NYT: U.S. Had Early Signals Of A Terror Plot, Obama Says
Tags: Al-Qaeda, Barack Obama, Transportation Security Administration, United States, War on Terrorism
I'm embarrassed that I missed this story yesterday, but I had an opportunity to go and see Avatar and I took it.
Nevertheless, President Obama spoke for the second time on the failed terrorist attempt on Northwestern flight 253 saying that there had been a "systemic failure" of the system. This seems to be an extension of his promise early in his first year that he would not pass the buck and would take responsibility for errors under his watch. Commenting on the newly released information that intelligence officials did know about the 23 year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the President said, "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."
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Nevertheless, President Obama spoke for the second time on the failed terrorist attempt on Northwestern flight 253 saying that there had been a "systemic failure" of the system. This seems to be an extension of his promise early in his first year that he would not pass the buck and would take responsibility for errors under his watch. Commenting on the newly released information that intelligence officials did know about the 23 year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the President said, "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."
Read the whole article here.
2 Comments | Leave a comment
replied to comment from mcnealystephanie
| January 3, 2010 9:01 PM
| Reply
I tend to agree with much of what you said.
Firing Janet Napolitano will not magically fix our security problems. I Think she has been a decent secretary of Homeland Security so far. That being said, our government agencies need to work together to uncover plots such as the Detroit attack that thank-heavens didn't work the way the bomber intended it to.
And about body-scanning machines, I support them. Several years ago, especially before 9/11, I never expected that there would be the possibility of my being scanned, beneath my clothing, for explosive materials. I certainly would not have volunteered for this, since I am not a centerfold model! However, I think that body-scanning is a necessary step to keep us all safe. Privacy advocates be damned on this one, airports are not, and never were, private places. Agents will not enter our homes to scan us, this will all be done in the greater world of public places (airports) and in such a way that images of our bodies will be separated from our identities as people. This is only being done to help keep us safe, not to humiliate us with pictures posted to the Internet (posting these images to the Internet is not possible anyway, from what I have read).
Stephanie
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