Intel Chief: We dropped the ball and we'll do it again

The Director of the National Intelligence, Denis Blair, recently stated that the intelligence community dropped the ball with regard to the Christmas underwear bomber and that he wrongly caved to pressure to shorten the no-fly list. Blair also added that the intelligence will drop the ball in the future. Fox News

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, in a candid assessment of what went wrong before and after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, said he had wrongly caved to external "pressure" to trim the no-fly list and even admitted the intelligence community would probably drop the ball in the future.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, in a candid assessment of what went wrong before and after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas, said he had wrongly caved to external "pressure" to trim the no-fly list and even admitted the intelligence community would probably drop the ball in the future.[...]

Blair also said criteria for adding people to the government's "no fly" list was too legalistic. He said that in recent years there has been pressure to shrink rather than expand the list because of a cascade of complaints from people getting "hassled" by authorities.

"Why are you searching grandmothers?" was a too-common refrain, he said.

I don't think people were upset that the no-fly list was too long but that security agents were no targeting the most probable demographic that would carry out terrorist attacks.