By Lou Zickar, Special to CNN
February 6, 2010 12:17 p.m. EST
But as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently stated, "I'd rather, in the interest of protecting people, overreact rather than underreact." Feinstein's statement is notable not because it was aimed at President Bush, but because it was aimed at President Obama.
Specifically, it was aimed at the underwhelming response of the Obama administration to the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day. It also points to a larger problem facing the president as he begins his second year in office -- namely, the fact that the failures of 9/11 seem to have been forgotten by his administration and his allies on Capitol Hill.
First, members of the intelligence community failed to connect the dots that would have flagged the young Nigerian bomber as a potential terrorist and prevented him from getting on the plane. Then, federal law enforcement officials decided to treat the bomber as a common criminal instead of an enemy combatant, giving greater priority to finding him an attorney than getting to the bottom of this evil plot.
The administration now reports the would-be bomber is cooperating and providing useful information. That may be true. But it's also true that we are engaged in a conflict that cannot be litigated.
We are fighting a war, not fighting crime. This is why Congress and the president established a military commission process in the years following 9/11 to deal with terrorist threats of this nature. It's also why Attorney General Eric Holder, in the face of protests by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other local officials, is backing off plans to prosecute accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in a federal court in New York City.
