The system did not work

Janet Napolitano, call your office.

It is absurd to maintain that the system worked, unless the system is supposed to employ a plane's passengers as the last line of defense.

But maybe our bumbling DHS chief doesn't deserve all the scrutiny.  Maybe Schipol airport in Amsterdam, or the airport in Nigeria are deserving of a little bright light as well.  What happened?  The facts of  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's travels are still not clear.  Some questions I want cleared up:  Was Abdulmutallab re-screened by security at Schipol?  Was it merely a layover on the way from Nigeria to Detroit?  Or did he spend a few days soaking up the Dutch culture before returning to his travels?  If Abdulmutallab did have to pass through security at Schipol, then the U.S. needs to lean on the Dutch hard until the security measures pass the smell test.  If, as is the case with many layovers, he didn't have to pass through security a second time, then the Dutch had a serious lapse in judgment in trusting the security measures at an airport in an impoverished, corruptible place like Nigeria.

Thankfully, one Dutch individual was vigilant that day.  The guy who tackled Abdulmutallab and prevented even more urban blight in Detroit.