With the Keystone Kops quality of the drama that played out on Christmas Day concerning the Nigerian underwear bomber one has to wonder if this was not a deliberate effort by the Al Qaeda leadership to find out how much the Obama Administration, through its appeasement mindset, had degraded the Bush security efforts.  Had the naive terrorist succeeded it would have been a bonus.

This young impressionable Muslim could not have made his intentions more obvious had he worn a sign stating: "I am a terrorist, carrying a bomb in my underwear, planning to blow up this plane."

In fact he: bought a one way ticket using cash, he had no luggage, did not have a passport, had a Muslim name and was on a watch list.  Not to mention he had been denied a visa to the United Kingdom, the hot bed of radical Islamic activity in Europe.  Any one of these factors should have been enough to prevent his getting on the plane and in the immediate seven years following 9/11 they would have been.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the perfect foil for an Al Qaeda production.  Being young, impressionable, spoiled and looking for meaning in his life, he would have been unaware of his role and required little or no training.   Had he been caught prior to boarding the plane, he would have given up little information as he had none to give and he had a father wealthy enough to obtain competent legal defense.

If this was an attempt to find out how much our security has been degraded, what has Al Qaeda learned?  

Any large bureaucracy, whether in government or industry, reflects the mindset and policies of the person in charge.  In this case Barack Obama.  It is apparent to all, terrorism and the nation's security is not taken seriously. 

If a terrorist is caught he will be treated as a common criminal and placed in the civil justice system.

There will be no retaliation.

This entire experience will embolden all Islamic terrorist world-wide.  Future attacks, some of which will succeed, against the United States are now inevitable.