What Will CLEARLY Define the Administration:

Homeland chief an airhead
Says security system worked

By JENNIFER FERMINO, MURRAY WEISS and PHILIP MESSING

Last Updated: 5:37 PM, December 28, 2009

Posted: 2:52 AM, December 28, 2009

An al Qaeda bomber stashing explosives in his underwear cakewalked onto a US-bound airliner after averting scans on two continents -- but the federal Homeland Security chief incredibly claimed yesterday that "everything happened that should have."

"This was one individual literally of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who called flying "very, very safe."

"And he was stopped before any damage could be done . . . Once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have."

Napolitano's all-is-well assessment ran counter to that of her boss, President Obama, who called for a total review of procedures at US airports.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Obama had ordered a full appraisal of anti-terror flight regulations, "to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information."

Napolitano's astonishing claim in the aftermath of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed bombing over Detroit led Rep. Peter King (R-LI) to respond, "The fact is, the system did not work."

The latest system failure came last night at La Guardia. The Post learned that the feds questioned a Florida man after ground crew found what authorities called a "pyrotechnic" aboard a US Airways flight from Baltimore. The 4-inch-long, three-quarter-inch-wide explosive was found wedged between two seats. Authorities collared Thomas Ouelette, 67, of Bonita Springs, Fla., before he boarded his connecting Delta flight to Fort Myers, Fla. The feds said is did not appear terrorism was involved, but Ouelette did have two outstanding Florida warrants for "unlawful flight."

Read more here