by Daniel G. O'Leary

Created on: January 11, 2010   Last Updated: April 26, 2010

The question; "Should U.S. Intelligence Agency Personnel be fired over the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day?" The controversially short and quick answer; "Absolutely not, the reasons for the failures preventing the terrorist from boarding the flights, from even making it to and through multiple airports and Nations, for being known by name and Visa number and yet not recognizable to agents to "watch", "stop" or "drop" on sight when a very real and credible threat had already been determined, planned, and was in the execution phase need to be found, scrutinized in the grandest manner, and ultimately people held to account for each and every failure."

As a concerned, outraged, pissed off citizen, one of "WE the People" (from the Constitution), I am extremely disappointed at the failures that had to occur at multiple levels for this to have happened. Every citizen should be, and should voice that concern to their elected officials and in articles like this.

Why? Because it is one of the most important Freedoms WE, as citizens of this Nation, have; FREEDOM To Speak (hopefully to be heard). Let's face the reality of the incident; it happened! The terrorist was successful, make no mistake about it, and don't let anyone tell you different.

His device failed to ignite correctly, then, and only then did people act to prevent him from trying again (and courageously did they act). If the device had ignited correctly, WE would still be reading about pieces being found daily.

This isn't a dream, this isn't imagination, this happened, here, over OUR SOIL (I sure as hell hope your blood is pretty hot at this moment, because it should be).

So what do WE do? Why did I say the reasons for the failures have to be found, and the people held to account but "not fired", especially since you're pretty hot about the failures as well at this point?

I have a great little story to assist you understanding my reasoning. A young man, dedicated to the service of OUR country in the Armed Forces was tasked with recovering Americans that had been taken against their will. Of course he was just one of many that were assigned the task, he did not act alone.

One incident was extremely dramatic, graphic, and burned in his memory forever, and served to push him beyond his known limitations and to spend the remaining days of his service perfecting his skills, leaving no detail to chance or forgotten, fueling the passion within him to assure the safety of every American.

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