Administration changes story on Christmas Day bomber

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Feb 032010
 

By: Byron York
Washington Examiner, February 3, 2010

Christmas bomberA number of news organizations are reporting that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the al Qaeda soldier accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet, is now cooperating with authorities and has provided useful intelligence to terrorist investigators.

The Washington Post, citing “Obama administration sources,” reports Abdulmutallab “has been providing FBI interrogators with useful intelligence about his training and contacts since last week.” The Politico quotes a “law enforcement source” saying Abdulmutallab has provided “useful, current intelligence.” And ABC News, citing a “senior administration official,” reports that the intelligence “has been disseminated throughout the intelligence community.” Continue reading »

The Most Important Story You Didn’t See Last Week (and Probably Won’t Ever See)

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Feb 012010
 

By William Tate
American Thinker, February 1, 2010

obama-hanging-curtainsA Senate hearing last week confirmed the public’s worst concern about Barack Obama: that when it comes to national security, Obama hasn’t just been asleep at the switch — he hasn’t even bothered to find the switch.

“I do not think he [Obama] has a firm grasp yet on the intelligence community,” 9/11 Commission Vice-Chairman and former Democrat congressman Lee Hamilton told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

This, even though Obama has been in office for over a year now. Continue reading »

The handling of the Christmas Day bombing suspect: the scandal grows

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Jan 292010
 

By Charles Krauthammer
Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2010

The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane — that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration — but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government.

After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him. Continue reading »

Recognizing Terrorism

 UNCATEGORIZED  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

By Jonah Goldberg
National Review Online, January 27, 2010

terroristIt is always dangerous to mistake your ideological preferences for shrewd political strategy, but that is precisely what President Obama and his advisors have done with the War on Terror.

On the right, the prevailing critique of the president’s approach to the War on Terror is that it is both deeply ideological and unserious. Obama remains fixated on the idea of closing Guantanamo, even if it means keeping irredeemable terrorists in U.S. prisons indefinitely. The administration initially banned the use of the term “War on Terror,” preferring the ridiculous bureaucratese “overseas contingency operations.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano favors “man-caused disasters” to describe 9/11-style terrorism. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to send self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others to a civilian trial in New York City, allegedly without consulting anyone save his wife and brother. Continue reading »

The Type of Al-Qaida Operative We Allow on Planes

 SECURITY, TERRORISM  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

by Terry Jeffrey
Townhall.com, January 27, 2010

michael leiterIn virtually unnoticed testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Michael Leiter explained that U.S. policy leading up to the attempted Christmas Day suicide attack on Northwest Flight 253 was calculated to draw a line between two types of al-Qaida operatives: Those we allow on planes and those we do not.

The policy, Leiter said, requires an analyst to decide which category the terrorist belongs in depending on “what kind of operative he was and what his intention was.” Continue reading »

The administration’s unacceptable terror policies

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Jan 252010
 

Gregory A. Czapanskiy
American Thinker, January 25, 2010

I am reading with horror and disgust of the testimony at the hearings conducted this past week on the process that was used by the Department of Justice regarding the decision to remand the terrorist who tried to blow up Flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day into our criminal justice system. Continue reading »

How Far Did Obama-Holder Relax Our Defenses?

 NEW AMERICA, PRESIDENT, SECURITY, TERRORISM  No Responses »
Jan 252010
 

by AJ Strata
The Strata-Sphere, January 25, 2010

Obama and HolderUpdate: And because of some very questionable and risky decisions, we need to ask some hard questions of this administration.

Update: Because we are under renewed attack by al Qaeda and its allies, we need to ask some hard questions of this administration - end update.

It is no secret Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama did not support the Bush administration’s changes to FISA after 9-11. Neither did Obama’s advisor on national security John Brennan. As I noted here, from an interview he gave during the campaign, Brennan was all for relaxing our defenses so we did not investigate every possible lead the NSA was turning up on Americans. Continue reading »

Bin Laden claims airline bomb attempt on Christmas

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Jan 242010
 

By PAUL SCHEMM
My Way News, January 24, 2010

Christmas bomberCAIRO (AP) – Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States.

A senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington said there is “no evidence whatsoever” that bin Laden had any involvement on the Christmas Day attack – or even knew about it beforehand. The message suggests the al-Qaida leader wants to appear in direct command of the terrorist group’s many affiliates around the world at a time when some analysts have suggested he is mostly a figurehead.
Continue reading »