US News

Flipping Janet forced to concede security flopped

It took a while, but she finally caught on.

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano did a 180 yesterday — and conceded the nation’s anti-terror system “failed miserably” in the foiled Christmas Day attack.

Only a day earlier, the official charged with keeping the nation safe from terrorists insisted “everything happened that should have” in the case of the terrorist who nearly brought down a packed jetliner landing in Detroit on Christmas Day.

She realized which way the wind was blowing after her boss, President Obama, demanded a complete review of how a man known to have terrorist connections managed to board Northwest Flight 253 carrying an explosive powerful enough to blow the plane out of the sky.

So yesterday Napolitano was playing defense.

Asked on NBC’s “Today” show if the multibillion-dollar system put in place after 9/11 to make certain the nation’s airplanes are safe had “failed miserably,” she acknowledged: “It did.”

But when asked whether al Qaeda had come up with a new terror weapon that the US defenses are “not equipped to handle,” she said, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“What I would say is that our system did not work in this instance,” she said. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”

Napolitano insisted her upbeat earlier comments were “taken out of context” and she only meant the system performed well after the failed attempt by al Qaeda bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was known.

The plot was thwarted thanks to a heroic passenger and the ineptness of the bumbling jihadi.

Critics blasted her defense.

“She is trying to cover her tracks,” said Long Island Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, “But you can sense her heart is not in [the remarks]. It is like she is going through the motions, almost like someone told her she had to be there.”

“Today” host Matt Lauer on NBC listed the missed signals that should have alerted US officials to Abdulmutallab’s evil plan. “How is this guy not the perfect candidate for a strip search or a full body scan?” he asked Napolitano.

“I’ve asked the same questions, Matt,” she replied.

chuck.bennett@nypost.com