Nothing worked. All the stupid and humiliating airport security procedures, all the little baggies for toothpaste and shampoo, all the padding through the security scanner in stocking feet, didn't work. All the concerted efforts by the State Department and DHS to ignore the jihad doctrine and reach out to people they deemed to be "moderate Muslims" didn't work. All the aid programs based on the assumption that poverty caused terrorism and that money for schools and roads and hospitals would win over Muslim hearts and minds didn't work. For an affluent and educated Muslim was able to bring explosive materials onto a plane, and the only thing that kept him from committing mass murder was his own ineptitude and the valor of other passengers on the plane.

What's more, the jihadi's father warned American officials about his son, who was being watched already. And still nothing was done to keep him from boarding the plane.

As far as the DHS and Janet Napolitano are concerned, the incident is a massive and unmitigated disaster, showing the complete and abject failure of their anti-terror policies across the board. But rather than have the decency to admit the truth, the DHS chief is putting on a brave face and pretending that up is down and down is up. "Homeland security head: The security system worked," from [1] AP, December 27 (thanks to Mackie):

(AP) -- WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says investigators did not have enough information to keep a terror suspect from boarding a flight bound for Detroit and that the system worked as it should have.

The father of the man accused of attempting to blow up the jetliner told U.S. officials in Nigeria he was concerned about his son's extreme religious views. However, Napolitano says there was no specific information to place Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a no-fly list....

[2] Pamela has video.