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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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MI5 told US about pantybomber a year ago

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Gordon Brown’s office declares that the UK notified the US over a year ago about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s links to terrorism:


MI5 told US about Detroit bomber’s terror links ‘a year ago’
Britain told American intelligence agents more than a year ago that the Detroit bomber had links to extremists, according to Downing Street.

The prime minister’s spokesman indicated that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was named in a file of people based in Britain who had made contact with radical Muslim preachers. The file was said to have been sent to the US authorities in 2008.

But,

There is no suggestion that the US did not act on intelligence information that they received from the UK.”

Meanwhile at the US,

White House sources disputed the Downing Street account, stating that no such intelligence information was passed by Britain before the attempted Christmas Day attacks. The White House declined to respond officially.

Amazing that the Obama administration didn’t say that it’s all Bush’s fault since he was president then. But hey, President Obama briefed on Christmas terror threats days before Abdulmutallab incident

President Obama was briefed on potential holiday threats just three days before a Nigerian with Al Qaeda ties tried to bring down an airliner on Christmas Day, according to a report.
…
Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller were at the briefing.

Administrative officials admitted after the attempted attack that they had “bits and pieces” of information that if knitted together could have foiled the Christmas Day plot.

“Never mind!”

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Pantybomber may be allowed to cop a plea

In the Washington Post (h/t Big Government):

[John O. Brennan,] President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser on Sunday defended the administration’s decision to try in federal court the man charged with attempting to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day and indicated that he would be offered a plea agreement to persuade him to reveal what he knows about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen.

But, hey, Brennan says

Brennan also made the sharpest rebuttal to date to former vice president Richard B. Cheney’s charge last week that the administration is insufficiently aggressive against terrorism and does not appreciate that the nation is at war.

Because, after all, coping a plea is exactly what a country at war allows an enemy combatant to do, isn’t it?

Before you answer that question, ponder Lowballing Death: Keeping the Nothwest 253 Numbers Down, and bear in mind the reason it didn’t happen was because the detonator failed.

pantybomb

UPDATE, Tuesday 5 January
“This isn’t prosecuting a war. This is playing Law & Order.”

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Can’t prevent a terrorist attack? Subpoena a blogger, then!

Blogger gets a subpoena from the Department of Homeland Security for

All documents, emails, and/or faxsimile transmissions (sic) in your control possession or control concerning your receipt of TSA [Transportation Security Administration] Security Directive 1544-09-06 dated December 25, 2009.

Yes, the bloggers (h/t Instapundit) get subpoenas over security directives that were made public

as soon as soon as airlines and airports began implementing the directive—and that began before the bloggers posted their copies.

The document was not classified.

TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands names of sources

As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

The Lid reminds us that the TSA

accidentally posted their procedures guide on the net, and while the secret parts were blacked out, there are software programs that can help people with nefarious intent to see under those “black marks.”

Will the TSA supoena themselves next?

More at Blackfive.

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Coming right up: The bald, fat, naked scan

Yup, it was just a matter of time. The Dutch are now getting the machines for the bald, fat & naked scan:

Dutch to use full body scans for U.S. flights

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport will begin using body scanners on all passengers taking flights to the United States following the attempted terrorist attack on a U.S.-bound flight on Christmas Day, the Dutch interior minister said Wednesday.

The millimeter-wave body scanners will be in place in about three weeks, Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst told a news conference at The Hague.

Now, in addition to not being able to leave your seat for 1 hour prior to takeoff or landing, not having access to any of your personal property for that period of time, getting a full pat-down and luggage search (new rules), plus having to remove your shoes, surrender any containers with more than 3.5 ounces of fluid – including breast milk for your baby – and enduring miles-long lines at the airport (old rules), the airport staff gets a nice look at your privates.

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My joy is complete.

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Pantybomber Abdulmutallab’s al-Qaeda London connection

From the London Times:
Al-Qaeda ‘groomed Abdulmutallab in London’

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, advertised speakers including political figures, human rights lawyers and former Guantánamo detainees.

One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism, was billed as “a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad”.

Security sources are concerned that the picture emerging of his undergraduate years suggests that he was recruited by al-Qaeda in London. Security sources said that Islamist radicalisation was rife on university campuses, especially in London, and that college authorities had “a patchy record in facing up to the problem”. Previous anti-terrorist inquiries have uncovered evidence of extremists using political meetings and religious study circles to identify potential recruits.

There’s a pattern:

He is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners. Two others have been convicted of terrorist offences since 2007.

Well-to-do, educated, living in the West, and ripe for al-Qaeda indoctrination.

As it turns out, The CIA also knew about Abdulmutallab.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post had this paragraph,

Abdulmutallab remains in a Detroit area prison and, after initial debriefings by the FBI, has restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney, according to federal officials. Authorities are holding out hope that he will change his mind and cooperate with the probe, the officials said.

The paragraph has since been changed to

Abdulmutallab remains in a Detroit area prison and, after initial debriefings by the FBI, has restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney, according to federal officials.

Commenting on the deleted “Authorities are holding out hope that he will change his mind and cooperate with the probe, the officials said,” Marc Thiessen writes,

Holding out hope? Change his mind? Are they kidding? A terrorist like Abdulmutallab is not a common criminal who should be told he has the “right to remain silent.” He is an enemy combatant, who tried to commit an act of war against the United States of America. He possesses vital intelligence about the terrorist network that deployed him to attack America, and may be planning still more attacks. The Obama administration has a responsibility to make him give up that information. Treating him like a criminal is an abdication of that responsibility, and puts our nation at risk.

Something for President Obama to think about, whenever he gets around to returning from his Hawaiian vacation.

Speaking of the Obama vacation, maybe it’s time Obama stayed off the links.

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Handling problems with hope and change

Politico explains it (emphasis added):
Handling problems the Obama way:

There is a sense of déjà vu in the Obama administration’s response to the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. A by-now familiar pattern has been established for dealing with unexpected problems.

First, White House aides downplay the notion that something may have gone wrong on their part. While staying out of the spotlight, the president conveys his efforts to address the situation and his feelings about it through administration officials. After a few days, the White House concedes on the issue, and perhaps Barack Obama even steps out to address it.

And then there’s a terrorist attack:

But the fact that the issue now is a terrorist incident — albeit an unsuccessful one — makes the stakes much higher, and the White House’s usual approach more questionable. That this test of his leadership comes while he’s on vacation in tropical Hawaii further complicates things.

That’s not the only complication. Mark Steyn ponders the difference between an “alleged suspect” and an enemy combatant:

There’s a difference between an alleged suspect (which is what he is is the president’s fantasy) and an enemy combatant (which is what he is in reality). If this were a war, we would question him about who he hooked up with in Yemen, who did he meet with in London, and maybe get a lead on attacks to come. Instead, the authorities, having issued the Knickerbomber a multi-entry visa, having permitted him to board the plane, and having failed to detect his incendiary unwear, now allow him to lawyer up and ensure that we’ll never know who he knew in Yemen or anywhere else.

The thing is, you have enemy combatants in a war. Defining it so would certainly not fall within the definition of “unexpected problems”, would it?

It’s much easier to resort to damage control in five easy steps.

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Could it be that terrorist art therapy rehab summer camp doesn’t work?

Pantybomber terrorist has Gitmo alumni friends. Who’d have thunk it?

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.
Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007

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, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

I guess those crayons and coloring books weren’t enough:

One program gives the former detainees paints and crayons as part of the rehabilitation regimen.

Looks like the Saudis forgot to try graham crackers and a nap, for the full kindergarten experience.

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.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men’s own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Gitmo alumni hardcore terrorists, relased to Saudi Arabia, find their way to Yemen and resume leadership positions with al-Qaeda.

I’m shocked! shocked!

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