Lieberman: ‘System failed’ in stopping ‘fourth break through our defenses’

Homeland Security Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Sunday that the swift arrest of Faisal Shahzad in the Times Square bombing attempt was “almost miraculous,” but highlighted that the government is still failing to prevent terrorist attacks.

“The fact is that we were lucky,” Lieberman said on “Fox News Sunday. “We did not prevent the attempted
attack.”

{mosads}The senator called it the “fourth break through our defenses” recently, noting the June shooting of of two military recruiters in Arkansas, the Fort Hood shootings in November, and the attempted bombing of an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas.

“Look, we’re in a big open society,” Liberman said. “And if people are fanatical enough
to put their own lives on the line — ‘I want to kill other innocent
human beings’ — it’s hard to stop them every time, but that has to be
our goal. So I’d say in terms of prevention, the system failed.”

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, said that both the Bush and Obama administrations have “done a basically good job of keeping terrorists from coming into the country,” highlighting the need to confront homegrown terrorism.

“If there’s another 10, 15, 20 plots out there, that to me is more important to get all the intelligence we can on that,” King said.

When pressed on the recent spate of attacks in an earlier Fox segment, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said that U.S. authorities were stopping attacks on a “daily basis.”

“We’re a country of, what, 300 million people,” Brennan said. “We are a country that
thrives on the freedoms and liberties that make this country so great.
So there are people within the United States. Sometimes they are
attracted to this venomous rhetoric that is coming out from al-Qaida
and other individuals overseas.

“We need to make sure that we’re able to find them. But there are things
that can take place in this country that are going to be outside of the
radar of law enforcement, homeland security, intelligence officials. We
need to maintain this vigilance.”

On “Face the Nation,” Brennan said it was the “robust system” that nabbed Shahzad in the first place.

“We were able to put his name on the watch list as soon as we found
him, [and] he was able to be pulled off that plane before he escaped,”
he said, adding, “We have a robust system in place.”

After Shahzad’s arrest, Homeland Security ordered airlines to check the watch lists for updates every two hours.

This post was updated at 11:25 a.m.

Jay Heflin contributed to this report