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The Northwest Flight 253 intelligence failure: Negligence or conspiracy? (6 posts)

  1. truthmod
    Administrator

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/pers-d31...

    In the five days since the abortive attempt by the 23-year-old Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device onboard Northwest Flight 253, information has surfaced that indicates an ostensible breakdown in US intelligence and security that is extraordinary in both its character and scale.

    Among the facts now known are the following:

    • Abdulmutallab’s father, a prominent retired banker and ex-government minister, had visited the US Embassy in Abuja more than a month before the attempted bombing to warn CIA officials that his son had become involved with Al Qaeda elements in Yemen. He provided them with information with which the young man could have been located, and he followed up his visit with at least two phone calls.

    • For at least four months, US intelligence had information from Yemen that Al Qaeda operatives there were preparing “a Nigerian” for a terrorist attack.

    • The information from Yemen was further substantiated by the National Security Agency’s interception of communications discussing preparations for an impending attack and the use of the “Nigerian.”

    Posted 14 years ago #
  2. truthmover
    Administrator

    Very telling to me is how well framed the incompetence story has been due to the vocabulary established after 9/11.

    What was the goal of the attack? Do they really care so much about us being scared to fly? And if so, why don't they just start bombing terminals OUTSIDE the security gate?

    The way this went down in ripe for alternative explanations. Let's look at the immediate implications. A renewal of irrational fear about Al Qaeda. More scrutiny and likely less independence our intelligence agencies. And a renewal of interest in full body scanners at airports.

    Maybe that's exactly what the "terrorists" wanted, in which case we shouldn't give it to them, right? Or, in reference to 9/11 truth, maybe it's just a bit more likely that these changes serve the interests of our national security establishment.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  3. truthmod
    Administrator

    Are we supposed to believe that the NSA and CIA miss this kind of stuff? This is absurd. They have informants entrapping and provocateuring left and right, but someone comes into the US embassy and says, "my son is an al Qaeda terrorist, watch out for him," and they let the guy get on a plane with a bomb two months later. Yeah. Hey everyone, WAKE UP; there is absolutely no reason to put in any faith in the honesty, integrity, or effectiveness of your government. I'm talking to the general public here...don't they see how ridiculous this is? The average guy off the street would do a better job as CIA director or NID or head of the NSA.

    Grim Obama says terror attack 'dots' not connected
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100105/ap_on_go_pr_wh...

    Obama also is suspending the transfer of Guantanamo prison detainees to Yemen. Nearly half of the 198 terror suspect detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are from that country. But Obama reiterated his vow to eventually close the camp.

    "Make no mistake, we will close Guantanamo prison," Obama said. The camp, he said, "was an explicit rationale for the formation of al-Qaida" operating in Yemen.

    In his late-afternoon remarks to the nation, Obama told reporters the security lapse didn't have to do with the collection of information but with the failure to integrate and analyze what was there. The bottom line, he said was that the government had "sufficient information to uncover this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack."

    "Our intelligence community failed to connect those dots which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list," he said. "This was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already have."

    Cockup, Conspiracy or Just Plain Confusion? Sorting Out Olberman's Segment on Flight 253

    http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/r...

    Hmmm.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/keith-olbermann-kic...

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/...

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  4. JohnA
    Member

    National Security Adviser Says Christmas Bomber Report Will 'Shock' (VIDEO)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/07/christmas...

    not all of us

    Posted 14 years ago #
  5. truthmod
    Administrator

    Why does it always seem this way? Is it really so predictable?

    Terror suspect kept visa to avoid tipping off larger investigation
    http://detnews.com/article/20100127/NATION/1270405...

    The State Department didn’t revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday.

    Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.

    “Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing,” Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, “rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort.”

    Posted 14 years ago #
  6. christs4sale
    Administrator

    http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2010/02/who-videota...

    Posted 14 years ago #

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