I don’t want to over simplify or be over critical of our security systems in the United States, but something struck me this evening after realizing how many TV anchors across our land flubbed the pronunciation of the Christmas Day suspects’ name who tried to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit culminating with President Obama’s declaration this evening of a US intelligence failure when the teleprompter pro couldn’t pronounce Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s name either.  I thought to myself there’s the answer to preventing terrorism – if you can’t pronounce the name, profile the passenger as a terrorist.

Eureka, I thought, the answer to difficult or complex problems is in simplicity.

I mean after all if it looks like the alphabet and you can’t pronounce it – it requires further scrutiny.

I mean, after all our intelligence community is to bright to see dots and then logically connect them.  This was a difficult case.  The man’s name, who I can’t pronounce, was on a US list of suspects; he traveled from Nigeria, had been to Yemen – a hot bed of Al Qaeda – moved on to Amsterdam on a one way ticket for which he paid cash, banned from entering the UK, his father warned the US Embassy that he was a Jihad leaning young man, told his father that this was the last time he would be speaking to him and was still allowed passage to Detroit with no luggage where his attempt to blow up the plane was foiled by a heroic crew and passengers.

There really weren’t enough clues to suspect this passenger from wrong doing.  The only thing intel overlooked was his name because that nearly had every letter of the alphabet and to pull him aside for alphabet soup questioning really wouldn’t be politically correct.  I mean how are we going to deal with the Greeks, the Polish or for that matter the Russians or others from Slovak countries?

But if I were president I would think about sending a directive to TSA that if they can’t pronounce the name they should consider the passenger a terrorist.  Now I don’t know how linguistic members of the TSA are, but what would be the harm, anyone with a name like that would understand the questioning.

I hope the president takes my suggestion seriously, for it’s simple and very economical as compared to the technology being considered and the future radiation Americans will be exposed to, exposing everything the tabloids are looking for,  resulting in cancer and a further burden on our Health Care system.

I was also impressed with the President’s rapid response to this crisis.  Let’s see it occurred on December 25 and the administration initially said our security system worked.  Four days later while Obama was on vacation in Hawaii they suggested it didn’t work too well and they dodged a bullet.  But that didn’t bring Obama home until he was ready to come home.  Now 11 days later he calls the event a failure of US intelligence to piece it all together.  Aside from Obama being on vacation, perhaps he’s out to lunch.

Mr. President let’s make it simple – if you Barack Hussein Obama can’t pronounce the name, let’s check them out as a terrorist.