Napolitano Clarifies “System Worked” Remark

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano backtracked from her weekend comment that the system “worked.”

“The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days,” Ms. Napolitano said in an interview on “This Week” on ABC. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, used nearly the same language on “Face the Nation” on CBS, saying that “in many ways, this system has worked.”

After a piling on by Republicans Napolitano clarified her remarks.

Ms. Napolitano said on the “Today” program on NBC that her remark on Sunday that the system worked had been taken out of context. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she said on the program. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”

As criticism mounted that security lapses had led to a brush with disaster, President Obama on Sunday ordered a review of the two major planks of the aviation security system — the creation of watch lists and the use of detection equipment at airport checkpoints. Some members of Congress urgently questioned why, eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks, security measures still cannot keep makeshift bombs off airliners.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.