Now, an AP source claims that it's unlikely the men are involved in a plot.
The FBI probe of two men arrested in Amsterdam after suspicious items turned up in one of the men's luggage is finding they were probably not on a test run for a future terror attack, a U.S. official said Tuesday, casting doubt on earlier suggestions even as Dutch authorities held the pair on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.
The U.S. does not expect to charge the men, a law enforcement official said. The two men arrested in Amsterdam — both traveling to Yemen — did not know each other and were not traveling together, a U.S. government official said.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
...Earlier, U.S. officials said they were investigating whether the two men had been conducting a dry run for a potential terrorist attack. But as the probe evolved, officials said that appeared unlikely.
Both of the detained men missed flights to Dulles International Airport from Chicago, and United Airlines then booked them on the same flight to Amsterdam, the U.S. government official said. The men were sitting near each other on the flight, but not together.
The men were not on any U.S. terror watch lists, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN Tuesday.
When Customs officials discovered one passenger was not on the flight from Dulles to Dubai, they called the plane back to the gate and removed his luggage. It was then they discovered suspicious items in his bag, a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter, according to another U.S. official who had been briefed on the investigation.
Kip Hawley, the former Transportation Security administrator, said it is not unusual to find items like watches and cell phones bound together on flights to countries like Yemen.
...A U.S. official identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi. Al Soofi had a Detroit address. Alabama's director of homeland security, Jim Walker, said he had been living in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and working at a convenience store for about the last three months. He said there was nothing that al Soofi had done in Alabama that brought him to the attention of Alabama officials.
Al Soofi was questioned by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration as he went through security in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday on his way to Chicago, one of the officials said. He told the authorities he was carrying a lot of cash. Screeners found $7,000 on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money. It is not unusual for people to carry large amounts of cash when they travel to Third World countries.
Good grief.
How many more red flags are necessary?
It's common to travel with a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol? Really?
It's common to pack multiple cell phones and watches taped together? Really?
It's common to travel with a knife and BOX CUTTER? REALLY?
Nothing suspicious about that.
Yeah, right.
Al Soofi has a Detroit address but had been living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and worked at a convenience store for about the last three months.
"[T]here was nothing that al Soofi had done in Alabama that brought him to the attention of Alabama officials."
So what?
Who cares what authorities knew of him there?
What matters is what they know of him now -- on an international flight with $7,000 in his pocket, and some really disturbing items in his luggage.
Robert Gibbs says not to worry. The men weren't on terror watch lists.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who failed to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, wasn't on a watch list either.
The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was added to a catch-all terrorism-related database when his father, a Nigerian banker, reported concerns about his son's "radicalization and associations" to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a senior administration official said. Abdulmutallab was not placed on any watch list for flights into the United States, however, because there was "insufficient derogatory information available" to include him, another administration official said.
Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane," and Sharif Mobley are similar in that they're both natural-born U.S. citizens. They're both at war with their country.
A Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" was indicted for allegedly helping terror groups in attempts to carry out attacks in Europe and Asia.
Colleen R. LaRose, 46, is alleged to have recruited people, particularly women, who had the ability to travel in Europe to "wage violent jihad," the U.S. Department of Justice said. LaRose has been in federal custody since October. An indictment naming her was made public Tuesday.
LaRose allegedly wrote in an e-mail messages that it would be "an honor and great pleasure to die or kill for" Islamic holy war.
...U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy, at a news conference about LaRose, said the woman was "another very real danger lurking on the Internet" and the blonde, blue-eyed woman's alleged acts "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."
I wouldn't say Jihad Jane "shatters any lingering thought" about being able to spot a terrorist based on appearance. However, she reveals that being an Islamic radical, hating and plotting to kill infidels, is not just a passion embraced by young Arab men. Her existence doesn't change all that we know about likely terrorists, but she does point out the critical need to monitor anyone suspected of terrorist activity.
She's a perfect example of why the Patriot Act is so terribly important in safeguarding the nation.
Once again, Mr. Russ "I voted against the Patriot Act" Feingold is exposed as clueless and naive and dangerous.
He was raised in New Jersey, where he was on the high school wrestling team and earned a black belt in karate. Nearly a decade later, Sharif Mobley is under arrest in Yemen, suspected of being an al-Qaida member and accused of killing a guard in an attempt to break out of a hospital.
While some acquaintances were startled by the news out of the Middle East on Thursday, a former classmate said that Mobley had strong religious views in high school, often trying to convert friends to Islam, and became increasingly radical, especially after they graduated in 2002.
Roman Castro, 25, who did a tour with the Army in Iraq, said the last time he saw Mobley, about four years ago, Mobley yelled, "Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!"
The FBI, the State Department and other authorities said they were trying to gather information about Mobley. But the allegations appeared to illustrate a phenomenon U.S. intelligence officials have warned about: American Muslims becoming radicalized and joining terrorist movements overseas.
Mobley, a 26-year-old natural-born U.S. citizen, was identified by Yemeni officials as a Somali-American. Mobley moved to Yemen about two years ago, supposedly to learn Arabic and study Islam, a former neighbor said.
Before that, Mobley worked for several contractors at three nuclear power plants in New Jersey from 2002 to 2008, PSE&G Nuclear spokesman Joe Delmar said. Mobley carried supplies and did maintenance work at the plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek, and worked at other plants in the region as well.
He satisfied federal background checks as recently as 2008, Delmar said, adding that the plant is cooperating with authorities.
The fact that this radical worked at nuclear power plants is frightening.
If reports of Mobley's exhibition of radicalism are true, then it would appear that federal background checks are too lax.
Sharif Mobley had strong Muslim views as early as high school. But his old friend Roman Castro knew he had radicalized when he saw him about four years ago.
Castro, an Army veteran who did a tour in Iraq, said Mobley had only these words for him in a chance meeting: "Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!"
...U.S. officials fear that Yemen is becoming the next significant terrorist staging ground because of signs that lower-level al-Qaida operatives have been moving into the country, and the Pentagon has proposed spending $150 million to help Yemen battle insurgents.
The al-Qaida branch in Yemen was linked to the failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt. And Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood last year, had exchanged e-mails with an extremist cleric in Yemen.
Americans are valuable to terrorist groups, in part because they can travel without arousing much suspicion.
"The U.S. passport is the gold standard," said Fred Burton, a former U.S. counterintelligence agent who is now a vice president at STRATFOR, a global intelligence company in Austin, Texas.
Mobley graduated from high school in 2002 in the rural southern New Jersey town of Buena, and later lived in Philadelphia and Newark, Del. Castro said that in the past few years, Mobley organized religious pilgrimages to the Middle East for other Muslims.
Mobley's mother, Cynthia Mobley, told WMGM-TV in Atlantic City, N.J., that her son is "an excellent person who's never been in trouble" and "a good Muslim."
As his father, Charles Mobley, pulled out of the family's driveway on the way to see a lawyer Thursday, he said, "I can tell you this: He's no terrorist."
What's Mobley's mother's definition of "a good Muslim"? What's Mobley's father's definition of a terrorist?
If his friend, Roman Castro, could recognize the signs of Mobley's radicalization, then it's hard to believe that his mother and father didn't pick up any warning signals.
I think of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, and how he warned authorities about his son's radicalization. That's such a different response compared to the reaction of Mobley's parents.
Even though the warnings were ignored and Mutallab was not kept from boarding a plane on Christmas Day, with the plan to blow it up, at least his father did the right thing.
Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, made no secret of his radicalism, but all the signs that he was dangerous were dismissed by authorities.
That's what's scary -- ignoring the threats.
...Mike Drewniak, a spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said that his office had been told that Mobley was always supervised, caused no problems and was not believed to have breached security at the plants.
It's unclear whether Mobley worked at any of the region's other power plants. Joe Szafran, a spokesman for Exelon Corp., which owns nuclear plants at three facilities in eastern Pennsylvania, referred questions to the FBI.
An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a call, but a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that authorities don't believe Mobley's job at the nuclear plant was related to his activities in Yemen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Also, Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said there was no immediate connection between Mobley's activities or capture in Yemen and his work at the plants.
This nuclear plant stuff is really troubling.
I'm also troubled by the Obama administration's approach when it comes to dealing with terrorists. That's the scariest part of all.
With surprising candor, Blair, the nation's top intelligence official, explained that these officials were not deliberately excluded from the decisionmaking process in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Rather, he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, there was no process at all.
"I've been a part of the discussions which established this high-value interrogation unit, [HIG] which we started as part of the executive order after the decision to close Guantanamo. That unit was created for exactly this purpose -- to make a decision on whether a certain person who's detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means. We did not invoke the HIG in this case," he said. "We should have."
That's quite an admission. Blair wasn't finished (see the 51:00 mark of this video). "Frankly, we were thinking more of overseas people and, duh!, we didn't put it then. That's what we will do now. And so we need to make those decisions more carefully. I was not consulted and the decision was made on the scene. It seemed logical to the people there but it should have been taken using this HIG format at a higher level."
When Blair said "Duh," he literally gave himself a slap on the forehead, as if to say, "I cannot believe we were that stupid." It was an appropriate gesture.
Unbelievable.
Obama's EXECUTIVE ORDER to close Guantanamo set in motion a dangerous, potentially deadly breakdown in protecting Americans.
This is what the change Obama promised has wrought.
Greg Gutfeld uses the term "Arrogant Lax" to describe the attitude that Obama brought to the White House. He established that atmosphere and it permeates his administration. As a result, Obama is responsible for this "Arrogant Lax" that is displayed by every member of his team.
So as the underpants bomber is about to get arraigned, a new Rasmussen Poll reveals that nearly 60 percent favor ethnic profiling for airline security. This, on the heels of President Obama finally accepting responsibility for the major F-up on Christmas Day. Our Prez admitted that the “buck” stopped with him, and he’s right: it was his fault. Completely. And he deserves the full heaping pile of blame that comes with it.
Remember, during the 2008 campaign, he rarely mentioned terror – because “change” meant so much more than safety. And it was then that Obama revealed two major blind spots: one that missed the greatest threat to America in recent times, and another that missed the biggest threat to his own presidency. See, any idiot – and I mean myself, specifically – could have told him that even if health care reform or global warming rank as priorities in your life, they all slide off the front pages once a terror attack takes place. Your concerns become piffle when a plane goes down.
And this grave error in prioritization didn’t just mar the candidate: the attitude trickled down to every single hire – including a Homeland Security Chief who disdained the word “terror,” and who only now is beginning to see how determined al qaeda is in ending our lives. But in the end, it was Obama himself who created an atmosphere that one might describe as “Arrogant Lax,” so it’s no surprise it wasn’t just the underwear bomber caught with his pants down.
The only thing we have to fear is NOT fear itself.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think if you look back over the last two weeks, what is so surprising and so unsettling is not the individual lapses, the missed information here and there. I think it's the demeanor and the language of the president, a sense people have that he's disconnected.
He doesn't either want to or grasp the nature of the depth of the threat.
The way he waits three days after the attack to say anything. He reacts, you know, casually, dressed looking as if he resents being taken off the golf course. He speaks about as if he's giving a police report, speaks about the incident involving a 'suspect,' an 'alleged attack.' He speaks about him as an isolated extremist, as if this is a, you know, a disgruntled postal worker attacking someone in the United States, the sense that it's not part of a larger effort.
And it took him the fifth attempt in the remarks he made yesterday to actually use the term 'We are at war,' and to make it sound as if he believes it. But when it takes a fifth attempt, and your initial reaction, which is your truest reaction, is a way of looking at it in a benign and detached way, it's extremely unsettling. And that's why people are worried.
The mistakes are made. The Bush administration allowed the attack of Richard Reid, which we were lucky it didn't actually succeed, it can happen to any administration, a lapse here and there. But a disconnected and detached and affectless president is rather disturbing. And that's why I think the reaction is extremely unsettled.
It is disturbing.
It's frightening. I feel extremely uneasy about Obama and his ability to successfully manage the War on Terror.
I have no confidence in Obama and his administration to wage this war.
I have repeatedly made it clear -- in public with the American people, and in private with my national security team -- that I will hold my staff, our agencies and the people in them accountable when they fail to perform their responsibilities at the highest levels.
Now, at this stage in the review process it appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies. That's why, in addition to the corrective efforts that I've ordered, I've directed agency heads to establish internal accountability reviews, and directed my national security staff to monitor their efforts. We will measure progress. And John Brennan will report back to me within 30 days and on a regular basis after that. All of these agencies -- and their leaders -- are responsible for implementing these reforms. And all will be held accountable if they don't.
Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me. As President, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility.
Over the past two weeks, we've been reminded again of the challenge we face in protecting our country against a foe that is bent on our destruction. And while passions and politics can often obscure the hard work before us, let's be clear about what this moment demands. We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, and that is plotting to strike us again. And we will do whatever it takes to defeat them.
It's Obama's job to pass out blame when it's deserved, but he's not interested.
That's nuts.
He says he's demanding accountability, but then he says he's not going to engage in finger pointing.
He says the buck stops with him. Nothing could be emptier than that. A year into his presidency we've learned Obama will do anything and say anything to dodge the buck.
Obama accepts no blame.
No need to keep score of his many lies and failures. That's pointless. Obama's presidency is an endless string of mulligans.
Obama is so damn lucky that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed, too; but Obama's luck is going to run out.
He needs to stop playing these games. War isn't a game.
It's been revealed that Michael Leiter, National Counterterrorism Center Director, skied while "suspect" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underpants burned.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter did not cut short his holiday ski trip when he learned of the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
Leiter, who is in charge of analyzing terror threats, didn't return to his office post in McLean, Va., until several days after the holiday, a decision that has raised some eyebrows in the intelligence community.
"People have been grumbling that he didn't let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation," a source told the Daily News.
The NCTC, the government's primary organization for analyzing all terrorism intelligence, has been roundly criticized for failing to "connect the dots" on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with plotting to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it flew from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
Why should Leiter be expected to leave the slopes?
Janet Napolitano announced that all was well. She said the "system has worked really very, very smoothly."
Everything was under control.
Obama didn't make any public statements about the attempted attack for days. He stayed on the basketball court and the golf course and romped in the surf.
There was absolutely no sense of urgency.
Why should Leiter have been expected to cut short his ski trip just became an alleged crime occurred?
Obama's National Security Adviser, General James Jones, seems to be trying to soften the blow Americans will experience when they read the report on the Christmas Day Flight 253 bombing attempt by TERRORIST Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
He tells USA Today that citizens will experience a "certain shock" when they learn about the failures that nearly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people aboard the plane.
So how is Obama reacting to this attack on the United States?
He's seeing to it that TERRORIST Abdulmutallab is given a lawyer and granted the protection of the U.S. Constitution.
Do you know what would really be shocking?
It would be shocking for Obama to declare Abdulmutallab to be what he is -- a soldier engaged in battle against the United States. It would be shocking for Obama to call Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up that plane an act of war.
This should be a wake-up call. Obama's approach to handling the terrorist threat is naive and will get people killed.
Remarks by the President on Security Reviews Grand Foyer
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I just concluded a meeting with members of my national security team, including those from our intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement agencies involved in the security reviews that I ordered after the failed attack on Christmas Day.
I called these leaders to the White House because we face a challenge of the utmost urgency. As we saw on Christmas, al Qaeda and its extremist allies will stop at nothing in their efforts to kill Americans. And we are determined not only to thwart those plans, but to disrupt, dismantle and defeat their networks once and for all.
Indeed, over the past year, we've taken the fight to al Qaeda and its allies wherever they plot and train, be it in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Yemen and Somalia, or in other countries around the world.
Here at home, our intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement agencies have worked together with considerable success: gathering intelligence, stitching it together, and making arrests -- from Denver to Texas, from Illinois to New York -- disrupting plots and saving American lives. And these successes have not come without a price, as we saw last week in the loss of our courageous CIA officers in Afghanistan.
But when a suspected terrorist is able to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day the system has failed in a potentially disastrous way. And it's my responsibility to find out why, and to correct that failure so that we can prevent such attacks in the future.
And that's why, shortly after the attempted bombing over Detroit, I ordered two reviews. I directed Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to review aviation screening, technology and procedures. She briefed me on her initial findings today, and I'm pleased that this review is drawing on the best science and technology, including the expertise of Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and his department.
I also directed my counterterrorism and homeland security advisor John Brennan to lead a thorough review into our terrorist watch-listing system so we can fix what went wrong. As we discussed today, this ongoing review continues to reveal more about the human and systemic failures that almost cost nearly 300 lives. We will make a summary of this preliminary report public within the next few days, but let me share some of what we know so far.
As I described over the weekend, elements of our intelligence community knew that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had traveled to Yemen and joined up with extremists there. It now turns out that our intelligence community knew of other red flags -- that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula sought to strike not only American targets in Yemen, but the United States itself. And we had information that this group was working with an individual who was known -- who we now know was in fact the individual involved in the Christmas attack.
The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the "no fly" list.
In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had. The information was there. Agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it. And our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together.
Now, I will accept that intelligence, by its nature, is imperfect, but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged. That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it. Time and again, we've learned that quickly piecing together information and taking swift action is critical to staying one step ahead of a nimble adversary.
So we have to do better -- and we will do better. And we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line. So I made it clear today to my team: I want our initial reviews completed this week. I want specific recommendations for corrective actions to fix what went wrong. I want those reforms implemented immediately, so that this doesn't happen again and so we can prevent future attacks. And I know that every member of my team that I met with today understands the urgency of getting this right. And I appreciate that each of them took responsibility for the shortfalls within their own agencies.
Immediately after the attack, I ordered concrete steps to protect the American people: new screening and security for all flights, domestic and international; more explosive detection teams at airports; more air marshals on flights; and deepening cooperation with international partners.
In recent days, we've taken additional steps to improve security. Counterterrorism officials have reviewed and updated our terrorist watch list system, including adding more individuals to the "no fly" list. And while our review has found that our watch-listing system is not broken, the failure to add Abdulmutallab to the "no fly" list shows that this system needs to be strengthened.
The State Department is now requiring embassies and consulates to include current visa information in their warning on individuals with terrorist or suspected terrorist connections. As of yesterday, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is requiring enhanced screening for passengers flying into the United States from, or flying through, nations on our list of state sponsors of terrorism, or other countries of interest. And in the days ahead, I will announce further steps to disrupt attacks, including better integration of information and enhanced passenger screening for air travel.
Finally, some have suggested that the events on Christmas Day should cause us to revisit the decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. So let me be clear. It was always our intent to transfer detainees to other countries only under conditions that provide assurances that our security is being protected.
With respect to Yemen in particular, there's an ongoing security situation which we have been confronting for some time, along with our Yemeni partner. Given the unsettled situation, I've spoken to the Attorney General and we've agreed that we will not be transferring additional detainees back to Yemen at this time.
But make no mistake: We will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al Qaeda. In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. And, as I've always said, we will do so -- we will close the prison in a manner that keeps the American people safe and secure.
Our reviews -- and the steps that we've taken and will continue to take -- go to the heart of the kind of intelligence and homeland security we need in the 21st century. Just as al Qaeda and its allies are constantly evolving and adapting their efforts to strike us, we have to constantly adapt and evolve to defeat them, because as we saw on Christmas, the margin for error is slim and the consequences of failure can be catastrophic.
As these violent extremists pursue new havens, we intend to target al Qaeda wherever they take root, forging new partnerships to deny them sanctuary, as we are doing currently with the government in Yemen. As our adversaries seek new recruits, we'll constantly review and rapidly update our intelligence and our institutions. As they refine our tactics, we'll enhance our defenses, including smarter screening and security at airports, and investing in the technologies that might have detected the kind of explosives used on Christmas.
In short, we need our intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement systems -- and the people in them -- to be accountable and to work as intended: collecting, sharing, integrating, analyzing, and acting on intelligence as quickly and effectively as possible to save innocent lives -- not just most of the time, but all the time. That's what the American people deserve. As President, that's exactly what I will demand.
Thank you very much.
I don't trust Obama to keep us safe.
He's trying to sound tough, but he's not. He's not on a war footing.
Obama should call in McGruff the Crime Dog to get his message across. Obama wants to take a bite out of crime, not fight a war.
"This was a screw up that could have been disastrous. We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it," a White House official says in the Situation Room the President said.
No, this wasn't a screw up.
This was a massive, inexcusable breakdown.
Obama thought he could hop around the globe and bow a few times and work his magic. I think Obama and his flunkies were naive enough to believe that our enemies hated President Bush and Republicans and conservatives, but would embrace Obama's America.
That's screwed up. That way of thinking will be disastrous.
THIS ISN'T ABOUT GITMO. THIS ISN'T ABOUT BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLICIES.
Good grief.
He should axe Janet Napolitano. She's a screw up. Obama needs to take concrete action. Going out before the cameras and speaking for a little less than nine minutes doesn't cut it. Obama's words are empty.
Al Qaeda knows it. All our enemies know it.
I hope that more Americans are beginning to understand it, too.
Obama and the Democrats are in way over their heads.
I think Obama should meet with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice. They kept us safe following 9/11.
Another option would be for Obama to travel to Yemen and bow a few times.
Obama tried to get it right on Tuesday, but he didn't.
On Monday, when Obama finally got around to addressing the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253, Obama sounded very detached and interested in getting back to the golf course. He was robotic, sounding like a bad lawyer rather than an effective war president and leader of the Free World.
Inexcusably, the White House hasn't posted the transcript of Obama's Tuesday remarks yet, so here's the transcript as provided by the Washington Post: (Note: As of December 30, 6:30 PM CT, the transcript is STILL not posted on the White House website.)
OBAMA: Good morning. Yesterday, I updated the American people on the immediate steps we took, the increased screening and security of air travel to keep our country safe in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.
And I announced two reviews, a review of our terrorist watch list system and a review of our air travel screening so we can find out what went wrong, fix it, and prevent future attacks. Those reviews began on Sunday and are now underway.
Earlier today, I issued the former guidelines for those reviews and directed the preliminary findings be provided to the White House by this Thursday. It's essential that we diagnose the problems quickly and deal with them immediately.
Now, the more comprehensive formal reviews and recommendations for improvement will be completed in the coming weeks. And I'm committed to working with Congress and our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security communities to take all necessary steps to protect the country.
I wanted to speak to the American people again today, because some of this preliminary information that has surfaced in the last 24 hours raises some serious concerns. It's been widely reported that the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned U.S. officials in Africa about his son's extremist views.
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.
There appears to be other deficiencies, as well. Even without this one report, there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together.
We've achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks, but it's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.
Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence, and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.
Now, the professionalism of the men and women in our intelligence, counterterrorism, and law enforcement, and homeland security communities is extraordinary. They are some of the most hard-working, most dedicated Americans that I've ever met. In pursuit of our security here at home, they risk their lives day in, day out in this country and around the world. Few Americans see their work, but all Americans are safer because of their successes.
They have targeted and taken out violent extremists. They have disrupted plots and saved countless American lives. They are making real and daily progress in our mission to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaida and other extremist networks around the world. And for this, every American owes them a profound and lasting debt of gratitude. Moreover, as Secretary Napolitano has said, once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, after his attempt, it's clear that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems, and our aviation security took all appropriate actions.
But what's also clear is this: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.
The reviews I've ordered will surely tell us more, but what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.
I fully understand that even when every person charged with ensuring our security does what they are trained to do, even when every system works exactly as intended, there's still no 100 percent guarantee of success. Yet this should only compel us to work even harder, to be even more innovative and relentless in our efforts.
As president, I will do everything in my power to support the men and women in intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security to make sure they've got the tools and resources they need to keep America safe, but it's also my job to ensure that our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security systems and the people in them are working effectively and held accountable. I intend to fulfill that responsibility and insist on accountability at every level.
That's the spirit guiding our reviews into the attempted attack on Christmas Day. That's the spirit that will guide all our efforts in the days and years ahead. Thank you very much.
Michael Goldfarb, The Weekly Standard, points out some oddities and inconsistencies in Obama's Tuesday remarks. Goldfarb also raises some pressing questions.
Per the Washington Post, administration officials only got information indicating a "linkage" with al Qaeda on Monday night. But the media were already reporting those ties on Monday -- al Qaeda had claimed responsibility by Monday morning! Was it just that nobody wanted to disrupt the Obama's Christmas vacation? How could Obama have been the last to know?
Again per the Washington Post, Obama only learned about the contact between the CIA and the Nigerian's father on Tuesday morning in a conference call National Security Adviser Jim Jones, his top counterterrorism expert John Brennan, and deputy National Security adviser Tom Donilon. Why are the peole mentioned as being on the conference call all White House? Has the president spoken with Panetta since Friday? With Blair?
If yesterday Obama really didn’t know any or most of what’s now coming out -- which was 72 hours after the incident -- even though parts of the IC must have known...isn’t that a little scary?
And didn't Obama at least know enough yesterday to know that he wasn't an "isolated extremist," as he told reporters in Hawaii in his first attempt to set the record straight on the threat this attack posed?
Why was the Nigerian turned over to the criminal justice system immediately? Did the administration simply prefer a nice, straightforward, uncomplicated trial to culling whatever intelligence this guy has to offer?
As late as Sunday, the FBI was still telling reporters that they were operating on the assumption that the Nigerian had "acted alone." Obviously there were numerous elements in the intelligence community that knew better at that point. Why was the FBI still so completely out of the loop more than 24 hours after the attack?
Who are the two officials who told CNN that we are now considering retaliatory strikes against Yemen in conjunction with Yemeni leaders? Is that even remotely defensible -- to leak information about the planning of sensitive military planning? Were these two career guys or are they political? And if the leaders of the U.S. and Yemen are joining together (in a publically private agreement) to engage in lethal military strikes killing members of Al Qaeda -- removing them from society and their families without benefit of due process or humane considerations -- how would closing Gitmo remove the stain of injustice from America?
Those strikes could include Alwaki, who is an American citizen. If we kill him -- without even getting a warrant! -- does Obama get a pass from the left? From the media? From young Muslims whose seething anger at the injustice of Gitmo compels so many to try and kill American civilians?
Is the Obama administration seriously still considering sending some 90 Yemeni detainees now being held at Gitmo back to their country of origin, where al Qaeda are apparently running around with impunity?
Obama and his administration are really screwing this up royally.
Obviously, they realize that they have mishandled the matter. It was a major mistake for Obama to make no public comments on the attempted attack for three days.
His first statement was sloppy, and his second one wasn't much better. Will there be a third? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Is that it?
What was really sleazy, and so typical of Obama, was the way Obama shamelessly tried to blame the Bush administration for the failures that resulted in this very close call.
There now are three things in life that are certain: Death, Taxes, and It's Bush's fault.
"[I]t's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have."
That's disgusting.
No, what's clear is that Obama is too wimpy to man up and take responsibility. The buck stops with him, but he wants to slither his way out of that reality.
I can't stand the way this is all playing out.
Obama can't get it right for the simple reason that he's fundamentally wrong in his approach to address terrorism.
We're at war. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab isn't a criminal. He's an enemy of the United States. He's not a "suspect," as Obama said on Monday and again on Tuesday.
Soldiers, like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aren't "suspects."
Here's the problem: Obama doesn't want to be George W. Bush. But he really doesn't have a choice, unless he wants to put the lives of Americans at risk.
According to the Washington Post, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (aka "Farouk1986") "turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship, writing in an online forum that he was 'lonely; and had 'never found a true Muslim friend.'"
The Washington Post reviewed 300 online postings under the name "farouk1986" (a combination of Abdulmutallab's middle name and birth year). The postings mused openly about love and marriage, his college ambitions and angst over standardized testing, as well as his inner struggle as a devout Muslim between liberalism and extremism. In often-intimate writings, posted between 2005 and 2007, he sought friends online, through Facebook and in Islamic chat rooms: "My name is Umar but you can call me Farouk." He often invited readers to "have your say" and once wrote, "May Allah reward you for reading and reward you more for helping."
A U.S. government official said late Monday that federal intelligence officials were reviewing the online postings but had not independently confirmed their authenticity.
Many of the biographical details in the writings, however, match up with facts already known about Abdulmutallab.
Farouk1986 wrote of being born in 1986 and having attended an elite British boarding school in Togo, where many of his classmates were British expatriates and students from around West Africa.
The forum Abdulmutallab turned to for "counseling and companionship" was gawaher.com.
Here's the site's description and invitation to potential users:
Welcome to the Islamic Forum
This forum is ranked #1 by Google, thanks to its friendly community, quality posts and rich info. We always welcome new members, regardless of their religion or race. We'll happily answer all your questions about Islam and why its the perfect way of life. Our sections cover a vast variety of topics. So, what do you want to discuss today?
What a perfect forum for a "good" Muslim to alleviate loneliness!
More from the Washington Post:
All of the postings are on the Islamic Forum Web site (http://www.gawaher.com), which uses a commercially available chat-forum software called IP.Board that automatically assigns dates to users' posts as they are created. Many of Farouk1986's postings drew comments from other forum members on the day they were written.
...In a June 2005 posting, Farouk1986 wrote that he was in Yemen for a three-month Arabic course, saying that "it is just great." He described how many British people and Americans were in Sanaa, gushing about the capital's shopping and global cuisine (including, he noted, Pizza Hut and KFC).
...On Facebook, Abdulmutallab's profile features a photo of him smiling, standing alongside two friends and wearing a sharp-looking pink polo shirt and sunglasses. He has 287 friends.
Fabrizio Cavallo Marincola, 22, who studied with Abdulmutallab at University College London, said Abdulmutallab graduated in May 2008 and showed no signs of radicalization or of links to al-Qaeda. "He always did the bare minimum of work," Marincola said of his classmate, who he said was nicknamed "Biggie."
"When we were studying, he always would go off to pray," Marincola continued. "He was pretty quiet and didn't socialize much or have a girlfriend that I knew of."
Farouk1986 says he is from Nigeria, the home nation of the man who allegedly tried to bring down the Detroit-bound flight. And the suspect's father says Abdulmutallab broke off ties with the family.
Those posts, beginning in 2005, show a teenager looking for a new life outside his boarding school and wealthy Nigerian family.
Most of all, they paint a portrait of someone who seems lost and needs someone to hear him.
The postings seem hastily written and are replete with spelling and grammar errors. In one, on Jan 28. 2005, he wrote: "i am in a situation where i do not have a friend, i have no one to speak too, no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed and lonely. i do not know what to do."
The posts were made to an Islamic bulletin board called Gawaher, which literally translates from Arabic as "gems" or "jewels," but can also be read as "essence" or "spirit."
Poor baby. Poor lonely mixed-up kid.
GIVE ME A BREAK!
He wanted to kill innocents. He wanted to blow up a plane.
Mr. Abdulmutallab is believed to have posted hundreds of messages on the Islamic Forum website, www.gawahar.com, under the handle “farouk1986,” on topics ranging from European soccer leagues to being lonely.
“When I first came here, I thought I was the only lonely soul,” Farouk1986 wrote on Jan. 29, 2005.
“But after, I realized that almost every good Muslim gets lonely at some point,” he continues. “This I believe is because really there are many Muslims but most are just Muslims by name who do not practice the deen earnestly, leaving the few good Muslims alone. So it’s a test we have to strive and go through for the sake of Allah.”
Other posts from the same period are more carefree and reflect the common concerns of his peers. Farouk1986 wrote passionately about English soccer teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool. Like many young adults, he was concerned with preparing for university studies. He said he hoped to study engineering at Stanford University in California, and that he believed he had the grades – straight As – to gain admission. He was less pleased with his SAT scores, but thought they would be good enough.
“I tried the SAT. It was a disaster!!!” he wrote in 2005. “I didn't practice well and I got 1200. Although I checked the prospectuses, and my SAT grades are in bound with the accepted grade boundary in Caltech, Stanford and Berkeley, so I didn't bother doing more SAT tests.”
Farouk1986 also mentioned that he wouldn’t need a scholarship to attend university, perhaps a reference to his family’s wealth. Abdulmutallab’s father is a wealthy Nigerian banker, who alerted US authorities to his son’s increasingly militant views.
Farouk1986 also responded to others’ posts to offer advice on topics ranging from soccer stadiums to traveling to the Egyptian pyramids. To a fellow student thinking about changing his course of study, he wrote: “I don’t know exactly the situation, but the last thing you want to do is start business information systems and find it hard as well or realize you don’t like it.”
Apparently, this lonely "good" Muslim found meaning in Islamic extremism and death and carrying explosives in his underwear.
In addition to "Farouk1986," there was posting by "Farouk" on the website.
An anonymous user who identified himself as simply Farouk posted in the counseling section of the forum’s website, though there’s no way of knowing if this is the same person as “farouk1986.” One undated posting by this Farouk reads: “I won’t go into too much details about me [sic] fantasy, but basically they are jihad fantasies [sic]. I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the Muslims will win insha Allah and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!”
When asked by another user if they are “fantastical dreams” or plans, Farouk replied: “I don't know about you but for me, I believe insha Allah I will realize my goals and dreams, by the power and might of Allah, out of his mercy, if it is best. … You just pray for me Okay. Pray for me hard.”
I suppose when Abdulmutallab gets his day in court, and I'm sure Obama will make sure that he does, his legal team will use the "sad, mixed-up kid crying out for help" defense.
It seems like the Left has been whining about detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay forever.
Closing Gitmo was so high on the radical Leftists' to-do list that Obama issued an executive order dealing with the closure of the detention facility about 48 hours into his presidential term, on January 22, 2009.
Leftists have painted Gitmo as the place where the U.S. violates human rights, American policy at its worst. They clamored for the release of detainees. What a mistake!
ABC reports that two of the al Qaeda leaders responsible for plotting the Flight 253 attack had been held at Gitmo but were released in 2007. After their release, they entered a rehab program and worked with paints and crayons.
Apparently, the art therapy failed.
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.
...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.
"ART THERAPY REHABILITATION PROGRAM"?
Good grief.
Obviously, releasing them was a disaster.
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 of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.
In its Monday statement claiming responsibility for the Northwest bombing, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab a "hero" and a "martyr" and lauded him for beating U.S. intelligence.
The two-page written claim included a photo of Abdulmutallab and boasted of Al Qaeda's success in designing "advanced explosive packages" that can pass through airport screening undetected.
The statement also asks for attacks upon Americans in the Arabian peninsula, and promises further attacks on the American people.
Why do these Islamic extremists still hate us?
I thought Obama's global apology tour did away with all those bad feelings. It was supposed to be a new era led by a new president. Obama was going to change the world. Why aren't the terrorists cooperating? Why aren't they accepting Obama as the savior and peacemaker he and his followers believe that he is?
That hope of turning the world around via Obama the transcendent one has turned out to be crap.
..."The so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke," a U.S. diplomat said in describing the Saudi efforts with released Guantanamo detainees.
Saudi officials concede its program has had its "failures" but insist that, overall, the effort has helped return potential terrorists to a meaningful life.
One program gives the former detainees paints and crayons as part of the rehabilitation regimen.
PAINTS AND CRAYONS?
That's insane.
How many Gitmo detainees have we released that are actively plotting against us now or preparing to carry out attacks?
Those we haven't released should be on their way to Thomson, Illinois soon.
God help us.
The pressure from the Left to release these terrorists and grant them the rights and protections of the U.S. Constitution has been relentless. We know that the consequences of releasing detainees could prove to be deadly, as was almost the case on Christmas Day.
FINALLY, Obama took some time away from his vacation to get in front of a camera and address the American people about the Flight 253 terrorist attack that was foiled, absolutely no thanks to him.
Good morning, everybody. I wanted to take just a few minutes to update the American people on the attempted terrorist attack that occurred on Christmas Day and the steps we're taking to ensure the safety and security of the country.
The investigation's ongoing. And I spoke again this morning with Attorney General Eric Holder, the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, and my counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, John Brennan. I asked them to keep -- continue monitoring the situation to keep the American people and members of Congress informed.
Here's what we know so far: On Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire.
Thanks to the quick and heroic actions of passengers and crew, the suspect was immediately subdued, the fire was put out, and the plane landed safely. The suspect is now in custody and has been charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.
A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism, and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.
Now, this was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland. Had the suspect succeeded in bringing down that plane, it could have killed nearly 300 passengers and crew, innocent civilians preparing to celebrate the holidays with their families and friends.
The American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season.
Since I was first notified of this incident, I've ordered the following actions to be taken to protect the American people and to secure air travel.
First, I directed that we take immediate steps to ensure the safety of the traveling public. We made sure that all flights still in the air were secure and could land safely. We immediately enhanced screening and security procedures for all flights, domestic and international. We added federal air marshals to flights entering and leaving the United States. And we're working closely in this country, federal, state and local law enforcement, with our international partners.
Second, I've ordered two important reviews, because it's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident and take the necessary measures to prevent future acts of terrorism.
The first review involves our watch list system, which our government has had in place for many years to identify known and suspected terrorists so that we can prevent their entry into the United States. Apparently the suspect in the Christmas incident was in this system, but not on a watch list, such as the so-called no-fly list. So I have ordered a thorough review, not only of how information related to the subject was handled, but of the overall watch list system and how it can be strengthened.
The second review will examine all screening policies, technologies and procedures related to air travel. We need to determine just how the suspect was able to bring dangerous explosives aboard an aircraft and what additional steps we can take to thwart future attacks.
Third, I've directed my national security team to keep up the pressure on those who would attack our country. We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will more -- do more than simply strengthen our defenses. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland.
Finally, the American people should remain vigilant, but also be confident. Those plotting against us seek not only to undermine our security, but also the open society and the values that we cherish as Americans. This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.
As a nation, we will do everything in our power to protect our country. As Americans, we will never give in to fear or division. We will be guided by our hopes, our unity, and our deeply held values. That's who we are as Americans; that's what our brave men and women in uniform are standing up for as they spend the holidays in harm's way. And we will continue to do everything that we can to keep America safe in the new year and beyond.
Before I leave, let me also briefly address the events that have taken place over the last few days in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens, which has apparently resulted in detentions, injuries, and even death.
For months, the Iranian people have sought nothing more than to exercise their universal rights. Each time they have done so, they have been met with the iron fist of brutality, even on solemn occasions and holy days. And each time that has happened, the world has watched with deep admiration for the courage and the conviction of the Iranian people who are part of Iran's great and enduring civilization.
What's taking place within Iran is not about the United States or any other country. It's about the Iranian people and their aspirations for justice and a better life for themselves. And the decision of Iran's leaders to govern through fear and tyranny will not succeed in making those aspirations go away.
As I said in Oslo, it's telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation.
Along with all free nations, the United States stands with those who seek their universal rights. We call upon the Iranian government to abide by the international obligations that it has to respect the rights of its own people.
We call for the immediate release of all who have been unjustly detained within Iran. We will continue to bear witness to the extraordinary events that are taking place there. And I'm confident that history will be on the side of those who seek justice.
Thank you very much, everybody. And Happy New Year.
Obama looked tired and sounded weak, very unpresidential. It was as if he had been forced to make the statement against his will.
His performance didn't exactly instill confidence.
Obama doesn't seem to realize that his duties as president come first, not vacation.
It was a mistake for him to wait to address the attempted attack. He seems so disconnected and out of touch.
Just as it took forever for Obama to come to a decision on Afghanistan, his reaction time in this case was inexcusably slow. By not making a statement sooner, Obama gave the appearance that this wasn't important enough for him to interrupt his vacation.
Big mistake.
It just adds to the impression that Obama is weak on terror. He doesn't get it.
The secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, said Monday that the thwarted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner represented a failure of the nation’s aviation security system, not the success she and other administration officials had portrayed in comments over the weekend.
Ms. Napolitano said Monday on NBC’S “Today” that her remark the day before — “the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days” — had been taken out of context. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she said. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”
As criticism mounted that security lapses had led to a brush with disaster on the Christmas holiday, President Obama ordered a review on Sunday of the two major planks of the aviation security system — watch lists and detection equipment at airport checkpoints. Some members of Congress urgently questioned why, more than eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks, security measures could not keep makeshift bombs off airliners.
The White House press office said early Monday that President Obama would make a statement within hours from the Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii.
Yeah, sure, taken out of context, blah, blah, blah.
The reality is Obama and his administration are frighteningly naive when it comes to terrorism.
For years, the Democrats mercilessly bashed the Bush administration for doing what needed to be done to protect us from terrorist attacks.
Obama can't blame George W. Bush for what happened on Christmas Day on Flight 253.
What Obama should do is apologize to the American people for this potentially disastrous lapse. He should thank God for the hero citizens on that plane.
A Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device aboard a trans-Atlantic Northwest Airlines flight as the plane prepared to land in Detroit on Friday, in an incident the United States believes was “an attempted act of terrorism,” according to a White House official who declined to be identified.
The device, described by officials as a mixture of powder and liquid, failed to fully detonate. Passengers on the plane described a series of pops that sounded like firecrackers.
Federal officials said the man wanted to bring the plane down.
...It was unclear how the man, identified by federal officials as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, managed to get the explosive on the plane, an Airbus A330 wide-body jet carrying 278 passengers that departed from Amsterdam with passengers who had originated in Nigeria. A senior administration official said that the government did not yet know whether the man had had the capacity to take down the plane.
“We’re trying to ascertain exactly what he had and what he thought he was doing, but our sense is he wanted to wreak some havoc here and was attempting to do just that,” the official said. “Whether at the end of the day he had the ability to do that is what I think we’ll be able to pull together over the next several days as we investigate this.”
A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that the materials Mr. Abdulmutallab had on him were “more incendiary than explosive,” and that he had tried to ignite them to cause a fire as the airliner was approaching Detroit.
Mr. Abdulmutallab told law enforcement authorities, the official said, that he had had explosive powder taped to his leg and that he had mixed it with chemicals held in a syringe.
A federal counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified said Mr. Abdulmutallab was apparently in a government law enforcement-intelligence database, but it is not clear what extremist group or individuals he might be linked to.
“It’s too early to say what his association is,” the counterterrorism official said. “At this point, it seems like he was acting alone, but we don’t know for sure.” Although Mr. Abdulmutallab is said to have told officials that he was directed by Al Qaeda, the counterterrorism official expressed caution about that claim, saying “it may have been aspirational.”
...President Obama was kept informed throughout the day as he spent Christmas with his family and friends at a secluded Hawaiian beach house. After a secure conference call, he was given several follow-up briefings on paper. John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, convened an interagency meeting in the late afternoon to go over what was known about the incident and discuss what precautions should be taken.
A second Department of Homeland Security official said that the Transportation Security Administration used layers of security measures at the nation’s airports and that it would be tightening them as a result of the incident in Detroit.
These measures — some visible to passengers, some not — include bomb-sniffing dog teams, carry-on luggage and passenger screening measures, and plainclothes behavioral-detection specialists inside airport terminals. The official said there were no immediate plans to elevate the nation’s threat level, which has been at orange since 2006.
I thought the Obama administration was going to dump the color code system. Why is the nation's threat level even being discussed? Isn't that a Bush era relic?
It seems strange for Obama's regime to acknowledge the orange threat level. It was supposed to do better and revamp system. I guess that's still on the to-do list.
Napolitano doesn't even like to use the term "terrorism." She prefers "man-caused disasters."
From Napolitano's interview with Der Spiegel:
SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?
Napolitano: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.
She is a scary woman.
So why is the Obama administration using the term "terrorism" in the case of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab?
What's with all the politics of fear being bandied about? On Christmas Day, Team Obama decides to talk "terrorism"?
That's quite a departure.
I'm not at all surprised that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, an extremist claiming to have received orders from al Qaeda, wanted to bring down the plane.
We know the enemy and we know they want to kill us.
I wonder why the Obama administration is being so quick to throw around the term "terrorism" and to stress Mutallab's possible al Qaeda connections.
It seems kind of politics of fear-ish to me.
Here's more about Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and his attempt to blow up Flight 253:
A Nigerian man with reported links to Al-Qaeda attempted to blow up a US airliner as it began its descent into Detroit before being tackled by passengers and crew, officials said.
Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab was badly burned in the botched Christmas Day terror attack as he tried to set off a sophisticated explosive device on the Northwest Airlines Flight which had 278 passengers on board, witnesses said.
...Abdulmutallab told the authorities after being taken into custody that he had used a syringe filled with chemicals to mix with powder taped to his leg in a bid to cause an explosion, according to senior officials quoted by US media.
White House officials and US lawmakers confirmed that the incident was a terror attack and President Barack Obama, on Christmas vacation with his family in Hawaii, ordered security measures to be stepped up at airports.
"We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism," a senior White House official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
...Abdulmutallab was reportedly receiving treatment for third-degree burns to his legs at the University of Michigan Medical Center in the nearby Michigan city of Ann Arbor.
...The suspect also told the authorities he was following orders from Al-Qaeda, according to US media reports, but counter-terrorism officials said it was too early to know for sure and suggested he could have been acting alone.
US media, citing a federal security bulletin, said the man told investigators he had acquired the explosive device in Yemen, along with instructions as to when it should be used.
I would like some consistency from the Obama administration.
I don't think it's appropriate for a White House official to declare the Christmas Day incident aboard Flight 253 to be "an attempted act of terrorism."
Wasn't it more of "an attempted man-caused disaster"?
I think that works better with the new world order in the era of Obama.
"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."
"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this—'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"
----------------------------
"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."
--JULIAN BOND
"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."
"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"
"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."
--DAVID BROOKS
"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."
"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."
--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women."
"The protesters have proven today that they‘re not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just can‘t fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."
--JOHN NICHOLS
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."
"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."
"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."
"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."
"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isn’t just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."
"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."
--DAN RATHER
"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.
"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."
"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."
"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil...
I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."
"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."
"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."
"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."
"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."
"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."
--AARON SORKIN
"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."
"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns.
You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."
"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."
"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."
--SARAH SPITZ
"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."
"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this.
"But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."
"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."
--HELEN THOMAS
"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."
--PAUL McCARTNEY
"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."
--KATIE COURIC
"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."
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"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar—you name it, any condition — is job-locking."
--NANCY PELOSI
"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"
--TOM HANKS
"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."
--LOUIS FARRAKHAN
"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."
--JOE BIDEN
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
--ROLAND MARTIN
"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."
--CHUCK SCHUMER
"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."
--ED SCHULTZ
"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."
--JOHN KERRY
"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."
--BILL CLINTON
"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."
--TOM SHALES
"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"
--MAUREEN DOWD
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
--SONIA SOTOMAYOR
"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."
--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002
"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."
"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."
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"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."
--WANDA SYKES
"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
--COLIN POWELL
"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."
--PAUL BEGALA
"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."
--BARNEY FRANK
"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."
--JIM DOYLE, Liar
"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."
--JOY BEHAR
"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."
--JON STEWART
"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"
--WHOOPI GOLDBERG
"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."
--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
--TED TURNER
"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"
--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL
"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
--FELIPE CALDERON
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."
--AL GORE
"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL
"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"
--CHRIS ROCK
"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"
--BARBRA STREISAND
"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"
--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand
"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."
--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer
"I said what I said. I am not guilty."
--SADDAM HUSSEIN
"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."
--MICHAEL SCHIAVO
"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "
--BILL MOYERS
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
--HOWARD DEAN
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
--MICHAEL MOORE
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--HILLARY CLINTON
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
--BILL CLINTON
"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."
--MICHELLE OBAMA
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."
"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but there’s real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."
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"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."
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"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."
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"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."
"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."
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"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
----------------------------
"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."
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"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."
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"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."
"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
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"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."
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"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
--BARACK OBAMA
NOTEWORTHY QUOTATIONS
"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.... [A] democracy without values can lose its very soul."
--POPE BENEDICT XVI
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."
--POPE JOHN PAUL II
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
--MOTHER TERESA
"To promote choice for its own sake is more akin to self-indulgence than self-determination. It is the philosophy of a pre-schooler in a candy shop."
--BRIAN POLLARD, M.D.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
--MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."
--RONALD REAGAN
"Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."
--MARK LEVIN
"We are Warriors forever."
--BO ELLIS
"I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich, you know."
