After four days of downplaying the severity of the thwarted Christmas Day terror attack, President Obama finally found a gap in his busy golf-and-snorkeling regimen in Hawaii to concede that a “catastrophic” national security failure occurred when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to explode a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 enroute from Amsterdam to Detroit. Despite his admission, however, there’s still no outward evidence that Obama or his most senior officials understand the severity of the failure.

For reasons not yet explained, the U.S. State Department issued a visa to Abdulmutallab despite knowing that he had terrorist connections and had been denied a British visa because of those connections. The Transportation Safety Administration was similarly unconcerned despite the fact that Abdulmutallab raised two red flags by paying for his ticket with cash and checking no luggage. And the CIA sat for weeks on a report that Abdulmutallab’s father had warned a CIA officer in an American embassy of the possible threat posed by his son. This was no casual concern as the father met twice in person with the officer and provided additional details in telephone and written communications.