CIA Tracked Abdulmutallab Since May

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Fox News is confirming reports that the CIA have been tracking The Crotch Bomber since August. August! Included in the below video is Charles Krauthammer on the Obama reaction, specifically today’s second attempt by Obama to appear “concerned”: (h/t MsUnderestimated)

WALLACE: …How did he do this time?

KRAUTHAMMER: Well, this was an exercize in image repair. The President pretended that the reason he came out the day after his first address was because it was new information aside of the fact that the Nigerian attackers father had informed the embassy, of course that was known earlier in the week, and secondly he said whereas the information had left the US Embassy in Nigeria, arrived in Washington, it hadn’t been properly shared. But everyone knew that as well.

WALLACE: So why did he come out?

KRAUTHAMMER: Because there is outrage here, the incompetence of this administration, the fact that the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is clearly over her head, had gone out on Sunday and pretended that the system had succeeded and then had to walk it back and when the President had come out himself after waiting three days he appeared detached and cool and he spoke about this as a criminal act, speaking about the suspect, speaking about an alleged attempt, speaking about it as a isolated extremist, in fact we already knew about the connection in Yemen.

This is an attempt by the administration, by the President himself, over and over again, to disconnect these kinds of attacks.

From the war on terror, which he of course declared over at his inauguration, which unfortunately al-Qaeda has not, and as a result of that people ought to ask him do you still believe he is a isolated extremist, people ought to ask him…and today he repeated the word extremist over and over again…what kind of extremist is he? Is he a jihadist? And lastly people ought to ask him are you still intent on releasing the 80 Yemenis in Guantanamo?

Lieberman said Iraq is the war of yesterday, Afghanistan the war of today, and Yemen the war of tomorrow. It would be a lot easier to handle these 80 Yemenis in Guantanamo then in the wilds of Yemen which is where they are going to end up if released and plan more attacks on the United States.

And the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration:

“This (State Dept.) employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover “we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer.

~~~

“…the State Department source says at that time Abdulmutallab was not on a watch list and traveled to Houston on that visa without incident. A year later, in May 2009, his application for a student visa to return to Britain was rejected because the college Abdulmutallab claimed he would attend was “bogus,” and that red flag was shared with U.S. State Department, Homeland Security Department, U.S. Justice Department, and almost certainly U.S. intelligence agencies.

“The State source says that several schools, particularly those with ties to the British Muslim community, have come under tighter scrutiny over the past five years, and when foreign nationals with Muslim backgrounds apply to those schools, it is red flag for British security offices.

“I’m not saying that this kind of screw up might not have happened in the Bush Administration,” the State source says, referring to the Christmas Day snafu. “I’m just saying that a number of us were encouraged to have a different mindset about such intel and such individuals, and today, we are encouraged not to have that same mindset.”

UPDATE

Some more information from CBS News:

CBS News has learned that as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed “The Nigerian,” suspected of meeting with “terrorist elements” in Yemen.

Sources tell CBS News “The Nigerian” has now turned out to be Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But that connection was not made when Abudulmutallab’s father went to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria three months later, on November 19, 2009. It was then he expressed deep concerns to a CIA officer about his son’s ties to extremists in Yemen, a hotbed of al Qaeda activity.

In fact, CBS News has learned this information was not connected until after the attempted Christmas Day bombing.

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Oh Yes, we musn’t say that there are Islamic Terrorists trying to blow up our airspace. Let’s just keep inviting them into our country so they can subvert our culture with their 16th century values. We pretend they are our friends, but that does not make it so.
Don’t we see what is happening in other countries with large Muslim immigrant populations?

@janeplain: Yes, I do see it and I am not pretending they are friends. Not even the so-called moderates. They only let the extremists do their dirty work for them while they smile to our face. One news report today said the father of the jihadist went to the American Embassy THREE separate times. What do you have to do? Hit them between the eyes with a 2×4?

Wait and see. The next one to try to to get on a plane will be a Muslim woman. It certainly won’t be PC to search her now will it? The PC of this country are too dangerous to be put in charge. As far as Flim Flam man and his minions, they are not competent to be in office…that is, for protecting and supporting America. That is not their agenda.

Funny, I saw a bumper sticker at the mall today. It said: “War is never the answer”. I asked myself, “for who?”

Now with FoxNews, CNN and CBS reporting that the CIA was “tracking” this terrorist with a “load in his pants” since August of 2009 (note: not on Bush’s watch), the reasons for all the talk of no Congressional investigation by the White House makes this look worse than the 2001 CIA daily reporting “UBL to use planes.”
These folks had a specific “target” and nearly let him take out 300 “souls.” It makes Obama’s 3 days of golf before emerging to talk like a lawyer look even worse.

Ozero has to “appear concerned” because for him it’s all an act. He has proved over and over again that he feels no empathy for our country or her citizens. His sympathies lie with the leftist dictators, the hate-filled so-called “reverends” of the black liberation theology movement, and Islamic/Third World “royalty.” Obie’s only concern is how much fun he and the Klingon queen can have at the taxpayers’ expense before it all turns back into pumpkins — or would that be acorns?

Call me cybical, but this guy visited ‘Houston earlier this year’. I can’t remember the site it was reported on, although, believe, I don’t read bad sites, but rather those whole are on par with this site.
‘Houston’?? Who did he visit then? Major Hasan, soldier of allah? Coincidence???

Not defending Obama, but where was Krauthammer’s outrage when the shoe bomber tried a similiar trick?

So a couple of months ago Obama initiated trials against the CIA and loudly put the FBI in charge of international terrorism investigations. But the failure to prevent this bomber attempt is because of policies that have been in place for years. How can that be true? The FBI has not been in charge of international terror investigations ‘for years’.

Obama is too busy playing golf.

The worst thing about this episode, because we were lucky and a Dutchman was brave, is that Obama continues to view war crimes as run-of-the-mill crimes. This policy is not only insane, it is suicidal. “The Nigerian” should have been whisked off to Gitmo as soon as he was well enough to travel. He should not have been marandized and been allowed to lawyer up. He should have been grilled as hard as any terrorist has been. He probably has information that would have been useful to us.

@Mike:

Recycling is just great! I see you managed to take yesterday’s democrat talking point…..”Where was the Bush outrage with the shoe bomber?” and re-use it on Krauthammer.

At least you are more transparent than the president.

Put on your thinking cap and go back eight years and think about where we were at. Attempt to understand that the terrorist, Richard Reid tried to take down a jet three months after the September 11 attack. Maybe you might want to compare what safeguards were in place then as compared to what we are supposed to have now.

I remember at the time, we were at the point of reinforcing doors to the pilot’s cabin, allocating funds to have anti-missle devices put on all carriers, implementing stricter rules/patdowns/baggage inspection at airports, using the National Guard in the airports, and placing air marshalls on flights, then came Congress establishing a whole new beauracracy to protect us, stuff like that, remember? We were on the way, but not everything was in place and Reid did board in Great Britian, obviously they’re safeguards were not up to par at that point either.

Even though Krauthammer did write about Richard Reid back then, his comments were about profiling, mentioning that Reid was an exception being as though he did not fit the profile of most terrorists.

Here he is discussing profiling:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101020318-216319,00.html

Here he is commenting on all the harrassment the left was giving the prior administration as they were trying to advance security:

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2002/03/22/opposing_the_war

And, now, eight years later you wonder why he does not show equal outrage given the know red flags about Abdulmutallab that have been coming out these past few days.

I didn’t take anyone’s talking point, Missy, but if they are saying the same thing I think they have a legitimate gripe. I just don’t like the playing of politics and making excuses when it happens to our guy, when it’s a failure by both sides. Yes, Reid was only 3 months after 9/11, but that’s a poor excuse when we should have been on a heightened state of alert. Now we see that after 8 years we’re still not prepared. The failures in the intelligence community were not addressed and something must be done.

Ah so tht is what Jannie meant — The new Muslim self esteem program and the newly rebuilt WALL worked perfectly.

The shades of Jimmy Carter just continue to get deeper and deeper. PEBO stands back and hopes things get better while talking about nothing. This so reminds me of Jimmy Carter back in the late 70’s. Whenever something went wrong he would ramble on about how America needed to be more understanding and that they were “looking into” the situation. Nothing ever came of their investigations until it was too late to even react.

@Mike:

Clear up a few things for me:

1) Was Reid on a “no fly” list? If so, did Reid continue to enjoy the privilege of carrying a valid US visa?

2) Did Reids’ father go to the US Embassy to raise the red flag of danger to the State Dept. regarding his son months prior to Dec 2001?

3) Had Reids’ father sat down with the CIA and shared his concerns about his son’s radicalization months prior to his son’s subsequent attempt in Dec 2001?

4) Did Reid get on the plane without a passport?

5) In the month prior to Reids’ attempt with his shoes had someone been thwarted at the airport after attempting the very same thing with the same chemical concoction?

Obviously, these two incidents cannot be compared to one another because beyond airplanes, explosives, and the religious madness which motivated them, they are totally different.

Nice try though.

I give you a good solid B+

>
> 1) Was Reid on a “no fly” list? If so, did Reid continue to enjoy
> the privilege of carrying a valid US visa?
>
no, he wasn’t on our no fly list but neither was this guy, although he should have been. Not sure about the Visa but he showed up at the airport without even a passport. He should never have been allowed on the plane

> 2) Did Reids’ father go to the US Embassy to raise the red flag of
> danger to the State Dept. regarding his son months prior to Dec 2001?
>
yes, indicative of what I said about failure in the intelligence system that should have been addressed long ago

> 3) Had Reids’ father sat down with the CIA and shared his concerns
> about his son’s radicalization months prior to his son’s subsequent
> attempt in Dec 2001?
>
CIA? He spoke to people at the embassy some of which might have been CIA. Again, failure in the intelligence system

> 4) Did Reid get on the plane without a passport?
>
Yes, this is a failure of both the Dutch security personnel and the airline personnel. Heads must roll

> 5) In the month prior to Reids’ attempt with his shoes had someone
> been thwarted at the airport after attempting the very same thing
> with the same chemical concoction?

There were many warnings of possible smuggling of plastic type explosives disguised as articles of clothing and personal items even before 9/11.

>
> Obviously, these two incidents cannot be compared to one another
> because beyond airplanes, explosives, and the religious madness
> which motivated them, they are totally different.
>
As I said I’m certainly not defending Obama, I’m pissed off too, but singling out this as ONLY Obama’s fault is unfair and playing politics with the problem
>
> I give you a good solid B+

Do I get extra credit?

On the other hand, a report this morning tells of a Somali found with a “white powder” and a syringe in November…headed to Dubai. He was NOT allowed on the plane. And you can bet if he was arrested by the Arabs, we’ll never hear any thing else about him.

Can we blame Obama personally? Yes. Because not only is he incompetent but he has appointed other incompetents to “protect” us. And I believe that’s deliberate.

@AnnMonterey:

Here’s a link to the story that you are referring to Ann.

@Mike:

You basically proved the point that I was trying to make through your answers to the questions that I posed to you.

I guess my “system worked”.

Heh!

You are, however, factually inaccurate on several counts.

Trying to compare Reid to the Fruit of the BoomTM guy is truly apples/oranges and it’s ridiculous to engage in such an exercise.

Is the system better than it was on the morning of 9/11? Absolutely.

Is the system perfect? No. Not by a long shot. I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve complained about the ridiculous nature of focusing on Olga Swenson, the grandma in a wheelchair, and three year old children while not subjecting Mohammed and Abdullah Omar to any sort of additional scrutiny when it is very clear which group is the source of the threats.

The important thing to remember here is that the CIA has been hamstrung by the very gov’t bureaucrats that now want their heads on a platter for the perceived failures of their organization.

THAT is a failure that is squarely on Obies’ shoulders.

That is a a failure on his part. On that we certaily agree. The buck stops there. Shouldn’t it have always?

This somewhat cryptic comment from a State Dept. source is very disturbing:

“I’m not saying that this kind of screw up might not have happened in the Bush Administration,” the State source says, referring to the Christmas Day snafu. “I’m just saying that a number of us were encouraged to have a different mindset about such intel and such individuals, and today, we are encouraged not to have that same mindset.”

Looks like the CIA isn’t going to let itself get thrown under the bus.

CIA rejects charge it failed to share bomb suspect intelligence

The CIA on Wednesday rejected accusations that it failed to share vital information with other US intelligence agencies that might have helped prevent last week’s attempted plane bomb attack.

The intelligence agency rejected charges that it possessed, but failed to disseminate, information about Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that might have led to his being placed on a no-fly list.

snip

Also in November, we worked with the embassy to ensure he was in the government’s terrorist database — including mention of his possible extremist connections in Yemen,” the CIA spokesman said.

“We also forwarded key biographical information about him to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)” Gimigliano said, referring to the government office tasked with compiling and integrating intelligence from various US agencies.

snip

The NCTC “had all the relevant information that the US government knew about Abdulmutallab prior to his attempted attack,” the intelligence official said.

“The suspect’s father provided his son’s name and passport number to the US embassy in November and that information was shared. He also said his son might have connections to extremists in Yemen — a fact that was relayed also,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.0b9d18298e2dbb867621b1953baa5023.01&show_article=1#idc-cover

and mike, dont forget jamie gorlick, who is responsible for the inability to share intelligence between agencies.
This muslim empty suit has no business being even near the oval office and if fact be known should be arrested and tried for treason.