CIA director Leon Panetta didn’t interrupt his vacation and return to Washington after learning of Northwest Airlines flight 253, CBS News reports. In fact, he didn’t even return to Washington after learning that seven of his agency’s employees were murdered by a double-agent in Afghanistan.

And to think some people questioned whether Panetta, with no intelligence or counter-terrorism experience, would be an effective CIA chief. To think.

A source told CBS News that Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, was on holiday in Monterey, Calif. when Abdulmutallab was apprehended, and didn’t return to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. until the weekend following Jan. 1.

The CIA maintained that Panetta’s absence from Langley was not a problem. “While we don’t comment on the Director’s whereabouts, wherever he is—and at every moment of every day—he has the ability to communicate instantly and securely with anyone he needs to be in touch with,” a CIA spokesman said.

In addition, Stephen Kappes, CIA deputy director, reportedly didn’t see the need to return to CIA headquarters from his vacation despite the major intelligence community failure. He returned to Washington, D.C. just after the Khost bombing on Dec. 30 that killed seven CIA officers.

So let’s see.

We’ve got a Treasury Secretary who can’t pay his taxes and told AIG to hide information; a Homeland Security Secretary who had the balls to proclaim that “the system worked” immediately after a failed detonator stopped a terrorist from murdering nearly 300 innocent people over Detroit; a Deputy NSA who’s shocked by al-Qaeda’s commitment to terrorism; and now a CIA director who won’t interrupt his vacation after seven of his agents are killed by a double-agent.

Our national security’s in the very best of hands.