Foiled Terror Attack Should Be Wake-Up Call

[Guest]

Foiled Terror Attack Should Be Wake-Up Call

Monday, 28 Dec 2009 08:40 AM

By: Ronald Kessler

Ever since 9/11, the Democrats’ mantra has been that the FBI’s and CIA’s efforts to protect us are threatening our civil liberties.

As recently as two months ago, John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to gut key Patriot Act provisions which the FBI has used successfully to obtain intelligence quickly.

“Over the past eight years, Americans grew tired of the same old scare tactics, designed to fool the public into believing that we needed to give up freedom to be safe from terrorism,” Conyers said. “It is a new day and an opportunity for reform.”

The truth is that since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, no abuse by the FBI — meaning an act done for political or other improper purposes — has ever been uncovered. The Democrats’ bill would essentially require the FBI to already have evidence of a crime before it can obtain the information necessary to determine if a crime has been committed.

This is the same no-win situation the FBI was in before the 9/11 attacks. Yet Democrats who tied the FBI’s hands behind its back back then had no compunction about criticizing the FBI and the Bush administration for failing to connect the dots before the 9/11 attacks.

In the same vein, President Obama has signaled to terrorists that even if they have knowledge of impending attacks, they will never face the same interrogation techniques used on our own troops as part of training exercises.

By threatening prosecution of CIA officers for following orders approved by the president, the Justice Department, and key members of Congress, Obama has undermined the CIA’s incentive to obtain vital intelligence by taking risks.

Now after witnessing the effort to take down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, Americans are seeing what can happen if we let our guard down. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, has claimed links to al-Qaida, but Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano in the past has dismissed the entire notion of terrorism by referring to it as “man-caused disasters.”

Even before Obama came into office, civil liberties advocates had succeeded in limiting two tools that could have prevented the foiled attack by the suspect. One is whole-body imaging scanners that use radio waves or X-rays to reveal objects under a person’s clothes.

These scanners could have pinpointed chemicals that were apparently strapped to the suspect’s body.

The government has sought to expand use of imaging scanners, but privacy advocates and Congress have raised objections. The question is, Would passengers rather have their private parts scanned by security personnel or be blown up 40,000 feet above the earth?

The second tool is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, which lists about 550,000 individuals, objects like cars, and addresses. From that list, the FBI develops the Terrorist Screening Data Base (TSDB), from which consular, border, and airline watch lists are drawn.

The Transportation Security Administration maintains its own “no-fly” list of about 4,000 people who are prohibited from boarding any domestic or U.S.-bound aircraft. Another list of about 14,000 “selectees” has been compiled. They require additional scrutiny but are not banned from flying.

Based on a warning from the suspect’s father to U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria that his son had fallen prey to radical Islam, Mutallab should have been on the list to receive additional scrutiny. But while he was in the TIDE database, he was never placed on the list to receive such scrutiny.

In placing individuals on these lists, intelligence officials receive constant pressure from the ACLU and other civil liberties advocates. Backed by Democrats, they have complained that there is something inherently insidious about the number of names on the lists.

“Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years; U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse,” a March 25, 2007 headline in the Washington Post warned.

Timothy Sparapani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel for privacy rights, has called the numbers “shocking.”

So blind are the Democrats to the need to protect the country that they have delayed extending the provisions of the Patriot Act by two months while they work on healthcare legislation, which would not begin to provide benefits to the uninsured until 2013.

Privately, FBI agents and CIA officers have been saying for some time that it will take another attack to awaken the country to the fact that we are putting ourselves at risk. If the Democrats have their way, nothing will change until another attack takes place. Then we will again see children on TV holding up photos of their parents, hoping that someone will say they are still alive.

http://newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/JohnCon...12/28/id/344733

[bonnie]

Nah,just send them to art rehab

Two airplane bomb plotters released from GItmo

Clarice Feldman

A disturbing report which if true should underscore completely the absurdity of the Administration's policy of shutting down Gitmo:

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, ABC News is reporting, quoting American officials and citing Department of Defense documents.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials, ABC News reported.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

[Guest]

Great! Art rehab, yeah that oughta do it.

[bonnie]

Great! Art rehab, yeah that oughta do it.

Unbelievable. No wonder we seem so easy on terrorists.

Hope they have artistic talent so the therapy doesn't go to waste

[Ted Oplinger]

Only if that art rehab has a course on water (boarding) colors...

[Guest]

[bonnie]

They can't paper this one over

Clarice Feldman

Contentions' Jennifer Rubin reports this shocking development about the would-be Detroit plane bomber detailed in the Wall Street Journal:

The father of terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab met with the Central Intelligence Agency at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, and told of his son's likely radicalization, according to the CIA.The initial meeting Nov. 19 led to a broader gathering of multiple U.S. agencies the next day, including representatives of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department and the CIA, in which the information was shared, a U.S. official said"

She says:

With no hint of irony, some hapless official tells us (on background, of course) that "it is unclear whether intelligence officials in Washington effectively collected and analyzed all the relevant information gathered in Nigeria, pointing toward a possible lapse that could have helped prevent Mr. Abdulmutallab getting on the plane he attempted to bomb." Let me take a stab at that one: they didn't effectively collect and analyze all the relevant information because Abdulmutallab got on the plane and almost incinerated hundreds of people. So what were Napolitano and the president talking about up until now? Were they trying to flim-flam us or were they grossly and inexcusably unprepared and ill-informed?

This is a scandal of the first order. On this one there is no George W. Bush to blame. There is only the president and his tragically clueless administration. Unlike the pre-9/11 bits of data, which never wound up in the right hands, in this case we had a specific bomber, a specific tip, and the imam was literally in our gun-sights (reports say he escaped the predator attack). And the intelligence community was given it all on a silver platter. This is the quintessential failure to connect dots. Had the detonator not failed or an alert passenger not intervened, we would have had not a catastrophic failure but a catastrophe.

Heads better start rolling. What are we paying all these people for? Paper pushing? Praising a Dutch citizen for acting when they failed to?

It's on this president's watch; it's his team' they let us down in their most important function of all--protecting and defending the US from attack.

Nothing can paper this one over.

Clarice Feldman

[Guest]

Good article. Where are all our liberal democrat buddies, who always have something to say in defence of the anointed one? I've noticed it's been awful quiet over here in politics of late.

[phkrause]

This is to no one in particular.

What I'd like to know is when did this Art program go into effect? And if we don't know lets not blame anyone till we find out! And just to let everyone know I personally have never blamed anyone for this program!! Here's title to a story about it, notice the year!!! This program has been around for a number of years, has it not??

Al Qaeda Leader Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Was Released by U.S.

Former Guantanamo Prisoner Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007

Now another question, have we changed any of the terrorist intelligence rules that the Bush admistration had but in effect? I don't believe so, all has been the same! They've even had guys on FoxNews who have say so. They are now finding out that there were and are still holes in the system! I don't really care who everyone wants to blame, but this doesn't help or change anything that is happening. Both s%^@*(y parties are to blame. I will say it again and again, neither party gives one iota about anybody but themselves.

pk

[Guest]

No they haven't changed anything, except to proclaim that there is no longer a war on terror. Obama said we shouldn't use that phrase (war on terror) anymore.

But they said they were going to change everything. It was going to be 180 degrees different from the Bush administration. The different agencies were going to be communicating, and yada yada yada, on and on. But they haven't done squat. Is anyone surprised?

[Guest]

But he still intends to close gitmo so the terrorists can be turned loose on America again. That's change.

[Guest]

Both s%^@*(y parties are to blame.

Wow pk, there could be children out there.

[bonnie]

But he still intends to close gitmo so the terrorists can be turned loose on America again. That's change.

There are many things different about this president and his administration.

His ideology has been made very plain beginning in his campaign.

No president is perfect and makes all the right decisions for the right reasons.

Decisions and and laws as in the Patriot Act were made,right or wrong, with the right motivation.The danger in those type of laws is the leader that comes in and uses them for all the wrong reasons.

Obama has clearly stated his socialists views and how he intends to turn this country. Countries that are socialists currently are not the same as America becoming socialist.Once America loses it's freedoms it should be pretty clear what is ahead. It will happen regardless,but I don't think supporting those doing so is right.

Obama has been very clear as to his view of the country he leads.

There are men on trial now for capturing a very dangerous man.He gets a fat lip and America tries the navy seals.

He has courted dictators quite openly and ignored responsible leaders.I do believe he is to blame for much of what is going on. His words and actions towards those that have or try to harm US citizens leaves the impression that the injured will have to explain themselves to see if the terrorists should be punished. Now we have to give them a Miranda warning and have access to our legal system.

Look at all his associates. Anyone that surrounds himself with communists/marxists/socialists is telling you a lot about who he is without having to say a word.

His 20 year association with a "minister" like Jerimiah Wright is no different than Wright is.

His very obvious desire to control the bulk of the American economy should be a big red flag.

His appointee's that do not need to be vetted.Have you done much reading on their backgrounds? I would never have let any friends of Obama near my kids at a vulnerable age,yet let's put them in positions of power.In fact a man with Obama's ideology would not have been allowed to be around my boys either.

While Bush certainly had his failings I would not have feared his influence on my kids.

I think Obama is taking us down a path we have been warned about.

[phkrause]

No they haven't changed anything, except to proclaim that there is no longer a war on terror. Obama said we shouldn't use that phrase (war on terror) anymore.

But they said they were going to change everything. It was going to be 180 degrees different from the Bush administration. The different agencies were going to be communicating, and yada yada yada, on and on. But they haven't done squat. Is anyone surprised?

I do understand that but everything that was put in place is still there and being followed. I agree that Obama has made things to be of a lesser profile, to change our stratege, to not mention certain words out loud. I thought at first OK lets give it a go, but I believe that its time to relook at that policy and say that its not working.

pk