis, this one wouldn’t even have done anything to prevent the attempt over the weekend. The guy was in his seat when he tried to light the explosive device. And the passenger who confronted him got out of his seat to do it.

I don’t know if you’ve heard the term “security theater,” but that’s what we have in our country. Rather than actually doing their jobs and following up on leads like the one given by this terrorist’s father, security officials are more interested in creating an illusion that we are safe by temporarily curtailing privacy rights or keeping you from bringing a razor in your carry-on.