The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now failed three times in a row to deter Al-Qaeda attacks inside America, in spite of having ample advance warning in every instance. 14 Americans are dead, 30 wounded, and hundreds, perhaps thousands more would be casualties if Al-Qaeda bombs had not malfunctioned.

Major Nidal Hassan told fellow soldiers of his radical Muslim beliefs, including his views of justified violence against the American military. His chain of command took no action other than to give him a promotion. The FBI and DHS knew of his communications with radical Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, known to be involved in the 9-11 attacks and the failed plot to attack Fort Dix, New Jersey, but still took no action. The result was Hasan gunning down 44 unarmed Americans in cold blood at Fort Hood.

The father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab notified the U.S. government that his son had been influenced by Al-Qaeda, including even the same Anwar al Awlalki - and to please arrest him before he killed Americans and himself in the process.

DHS did nothing, and Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a U.S. airliner with a suicide bomb. Had the bomb not failed to detonate that airliner would have been blown from the skies on Christmas Day with hundreds more American dead.

What corrective action has the Administration taken in light of these two attacks in a row? They filed an official report on the Fort Hood attack without mentioning radical Islamic terrorism even once, refused to admit the shootings were a terror attack for which the casualties could receive the Purple Heart, and followed up by kicking Billy Graham’s son out of the DOD National Day of Prayer service to avoid offending Muslims.

So last week, after training with the Taliban and confessing to planning with the same Al- Awlaki, Faisal Shahzad planted a car bomb in New York’s Times Square and tried to detonate it. The only thing that saved us from mass death and injury is the failure of the device to explode. Incredibly, Shahzad had already been the subject of investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2004, and was currently on the FAA no-fly list for suspicion of terrorist ties. Yet that didn’t stop DHS from granting him U.S. citizenship last year.

The entire purpose for creating the Department of Homeland Security following the 9-11 attacks was to ensure that all agencies of the federal government coordinate to deter terrorism. These three attacks provide clear and convincing evidence that DHS has failed its primary mission under Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Three strikes and you’re out. Al-Qaeda has succeeded in launching three attacks in 6 months designed to produce mass casualties here in our country. Only the incompetence of the Al-Qaeda operatives’ bombing ability prevented absolute disaster in the air and in New York.

It is time for a change at DHS. The most fundamental duty of the federal government is to defend America against external attacks. The Obama Administration has failed this duty, and must make immediate and dramatic changes in its strategy against radical Islamic terrorists if we are to avoid a catastrophic attack in the future.