The Press on terrorist detection
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm by David FarrarThe Press editorial;
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s comment that the system had worked defied belief. Clearly President Barack Obama, for whom the botched attack has become a political liability, did not agree with her.
I think he needs a new Homeland Security Secretary. The only part of the system that worked was the courage of passengers in tackling the terrorist.
He declared that there had been a systemic failure in the US intelligence community. Given the ample warning signs about Abdulmutallab this was self-evident.
Abdulmutallab had previously lived in Yemen, a country known to have al Qaeda cells. He had paid cash for his ticket and boarded the aircraft carrying only hand luggage, which should have aroused suspicion. US intelligence authorities had intercepted messages referring to a possible attack by a Nigerian and received warnings of a terrorist attack on Christmas Day.
But most astonishing of all was that the terrorist’s father had visited the US embassy in Nigeria and spoken to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer to express concerns about his son.
This would be comical, if it was not true. I mean seriously – the guy’s dad actually pops into the US Embassy to tell the CIA that his son has joined Al Qaeda, and he is still allowed to fly. Millions of legitimate passengers are screened, delayed or refused, but the terrorist is given the all clear even after his father had dobbed him onto the CIA.
Maybe you could understand the CIA fuckup if the father had communicated by e-mail, for the father was Chairman of the Bank of Nigeria. So an e-mail starting “I cam the Chairman of the Bank of Nigeria and my son has a lot of money …” might hit the spam folder.
The incompetence of Government has no limits it seems. This is why it is so laughable that some loonies think the US Government secretly pulled off 9/11. Hell they can’t even do a no fly order for someone dobbed in by their dad, let alone pull of a giant global conspiracy.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 2:30 pm
“The incompetence of Government has no limits it seems. This is why it is so laughable that some loonies think the US Government secretly pulled off 9/11.”
Good grief David. Stop going out of your way to destroy jolly good fantasies that help keep millions amused!!!
Vote:January 2nd, 2010 at 3:20 pm
He was on a watch list not a no fly list.
That someone didn’t move him onto a no fly list says something is wrong with their system.
It is more PR than reality I suspect as the real operatives can travel at will through their southern border with the drug mules.
Fairly searching everyone at airports so that no one feels they are profiled is a sick joke.
The border fence could have been finished by now but they didn’t want to stop the penetrations due to the Hispanic and Liberal vote.
Vote:It’s almost as if they deserve a dirty bomb in a metropolitan area just for the stupidity, meanwhile the average US citizen gets more and more restrictions on their lives and more laws just waiting to be used against them.
Washington and the Beltway isn’t Joe average but they won’t vote outside the big two so the system will continue.
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:46 pm
He didn’t even have to be put on a no-fly list. The US govt could have simply cancelled or suspended his visa (as the Brits have done) once his name went on the Bigger List and then there would have been no way he could have gotten on the plane.
Frankly I’m a bit depressed.
It was six years to ‘Heck of a job you’re doing, Brownie’.
Now it’s only one year to ‘The system worked’,
[DPF: Even worse than that, the "heck of a job" was to some degree before it was totally clear that FEMA were not coping. The system worked comment came after the system clearly failed]
Vote:January 2nd, 2010 at 10:53 pm
It is the same reason that we know that Roswell was a weather balloon, man landed on the moon and there was 1 JFK shooter. Americans generally
cant keep their mouths shut given the chance to appear or Larry King saying I was there and faked it all. Seroiusly , how many people have come forward and said “I was there when we faked the moon landing.”
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