Terrorist attack thwarted

[Behshad]

Huge difference between riled up and ANNOYED

[StevePerryHair]

Huge difference between riled up and ANNOYED

[StevePerryHair]

I love watching FF get people riled up

Like fish in a barrel....

Except Im not riled up If I was riled up you'd know it It actually makes me laugh more than anything

you and me both sista!

[RedWingFan]

and nothing wrong with bringing some FACTS to the table, I agree. But FF rarely brings in FACTS,,, he brings it one way crap that others like him believe in.

So, you don't believe then that Napalitano said the "System Worked?"

You don't believe that the US Gov let these guys out of Gitmo (at Lib urging) only to have them strike again after their "art therapy" failed?

You don't believe that Sen. Dodd (D-Conn) cut airport "explosive trace portal funding?"

You don't believe that a Yemini Minister says that there are 300 more of these bombers waiting to strike?

Yet I bet you believed it when Obama said the other day that this was an "Isolated Incident".

How do you defend the indefensible? Libs fought for the release of Gitmo detainees and they're trying to kill us again. Thanks Libs! Progressives, whatever you're disguising yourself as.

[steveo777]

and nothing wrong with bringing some FACTS to the table, I agree. But FF rarely brings in FACTS,,, he brings it one way crap that others like him believe in.

So, you don't believe then that Napalitano said the "System Worked?"

You don't believe that the US Gov let these guys out of Gitmo (at Lib urging) only to have them strike again after their "art therapy" failed?

You don't believe that Sen. Dodd (D-Conn) cut airport "explosive trace portal funding?"

You don't believe that a Yemini Minister says that there are 300 more of these bombers waiting to strike?

Yet I bet you believed it when Obama said the other day that this was an "Isolated Incident".

How do you defend the indefensible? Libs fought for the release of Gitmo detainees and they're trying to kill us again. Thanks Libs! Progressives, whatever you're disguising yourself as.

The Libs ruined California too. Now you got a bunch of pot smoking hippies everywhere under the guise of "medical use". They must be the ones giving all this free medical, welfare and foodstamps to the illegal Mexicans too.! Blame everything on the Libs!!!

[7 Wishes]

How do you defend the indefensible? Libs fought for the release of Gitmo detainees and they're trying to kill us again. Thanks Libs! Progressives, whatever you're disguising yourself as.

There's a HUGE difference between attempting to get people against whom no charges have ever been levied due process, versus "fighting for the release of detainees". Get your facts straight before you spew your Limbaugh-tinted verbial diarrhea.

[RedWingFan]

How do you defend the indefensible? Libs fought for the release of Gitmo detainees and they're trying to kill us again. Thanks Libs! Progressives, whatever you're disguising yourself as.

There's a HUGE difference between attempting to get people against whom no charges have ever been levied due process, versus "fighting for the release of detainees". Get your facts straight before you spew your Limbaugh-tinted verbial diarrhea.

They were ALL captured on the battlefield and aren't afforded due process. I'm sure before Obama was inaugurated, they also weren't read their Miranda rights. Insisting on taking our court rooms to these terrorists = more attacks! Thanks for proving my point 7 brain cells!

[7 Wishes]

That's EIGHT brain cells, BTW.

Guilty until proven innocent, eh? Even though more than half the detainees are people against whom no charges COULD me levied since they were basically in the wrong place at the wrong time?

[Lula]

there is that possibility that the men behind the recent attempt were seeking revenge for the time they were illegally detained. or maybe the bush admin let some real criminals go, kind of like letting the bin laden family fly out of the U.S. on 9/11.

[Lula]

you know ff, i don't have the answers....

at times i want to blow up the whole region and be done with it, but we know that won't solve anything as people who want to kill want to do it no matter where they are.

i think we should get out of dodge, save the lives of our soldiers. the whole Iraq/Afghanistan is a clusterfuck and should never have happened as it all did.

i pray for our men and women in combat. the idea of a war on terror is as absurd as a war on drugs, which has failed big time. i don't know, like i said i don't have the answers.

[treetopovskaya]

i don't want those who have died to have given their lives in vain.

[Don]

Somali arrested at airport with chemicals, syringe

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_ ... af_somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia – U.S. officials are investigating a Somali man's alleged attempt to board a flight bound for Djibouti and Dubai last month carrying chemicals, liquid and a syringe in a case bearing chilling echoes of the plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Terrorism analysts said the arrest in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, could prove highly valuable for the Detroit investigation if the incidents turn out to be linked.

The Somali was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops Nov. 13 before boarding the Daallo Airlines plane bound for the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then Djibouti and Dubai.

"We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said a Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise.

A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident has similarities to the attempted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in that the Somali was said to have a syringe, liquid and powdered chemicals — tools similar to those used by the Nigerian suspect on the Detroit-bound plane. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the materials could have caused an explosion that would have resulted in cabin decompression, though he didn't think it would have brought the plane down.

For the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso. In the Somali case, the powdered material smelled strongly of ammonia, and samples were sent to London for testing, Bahoku said.

The case drew little attention before the Christmas incident, but on Wednesday U.S. officials began to investigate any possible links to the Detroit attack. None would speak on the record.

In Washington, U.S. officials said the Homeland Security Department did not learn of the incident until Wednesday morning. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Earlier Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said U.S. investigators are working with Somali authorities, and linking the case to the Christmas attack "would be speculative at this point."

Thomas Sanderson, a security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Somali suspect is extremely valuable for U.S. investigators, who will compare his statements with Abdulmutallab's.

Police spokesman Barise said the suspect is in Somali custody, but Sanderson said he was sure the U.S. has told the Somali government: "He's ours, and we're taking him."

He said there was no certainty the two were trained by the same group, but believed the similarities are "probably an indicator that more than just two people have been trained and prepared and ordered or convinced to carry out individual acts of terrorism," Sanderson said.

Michael Stock is president of Bancroft, an organization that advises AMISOM, the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu. He said that when the passenger aroused suspicions, Somalis summoned Bancroft guards who patrol the airport.

"At the time, we provided the explosive material itself for analysis and a description of the incident to Western embassy officials involved in supporting AMISOM, for them to pass to law enforcement," Stock said. He said he heard nothing further.

U.S. investigators say Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect held in the Detroit case, told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen, which Western officials say is a jumping-off point for foreign fighters slipping into Somalia. Large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an al-Qaida-linked insurgent group, al-Shabab.

Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft. U.S. authorities allege he tried to ignite a two-part concoction of PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

If the Somali suspect was planning anything similar, it wasn't known what his specific target might have been. Most passengers on Daallo's Mogadishu route are Somali. The carrier's Web site calls it the national airline of Somalia's neighbor, Djibouti. Some 1,800 U.S. troops are stationed in Djibouti, while Dubai would offer the greatest range of Westbound flights along the route in question.

A Somali security official involved in the Mogadishu arrest said the suspect had a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. He said the suspect was the last passenger in line to board.

The man's name was not released, but the security official gave it as Abdi Hassan Abdi and said he was middle-aged. Stock said the name he got was Abdi Hassan Abdullah, but it was unclear that is his real name.

Once the chemicals and syringe were detected, the suspect tried to bribe the team that detained him, the security official said. He said he had a white shampoo bottle containing a black acid-like substance, a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance, and a syringe containing a green liquid. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials were unaware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France.

[Don]

This was more than a case of someone not joining up the dots.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8435285.stm

President Barack Obama's explanation of the security failure over the alleged "jet bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab indicates that this was more than a case of someone not joining up the dots.

He used the word "systemic" to describe the failure.

Something in the system did not make it easy for those dots to be joined.

The weak point appears to be in the system under which a suspect's name is moved onto vital watch lists - or not.

The president focused on the warning given by the alleged bomber's father to the US embassy in Nigeria that his son was a potential threat and had gone to Yemen, a known recruiting and training ground for al-Qaeda.

President Obama said: "It now appears that, weeks ago, this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list... had this critical information been shared... the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America."

The father's warning was passed on by the US Department of State on 20 November, spokesman Ian Kelly was reported by the Associated Press as saying.

It went not only to all US diplomatic missions and to the State Department in Washington but also to the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which collates and considers all such information.

However two things did not happen.

The first was that Mr Abdulmutallab's existing tourist visa, allowing him to enter the United States, was not revoked.

This gave him multiple entry rights for two years from June 2008.

The second was that his name was not put on the vital watch lists that are an essential element of the systems designed, post-9/11, to prevent suspects from entering the US, like the 9/11 hijackers did.

In addition there are reports in the US media that US intelligence picked up suggestions that a Nigerian was being prepared in Yemen for a terrorist attack. If so, this made little impression.

Instead, his name made it only onto a database known as Tide - the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment.

The NCTC website describes its basic function: "The Tide database includes... all information the US government possesses related to the identity of individuals known or appropriately suspected to be or have been involved in activities constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism..."

Every day this list is reviewed and every evening analysts send a subset of data to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) for use in a watch-list.

This watch list is the basis for which people are either subject to further questioning and checking before they fly or are banned from flying to the US.

As of January 2009, there were more than 564,000 names in Tide.

Of these, some 14,000 are reported to be on the screening list and 4,000 on the no-fly list.

The problem in this case was that Mr Abdulmutallab was never transferred from Tide to the watch lists.

It seems that the information from his father was not enough to trigger that move.

'Red flag'

That might have been the critical systemic failure alluded to by President Obama.

But why not?

Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the FBI's TSC, is reported by CNN to have said that there was not enough hard evidence to back up Mr Abdulmutallab's father's fears.

The FBI itself states that "only individuals who are known or reasonably suspected to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism are included."

So it seems that something more than a father's fears was needed, even though the Yemen connection should, to say the least, have raised a red flag.

Yemen is not a new front in the war against al-Qaeda.

A well-known trail leads to and from regional al-Qaeda leaders there.

One systemic reform is likely to be, therefore, a loosening of the criteria under which someone can be moved from Tide to the screening list.

Another is that US visas will be even harder to get and will be subject to review if new information comes in.

Before 9/11, visas for the US were easy to obtain.

Since then, and also since Richard Reid the British shoe-bomber tried to ignite explosives in his shoe-heel not long afterwards, the procedure has been tightened up. A face to face interview at least became necessary. While waiting for such an interview (my first) at the US embassy in London I joined members of a London orchestra who were also about to be quizzed.

There has been a comment in the US that the country should have known about Britain's refusal to give another visa to Mr Abdulmutallab (he had been to London before and studied at University College London).

However that refusal was not because of him but because this time he applied to a bogus academic college.

So under US rules it might not have been regarded as security-significant.

The question of profiling passengers has already been raised as well.

The Israeli airliner El Al has been doing it for years.

Anyone flying on El Al knows they will be questioned and checked, sometimes several times, before they can board.

They and their luggage are subject to close scrutiny.

Some rather primitive methods of profiling have been tried in the US and the UK.

One of these involves monitoring passengers in case they show signs of unease or distress.

However, al-Qaeda was aware that hijackers and bombers might give themselves away a long time ago.

After 9/11, instructions were found that told the hijackers to smile and appear relaxed on the way to and in the airport, and on the plane.

In Mr Abdulmutallab's case, the reports are that he sought to reassure passengers around him when he started to fiddle around under a blanket, by saying that he felt unwell.

One further reform might be the use of body-scanning devices.

The Dutch authorities have already announced that these will be used for all flights to the US. The Nigerian authorities have followed suit. Others might follow.

[RossValoryRocks]

That's EIGHT brain cells, BTW.

Guilty until proven innocent, eh? Even though more than half the detainees are people against whom no charges COULD be levied since they were basically in the wrong place at the wrong time?

You mean a battlefield, with weapons in hand trying to kill our troops is just the wrong place at the wrong time?

Come on Breast Man...you know that is a stretching of the truth...

[treetopovskaya]

So now we learn that the Peaceful Wons game plan for terrorisim is......BLAME BUSH! You fools that voted for this man should be pissed off as hell. WTF?

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns -- if any -- from the Bush Administration.

"The idea was that we'd show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could," says a staffer in the counsel's office. "We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we'd declassify it if necessary."

The White House, according to the source, is in full defensive spin mode. Other administration sources also say a flurry of memos were generated on December 26th, 27th, and 28th, which developed talking points about how Obama's decision to effectively shut down the Homeland Security Council (it was merged earlier this year into the National Security Council, run by National Security Adviser James Jones) had nothing to do with what Obama called a "catastrophic" failure on Christmas Day.

"This White House doesn't view the Northwest [Airlines] failure as one of national security, it's a political issue," says the White House source. "That's why Axelrod and Emanuel are driving the issue."

Axelrod, who has no foreign policy or national security experience beyond occasionally consulting with liberal or progressive candidates running for political office in foreign countries, has been actively participating in national security briefings from the beginning of the administration. He has also sat in on Obama's "war council" meetings, providing Obama with suggestions in both venues based on what he knows about polling and public opinion data, say several White House sources.

"[Axelrod] isn't sitting in the meetings telling the President, 'Do this because the polling shows that,'" says one source. "But we know that in less public settings, or on paper, David does provide guidance to the President that gives him added context to the recommendations and information our foreign policy and national security teams give him."

Axelrod's presence in the meetings has raised some eyebrows, as previous political advisers in the White House have typically not participated in such meetings. Bush Administration sources, for example, say that political adviser Karl Rove was not present at national security meetings.

It's a "Poitical Issue?"

This is insanity people. Fucking insane.

i never bought that obama was trying to keep the country calm by not being seen after the bombing attempt. what about giving the country some confidence???

when he did finally come out & address the matter it was all old news yet he was speaking like he was giving brand new info. HAHA! imo he looked like a dumb ass.

obama is one HUGE captain obvious!

[treetopovskaya]

Spy chief Blair faces scrutiny after incident--White House defends him in wake of botched attack

U.S. intelligence chief Dennis C. Blair faced tough questions about his future Wednesday as the Obama administration fended off criticism over the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Publicly, the White House was standing by Mr. Blair, the United States' top spymaster, who is responsible for coordinating intelligence gathering among 16 agencies, saying the four-star admiral had the full confidence of the president.

"This is not about one person or one agency," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Also Wednesday, it was revealed that a similar effort, starting in Somalia, to down a jetliner was thwarted at an earlier stage, and a pilots union complained that its members were not immediately told of the attack on Northwest Flight 253 - a practice the union said must change.

But Washington speculation was rife that Mr. Blair or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could be forced to resign after President Obama said Tuesday there had been a systemic failure by the country's security agencies to prevent the botched Christmas Day attack.

Ms. Napolitano has been lambasted by Republican critics, and in the media, for initially saying the air-security system worked, and then backpedaling and saying she had meant the system of beefing up measures worked after the incident had occurred.

A senior aide said Mr. Obama would seek accountability at the highest levels for the failure, a remark some observers took to mean that heads would roll.

Mr. Obama is under pressure from Republicans, who fault his administration for not preventing the attack and the president for keeping silent about it for three days while on vacation in Hawaii.

i don't think we can or should blame the attack on obama. there are a lot of holes... lots of people to blame.

obama shouldn't have kept silent (er... unseen) for DAYS after the attack tho. he needed to be seen & heard from publicly. jmf.

oh well... thank god no one was killed.

happy new year all! }:C)

[slucero]

I'm still trying to figure out how non-Citizens and enemy combatants are afford "Constitutional rights"....

[Saint John]

The motherfucker had "abdul" in his name! That should have alerted everyone ... unless the person in question was a pill-popping, former American Idol judge or a 7 foot former Los Angeles Laker, this cocksucker should have been searched, probed and poked somewhere between an alien abduction and Jodie Foster in The Accused.

[Lula]

i'm not defending the obama admin here as i'm not happy with the overall progress or lack there of.... this flight did not originate in the u.s. so how exactly is it the admin's fault? just a little clarification, please.

[steveo777]

I guess if you're gonna blow yourself up in the name of Allah, you might as well put the charge in your underwear. Those 72 virgins won't care that you have no dick and balls.

[strangegrey]

i'm not defending the obama admin here as i'm not happy with the overall progress or lack there of.... this flight did not originate in the u.s. so how exactly is it the admin's fault? just a little clarification, please.

Lula, a few things...we have the right to restrict air access from any country who's security is NOT up to TSA standards. If the originating airport failed, from a security standpoint, there was clearly an oversight issue. Oversight places the blame squarely in Obama's lap. Especially, considering that the TSA is an agency under exec utive oversight with an appointed administrator. Don't forget, all of the m-16 toting army solders at our major airports report to the commander in chief, as well.

Why is it that you liberals were hell bent to blame bush for every failing at the government level, prior to Obama's inauguration....but after his inauguration, you ever so innocently (ignorantly, more like) disclaim any fault by Obama for the same thing? Moreover, disclaim fault by obama and displace it to his predecessor.

Seriously....the double standard is getting old.

Just once, I'd like to hear Obama or his evaporating bubble of supporters accept the responsibility that they desperately sought over the past 8 years.

The man is the chief executive and commander in chief. He gets the fucking blame. It's what he wanted. His approval numbers are headed in the direction they are, partly because his ideas suck...and partly because he refuses to accept responsibility for them, instead blaming the guy before him, when they fail.

[steveo777]

i'm not defending the obama admin here as i'm not happy with the overall progress or lack there of.... this flight did not originate in the u.s. so how exactly is it the admin's fault? just a little clarification, please.

Lula, a few things...we have the right to restrict air access from any country who's security is NOT up to TSA standards. If the originating airport failed, from a security standpoint, there was clearly an oversight issue. Oversight places the blame squarely in Obama's lap. Especially, considering that the TSA is an agency under exec utive oversight with an appointed administrator. Don't forget, all of the m-16 toting army solders at our major airports report to the commander in chief, as well.

Why is it that you liberals were hell bent to blame bush for every failing at the government level, prior to Obama's inauguration....but after his inauguration, you ever so innocently (ignorantly, more like) disclaim any fault by Obama for the same thing? Moreover, disclaim fault by obama and displace it to his predecessor.

Seriously....the double standard is getting old.

Just once, I'd like to hear Obama or his evaporating bubble of supporters accept the responsibility that they desperately sought over the past 8 years.

The man is the chief executive and commander in chief. He gets the fucking blame. It's what he wanted. His approval numbers are headed in the direction they are, partly because his ideas suck...and partly because he refuses to accept responsibility for them, instead blaming the guy before him, when they fail.

You're right. It's Obama's national security team NOW and when they fail, he fails, plain and simple. You simply don't find holes in your security after they it is breached, then put bandaids on it. The systems should have been made iron clad at outset of the new administration. You can't blame this on Bush.

[treetopovskaya]

it's a shame the u.s. stopped further screenings by the dutch. and yes, now it is clear why this attempt is on the obama admin. i had a brain fart about other countries' security/our air space

no double standards, no blame or apology game. and with this logic it affirms that the bush admin are responsible for attacks that took place on september 11, not the clinton admin.

the difference is 9-11 hadn't happened yet. heightened security wasn't already (or supposed to be) in place. the ONLY reason we didn't have another horrible disaster is because the bomb didn't go off. why was this guy just allowed to board a plane? from what i have heard he basically just walked on... scary.

this just goes to show that we can't get too comfy. if people thought it was over after 9-11 those people are fooling themselves. i find it funny when i talk to some people & they are shocked when i tell them that i believe something worse than 9-11 will probably happen... & it won't matter who's in office... rep or dem... it doesn't matter. this isn't a party thing... it's an american thing.

my advice to obama would be to put homeland security on the front burner.

[RedWingFan]

Charles sums it up perfectly!

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.

[strangegrey]

Yeah, I think it's clear gang.

Obama fucked up.
The dolts he appointed below him fucked up.
And together with the brainwashed dolts that voted for him, they are all desperate to try to figure out a way to blame this all on bush.


Seriously. It's HIS presidency now. not Bush's!!!! Obama has had PLENTY of time to examine our national defenses upon taking office A FULL YEAR ago. Instead, he's spent the past year arguing that an ineffective health care system that wont go into effect for 4 years (but we'll get taxed for now) will help our economy.


I'm smelling a Jimmy Carter presidency. Seriously. There's so many fucking parallels with the 70s right now.



Too many brainwashed white idiots who fell prey to the bullshit that they were really responsible for slavery, thought they could cleanse their consciences by voting a black socialist into office....

Gonna backfire hard on the entire country....


Can't wait for Obama to try to blame the the next terrorist attack on Bush too......his numbers will go from the 40s to the fucking teens over night. He's going to leave office and need every inch of his secret service detail because he will be hated from coast to coast.


Yep, cleansing manufactured white guilt has its price...

[G.I.Jim]

I just think it would have been awesome if it HAD detonated... but only blew of his balls!

[treetopovskaya]

Charles sums it up perfectly!

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.

hands down my favorite person on fox. i wish he would get his own show. }:C)

[treetopovskaya]

telling it like it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR0xLpjsDsw

[donnaplease]

Charles sums it up perfectly!

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.

hands down my favorite person on fox. i wish he would get his own show. }:C)

Yeah, if you can stand to look at him or listen to his voice...

It was a great piece.

[donnaplease]

I guess one of the many things that concerns me is that with all of these breaches in security, I think eventually one of our leaders, if not Obama himself, will be a victim. As much as I disagree with his stance on this, and disapprove of most of what he's doing to our country, I do not want to see him assasinated by an 'alleged' man-made disaster-maker. I believe that what Krauthammer said is exactly right, that we will become much weaker in the eyes of those that want to harm us because of our response to this.

People may have thought/said that Bush was not smart enough to be president, a rebel, whatever, but I think there's one thing that he made clear to the world... he would do whatever was necessary to ensure that OUR people are as safe as possible. As commander-in-chief, and a REAL leader, IMO he did a great job at that. Granted, there are many around the world that resented him for it, which also had a price. I think he was known to say it was a price he was willing to pay to ensure our safety. That's what I respected most about him for the 8 years he was in office. The other striking difference I see between Bush & Obama is how Obama is constantly blaming the Bush/Cheney administration for things. Maybe I'm wrong (and if so I'm sure someone will point it out to me) but I don't really recall Bush blaming the administration before his for things that happened on his watch. Sure, there were lots of people who linked Clinton to the 9/11 attack, but I just don't recall Bush himself stepping in front of a camera saying "I inherited this mess from Clinton, it's all his fault" (instead what I recall is him not really answering directly, which may have been part of what made him seem less intelligent - we all agree that speaking in front of the camera really wasn't one of his stong points). While it certainly was an effective strategy for BO during the campaign, I just think it's time to hang up that line for good now. You wanted the job, you asked the Americans for it, and they gave it to you. Now STFU, stop whining about the conditions you got it in, and go to work. Make me feel safe, CIC, cause I'm not having a lot of confidence in that right now.

On another note, isn't funny how turnabout really is fair play? It's hilarious to watch people attack others for the same types of things that they had to defend just a few years ago. It's on both sides, no one party/group is innocent. I'm sure it's nothing new, I just never really paid much attention to politics or politicians themselves before 2000. It's a shame it has to be this way, whatever happened to 'two wrongs don't make a right'? Obviously it doesn't exist in the political arena.