http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/01/exclusive-obama-got-pre-christmas-intelligence-briefing-about-terror-threats-to-homeland.aspx

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Posted Friday, January 01, 2010 6:55 PM

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to "Homeland"

Mark Hosenball

President Barack Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, Newsweek has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by US intelligence agencies, entitled "Key Homeland Threats", a senior US official said.

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The system and this administration is working alright.....working against us......I feel SO unsafe with Obama in charge. ....It is inexcuseable that it took him 3 days to address this issue to the American people....and then at his laclustre best.......

Bunglers. I can hear W. giving off a little snicker down on the ranch, can't you?

These are the results of making political appointments based solely on party loyalty instead of actual ability to do the job.

Christmas day flight on Northwest was heading to Detroit, not New York--get facts straight, BDN!

We are outsmarting ourselves. We wand grey haired old ladies and take their knitting needles and we let shady charachters like this guy and that shoe bomber guy get on a plane. We need to scrap the political correctness and use some kind of intelligent profiling.

The regime NEEDS terror attacks to justify its repression.

Without a climate of fear, the people would realize they are being stolen blind, lynch mobs would form, and the politicians would be forced to flee to save their necks.

Sadaam distracted us from Enron, Global Crossing and the looting of America's Savings & Loans.

Abdulmutallab distracts us from the larceny of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and the looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"It's time to close ranks, as we did in 2001 when terrorists hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and stop trying to make this crisis into a divisive political issue." (sic).

Of course that's what I'd expect the BDN to say about a security foul-up when the Democrats are in charge. I'm sure that if we looked back at BDN editorials while George W. Bush was President, except perhaps for a very brief period after 9/11, we would see the BDN blaming the Bush Administration and the Republicans for everything that went wrong, especially intelligence and security failures.

BDN - it is no "minor flap" that Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's first instinct was to play CYA rather than be straight with American people. Like our President, she sorely lacks qualifications for the job and puts this country in danger with each passing day in office. This is not the first time she has botched it, nor, I suspect, will it be the last. Let's hope the lives lost as a result number not in the hundreds nor thousands.

If the BDN was not so busy playing CYA for liberals, it would be calling for her resignation. Nary a peep from our dear editors about the massive levels of bribery and corruption to get 60 votes in the Senate on Christmas Eve for a disaster of a healthcare bill.

Please wake up, BDN readers, to this paper's malicious motivations and tactics. And please move to the center, BDN. Thank you.

JWBooth - the massive "Oil for Food" scandal perpetrated by Kofi Annan and the corruptocrats at the UN far exceeded all of the financial scandals you mention, combined, not that you would know it from reading this liberal outlet. Saddam and Kofi are no more, Thank God!

"It's time to close ranks, as we did in 2001 when terrorists hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and stop trying to make this crisis into a divisive political issue."

The Government (directly after 9/11 through George W. Bush) told the people that Islamic fanatics were attacking us because "They hate our freedom, our way of life" If that is so, they should be very happy, because "our way of life" is history (and was long before the terror attacks of 9/11) and our freedom is rapidly disappearing. I used to go to Canada three times a week, but I don't go at all anymore. the process of clearing what was the most open and friendly in the world is now too onerous. The State won't renew my driver's license because I won't give them my social security number. The Federal Privacy act (which has not been repealed) says the State can not make citizens provide a social security number UNLESS they were requesting them in 1976. Maine was not. I don't fly anywhere. I resent being treated like a potential criminal. My fourth amendment rights are gone, my fifth amendment rights are weakend, and my home is no longer sacrosanct.

I consider myself a patriot. I cherish the rights conveyed to me at birth, those rights that all citizens once cared for. Now the government has a segment of society scared like little rabbits in the face of an eagle. Folks, WE are the eagle. we are the society that honors individualism. I for one am not willing to compromise that for a bipartisan Kumbyah moment. This is my country and no one is going to strip it away from me piece by piece. The price of "safety" can never be freedom, nor does the removal of freedom insure safety.

"Also, the screening systems did not work as intended, and intelligence information was not pieced together to focus on this young terrorist."

Just how much "piecing together" does it take when the guys father called the US embassy more than once to tell us his son was probably a potential terrorist threat and had been in Yemen? Once they ignored his fathers direct attempts to warn us as well as his visa/passport issues and his ticket paid for with cash, the screeners did what they were supposed to do and unless he happened to be chosen to be frisked, you wouldn't expect them to notice anything unusual using the equipment they are given to work with.

This flight was headed to DTW, not JFK. This was a BDN editorial, presumably written by a BDN editor. When even the editors don't proofread or bother to get their facts straight when that's their primary job, what sort of credibility do their opinions deserve to have?

" after three days in which the Obama administration gathered information, the president now has grasped the problem in all its dimensions and ordered reviews, accountability and improvement."

The BDN wants us all to hold hands and gather round this administration after a so called "minor flap". We have thousands of fellow citizens who work with vigilance in our government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They have done a fine job of keeping us safe for the previous eight years. I'm sure we would be amazed at the potential danger that has been averted from their efforts if we were privy to the reams information they produce inn a days work. These "defenders of our safety "are at the mercy of an "uppercrust" of management who came along last January and asked them to change the tactics, the language and the tools with which they legally use to do their jobs.

This latest bungle belongs to the top and should be laid at the feet of Obama, Napalitano DHS, Pedesta CIA, and Hillary Clinton State Department. They will not take responsibility for this so called "new mission" (reaching out to the enemy) that they have taken on. BTW readers, Obama is about to have his newest manager of these folks (TSAnominee Erroll Southers) confirmed bythe Senate when it returns. A fellow that decided to overstep privacy rules when he worked for the FBI by using his position to illegally collect private information on his wife's boyfriend. Are there any other HONEST folks out there who are eligible for this postion?

I'm not holding anyone's hand to rally around an administration that is so blatantly short on honesty and personal responsibility. Stay safe everyone!!

The CIA initiated the collapse of the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Somehow, I think we can deal with these terrorists, if we decide we're going to.

Yes, the system failed...just as it did pre-9/11. Now, as then, the primary issue was the inability of government security agencies to share information - to work together. Intelligence in only that if it is used to produce a positive result. Security agency turf wars - as the last nine years have shown - produce something antithetical.

When will we have the "12/25 Commission Hearings" ?

Only fools will think the government security will keep them safe. The BDN keeps writing fluff pieces like this and the readers continue to abandon the paper faster than folks jumped off the Titanic.

The BDN used to be a serious paper. If you want to be one again why not send some reporters to Augusta to report on the dysfunctional DHHS for starters.

The Failure is There Is No More Common Ground In America

They Got Us Just Where They Want Us

Divide and Conquer~~Nothing To Be Proud About In America Today

The problem is Political Correctness and Liberal Policies.

Compare this blunder to "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (4000 Americans lives lost there) and the outing of a CIA operator and not paying any attention to all of the pre 9/11 info about terrorists and I still say the "Teabaggers" and W., for all of their love of war and all of its accessories, are still way behind in terms of keeping us safe.

I'll never forget W., "Mission Accomplished" in his suave little bombers jacket.

It doesn't work because the TSA is based on a quota system that eliminates the vast majority of qualified people. When I applied for a job with TSA back in 2003, I was turned down in the first round. Then I found out that they were hiring 40% women and 40% minorities. Even being retired military with security clearance and training, I got to fill out an application and attach a resume, just to be told no thanks.

January 2, 2010

Hollow Words on Terrorism

By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.

Heck of a job, Brownie.

The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.

And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over -- that is, if it ever existed.

Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."

And produces linguistic -- and logical -- oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Ford Hood shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" -- code for daring to associate Nidal Hasan's mass murder with his Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the bomber acted alone.

More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."

Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant -- an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians -- and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point -- surprise! -- he stops talking.

This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved." Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed and sent him.

This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant.

The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator -- no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation.

The president said that this incident highlights "the nature of those who threaten our homeland." But the president is constantly denying the nature of those who threaten our homeland. On Tuesday, he referred five times to Abdulmutallab (and his terrorist ilk) as "extremist(s)."

A man who shoots abortion doctors is an extremist. An eco-fanatic who torches logging sites is an extremist. Abdulmutallab is not one of these. He is a jihadist. And unlike the guys who shoot abortion doctors, jihadists have cells all over the world; they blow up trains in London, nightclubs in Bali and airplanes over Detroit (if they can); and are openly pledged to war on America.

Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks. But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy -- jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon -- turns laxity into a governing philosophy.

Until this president and his admin figures out or wants to admit, we are at war and are being attacked, not just in afghanistan, then he may begin to show leadership and not brush these "man made events" off. Until this president gets the courage to say that muslim jihadists along with terrorist groups are at war with us, the people of this country will not take him seriously, nor will our enemies. Napolitano is a fish out of water, more like a Janet Reno/Alberto Gonzalez/Mike Brown all rolled into one. Until this president stops playing nice with his slick words and tells the truth, we won't take him as wanting to do his job and protect this nation. When he says "the alleged" even after the guy had his drawers ripped off from the chemical fire, when he still won't even acknowledge the muslim assassin in Ft Hood as a terrorist, when he won't even acknowledge terrorists with radical muslim ties. When he figures out his main job is to protect not socialize this country, we will be right behind him. So far, this president is showing he is more carterish in less time I thought could be possible. He is on the path to being below Dan Quayle in the scheme of things. Sadly, we the people, are also forgetting we are being attacked, have been attacked, and have had war waged against us. Because it isn't a nation declaring war, it is still a war. When we decide to stop treating these attackers as citizens and begin to try and treat them as enemies, then we can stand right behind the pres. Lead us Mr. President, lead us like you mean it.

Neither did the intelligence reports work, nor were taken seriously when George Bush's intelligence team of thousands were informed that the US would be struck by a terrorist act which led up to the September 11th demise of the World Trade Centers back in 2001. Seems not much has changed in this community of intelligence work. (I entered the comment before I read the comments above - referencing to "umaine2002").

Seems to me this terrorist organization is simply averting attention from other more dramatic world issues, and keeping the conflicts in the Mid East countries an ongoing matter, designed and built only to bleed the US of financial, military and infrastructured abilities and create complete disorder and discontent among the US population.

Such is to be said also about the failings of US Immigration laws and statutes which should be completely revised. Stop immigration now; cut-off all but necessary entrances to the US - Canada should also follow the US' track. Get rid of ALL illegals, and those within certain immigrant acceptances to be US citizens would be scrutinized. With Obama putting off the immigration issue until near-next election time is another ploy and play upon his next re-election hope. If immigration was prevented in the first place, not one other person without special permission from the US Embassies the world over, will get in for awhile.

Let's review what we know thus far:

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Our terrorist traveled to Yemen to meet with terrorist there

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The terrorists in Yemen had been in Guantanamo but had been ordered released by the Bush Administration though they were, perhaps the most dangerous detainees held

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The government of Yemen tells us that Islamic terrorists there have been arrested who have proven ties to Israeli intelligence

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Our terrorists father, though we are told is a retired "Nigerian banker" actually ran their defense industry in close cooperation with Israeli Intelligence (Mossad)

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Our terrorist's visa to the US was never with withdrawn, though he was on a "terrorist watchlist"

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Our terrorist, though flying from Nigeria, entered the Netherlands without passing thru customs, something impossible to do without assistance from an intelligence agency

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Our terrorist, while at the Amsterdam airport, was being assisted by a man appearing to be Indian, who claimed our Nigerian terrorist was a Sudanese refugee with no passport (no passport was used entering the EU, something technically impossible)

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However, Dutch authorities, the same ones who confirmed he entered the country with no passport also confirmed he had a valid US visa, though on a terrorist watch list that is shared with Dutch authorities.

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Airport security in Amsterdam is contracted to an Israeli controlled company with, not only the most sophisticated technologies, but, in fact, the company that had developed the concept of security profiling.

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The parallels between this case and the Richard Reid "shoe bomber" case are much more than admitted.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9951&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

What Would Happen to The World

If There WAS NO Law and Order

What about just The United States

What about just Maine

What about just Portland, Augusta or Bangor

Tell Me Please~What Would Happen

Let's get a few facts straight. They system failed THIS TIME. Does it mean it's sytemic? Not enough data to tell. The guy got on a plane in a different country where we have no control over the level of security, so we need to work with that country to ensure they perform the security checks on aircraft coming to our country to our standards. This system was set up under George W. I think it's time to stop pointing fingers and FIX THE PROBLEM!

ElectraGlide wrote:

"Tell Me Please~What Would Happen"

Gee Mr Glide, that's an easy one. we'd have to learn how to take care of ourselves, or die. Frankly, I don't see that much "good" coming from those charged with "protecting" now. When you get to 300 million people plus, you need three times the number of "protectors" that you had in 1910 when our population was 100 million. according to the figures from the FBI, we have almost the same number of police, sheriffs, and private security now as we had a century ago. We also have almost 100 times as many people in prison, mostly for non-violent crimes. As you know, I'm no big fan of our "justice" system.

Jetmech...then stop pointing fingers... at Bush. He is not there anymore unless you haven't noticed. These occurances are happening NOW and sorry to tell you, the problems are now Obama's. Isn't that why we elected him?

On 1/3/10 at 9:36 AM, JetMech wrote: Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Let's get a few facts straight. They system failed THIS TIME. Does it mean it's sytemic? Not enough data to tell. The guy got on a plane in a different country where we have no control over the level of security, so we need to work with that country to ensure they perform the security checks on aircraft coming to our country to our standards. This system was set up under George W. I think it's time to stop pointing fingers and FIX THE PROBLEM!

Oops, sounds like you didn't get your facts straight. The security screening that was conducted in Amsterdam is comparable to our standards. Unless this guy happened to be patted down by screeners, they wouldn't have noticed anything here either. The systemic problem is with our intelligence network that apparently still doesn't talk to one another. We were TOLD that this guy was a potential terrorist and yet he still wasn't put on a no fly list and that list disseminated to all airlines and that sort of thing has happened over and over ever since before 911. In this age of computers, it's so easy to add someone to a list like that. There's no excuse for it still happening, it should be automatic. At a minimum, someone like him should have gotten extra attention, including frisking, before he was allowed on a US bound jet.

I do agree that it's time to fix the problem but that won't happen until our leadership acknowledges that we are involved in a serious WAR on terror, at least the other side is....

If you don't want to point fingers, why did you point your finger at GWB in the previous sentence?

The title of this editorial is wrong - each individual piece of the system did worked. The problem is the revised system as recommended by the (/11 commission was never full implemented. So we are left to play What If.

The "What if" scenario happens on every flight with every passenger. What if it happens on my flight? Will I react to stop it? Is there a Sky Marshall on board? Until the world learns to be proactive instead of reactive - these will be your pre-flight questions.

I truly believe that the Xmas Bomber is a clone of the Shoe Bomber. This was a case of the bad guys stirring the pot once again. This is a case where the extremists hoped he would succeed but figured he wouldn't. They will go back to the drawing board and try another operation that may or may not succeed.

Their success is weighed by the reaction they illicit. America's reaction will be to sink billions of dollars into a security plan that will not work. The political right will pound their chests and say we are not safe. They will demand investigations and hearings. I believe that the story already has an ending.

Here is a kid, disenchanted with his life, questioning his beliefs and separated from his family. He becomes the perfect pawn for a radical group that feeds into his paranoia and insecurities. And although his bomb failed - his assignment succeeded. He has caused terror, confusion and blind outrage.

In reality, we blew this one. Collectively, worldwide, we allowed this to happen. America dropped the ball at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria which resulted in his multi-entry visa to remain valid. The trip to Yemen would have and should have graduated him to the no-fly list. An established flow of raw data would have snow-balled into a comprehensive file on this kid.

The British failed to advise the U.S. that he was denied a student visa and that they had placed him on a watch list. More data flow.

The Nigerian's allowed him to depart Lagos even though his passport did not show legal entry back into the country from Ghana. If he was wearing the bomb at the time, a pat down would not have included that part of his anatomy (Muslim culture forbids it).

In Amsterdam, a cursory inspection of his passport would have shown his entrance into Yemen, which would have flagged additional scrutiny. I believe that the bomb was in his carry-on at this time. He wouldn't risk the possibility of a pat-down in Amsterdam.

Since he was held in transit, he was not required to pass through Customs and Immigration. He was required to present his passport or he would not have gotten on the Northwest/Delta flight.

Now we will spend billions to make the world safer - but will it? Security personnel say that to win the "War on Terror" you need more human intelligence rather than electronics. We need to learn from our allies - we need to learn from Israel.

Israeli airport security, much of it invisible to the untrained eye, begins before passengers even enter the terminal. Officials constantly monitor behavior, alert to clues that may hint at danger: bulky clothing or a nervous manner. Profilers (that's what they're called) make a point of interviewing travelers, sometimes at length. They probe for anything out of the ordinary, anything that does not fit. Their questions can seem odd or intrusive, especially if your only previous experience with an airport interrogation was being asked whether you packed your bags yourself.

Unlike in US airports, where passengers go through security after checking in for their flights and submitting their luggage, security in Israel comes first. Only when the profiler is satisfied that a passenger poses no risk is he or she allowed to proceed to the check-in counter.

The safest airline in the world, it is widely agreed, is El Al, Israel's national carrier. The safest airport is Ben Gurion International, in Tel Aviv. No El Al plane has been attacked by terrorists in more than three decades, and no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked.

The new security apparatus for 2010 should not be full-body x-rays or backscatter arrays, but human intelligence and proper training. Profiling should be utilized on all passengers, thus negating the claims of prejudice.

Until we secure the entire flight (catering, cargo, cleaners, flight attendants, gate agents, etc.) no flight will be totally secure. We can be safe - we must be vigilant.

Bunglers. And don't you love all the CYA activity?

HarryHSnyder111 wrote "Gee Mr Glide, that's an easy one. we'd have to learn how to take care of ourselves, or die."

Gee HarryH~~For Some reason I was expecting more from You on this One.

You went back a Century~~Maybe another Century would of been closer to what I thought you would get out of the Question.

Like the Tale of the Shield~~I was looking for Something Much Deeper from YOU

If you don`t want to bother it does not matter

But that will not change the question of What If there Was No Law

That Yemen is certainly going to be a country to watch. I have been reading up on Yemen this weekend. ( the Us Embassy has just been closed there due to threats from Al-Quida)....It is a real "hot-bed" .............. ( from 01/03/2010 3:33:29 AM

By AHMED AL-HAJ and LEE KEATH Associated Press Writers)........................Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden and the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, has a weak central government whose authority does not extend far beyond the capital San'a. In addition to battling al-Qaida fighters, it also faces two separate internal rebellions in the north and south.

Located at the tip of the Arabian peninsula, Yemen straddles a strategic maritime crossroads at the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the access point to the Suez Canal. Across the Gulf is Somalia, an even more tumultuous nation where the U.S. has said al-Qaida militants have been increasing their activity. Yemen also borders Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer.

There have been a spate of assaults on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen and it has closed several times over past threats. In an attack in September 2008, gunmen and two vehicles packed with explosives attacked the U.S. Embassy, killing 19 people including an 18-year-old American woman and six militants. None of those killed or wounded were U.S. diplomats or embassy employees. Al-Qaida in Yemen claimed responsibility.

In March 2003, two people were shot dead and dozens more are wounded as police clash with demonstrators trying to storm the embassy. In March 2008, three mortars missed the U.S. Embassy and crashed into a high school for girls nearby, killing a security guard

ElectraGlide wrote:

"HarryHSnyder111 wrote "Gee Mr Glide, that's an easy one. we'd have to learn how to take care of ourselves, or die."

Gee HarryH~~For Some reason I was expecting more from You on this One."

Oh well, expectations are usually based on what one knows about the person from whom he "expects" something. I answered your question What would happen yada yada yada... ? In fact throughout history there has NEVER been "no law" and there is no reasonable belief that as long as there are humans there will be a hole where no law exists. Pirates, criminals, even maniacs have "laws" by which they live. The real question should be "What if the laws were made different... I for one am totally ready for different laws as well as different people enforcing them.

Sorry, I know you are a big cop groupie, but I'm not and will never be.