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Former U.S. Congresswoman from New Mexico Heather Wilson spoke to National Public Radio about national security following the failed Christmas Day terror attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In federal court in Detroit on Friday, Abdulmutallab pleaded not guilty to charges related to the attack.
Wilson told NPR that she opposes the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, a select subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, which was created after recommendations by the 9/11 Commission.
“The idea that centralizing oversight improves oversight, I think, is not necessarily true,” she says. Lots of lawmakers have ideas about how intelligence agencies should be run, she says, and they don’t all have the expertise to back up their opinions. Wilson says she believes there’s a reason intelligence professionals are just that — professionals.
Wilson also said that the response to the attack has been “more muted” than it would have been if there were a Republican administration in control in Washington, D.C.
“Can you imagine what these hearings coming up in January would be like if this was a Republican president, and the secretary of homeland security had said the system worked?” Wilson told NPR.
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, made the statement that Republicans and other conservatives have attacked in a December 27 CNN interview. It appears that Napolitano is speaking about the response of the system after the foiled attack:
What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action. Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated.
So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.
In a later interview with ABC News, Napolitano made it more clear that she was referring to the response after the Abdulmutallab attempt to detonate an explosive was foiled by a fellow passenger.
[NAPOLITANO]: Once this incident occurred, everything went according to clockwork, not only sharing throughout the air industry, but also sharing with state and local law enforcement. Products were going out on Christmas Day, they went out yesterday, and also to the [airline] industry to make sure that the traveling public remains safe. I would leave you with that message. The traveling public is safe. We have instituted some additional screening and security measures, in light of this incident, but, again, everyone reacted as they should. The system, once the incident occurred, the system worked.
You can listen to the entire NPR story in mp3 form here.
