Michael Leiter, Counterterrorism Center Chief, Remained on Ski Vacation in Aftermath of Failed Christmas Day Terror Plot

Michael Leiter, director of National Counterterrorism Center, comes under fire for not cutting short his vacation on ski slopes after failed terror attack by Nigerian bomber on Christmas Day.

It's great to see that Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, couldn't bother to pull himself away from his vacation on the ski slopes after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, nearly blew up a Northwest Airlines flight #253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. Gee, I wonder why the White House has chosen to remain silent on this?

Mr. Leiter is charged with analyzing terror threats and, according to the NY Daily News, he decided not to return to his agency's "bat cave" nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas. That speaks volumes of his total disregard for the welfare of the passengers on that plane and the safety of Americans in general. Of course, he is not the only high-level official not to return to Washington D.C. in the aftermath of the failed terror plot. President Barack Obama didn't return to Washington D.C. from his vacation until January 4th.

Since Mr. Leiter, appointed by former President George W. Bush, heads the NCTC, which is the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., his decision not to cut his vacation short sends the wrong message, in light of the fact that the agency has come under intense scrutiny for failing to "connect the dots" on Nigerian-born bomber.

Leiter's spokesman declined to say when the terror-center chief returned to Washington and fully retook the helm of his analysis agency, which is near CIA headquarters just outside the nation's capital. "It is our policy to not make our director's schedule available to the public," center spokesman Carl Kropf said in an e-mail.

Obama also dropped the bombshell Tuesday that U.S. spooks knew the previously locally focused Al Qaeda branch in Yemen aspired to attack the U.S. homeland. The intelligence community "failed to connect those dots," he said. "The information was there," Obama said. "Agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it." Source: NY Daily News

The reality is that Mr. Leiter and Ms. Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, should be terminated for their lackadaisical attitude in the wake of what could have been a disastrous Christmas Day. While former Vice President Dick Cheney seems to take great pleasure in picking apart everything President Obama is doing and has said about the war on terror, it's strange that he has remained silent on Micheal Leiter's actions.