USA had Nigeriaan moeten verwachten

[Ernst Debets]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Al vrij snel na 9/11 gingen er stemmen op om terrorismebestrijding op de
"James Bond" methode te doen (terroristencellen uitschakelen voordat ze wat
kunnen doen), waarbij een goed werkende "intellegence" (en vooral goede
samenwerking tussen de inlichtingendiensten) van levensbelang was. Door
allerlei andere belangen is dat onder de Texaanse gangsterbende nooit wat
geworden, al wordt er individueel wel eens een succesje geboekt (bij mijn
weten alleen door de MI5 in Schotland en de AIVD die een rol speelde in het
oprollen van de Hofstad groep, maar beslist niet door de CIA).
Het incident boven Detroit bewijst maar weer eens pijnlijk dat de
inlichtingendiensten compleet doof zijn voor duidelijke aanwijzingen vooraf.
Het belang van de USA strookt niet met bovenstaande: een oorlogje in Jemen
beginnen om onder het mom van terrorismebestrijding de Amerikaanse
oliebelangen op het Arabisch schiereiland veilig te stellen.
In dit licht kan ik de woorden van Obama (kritiek op z'n eigen CIA) alleen
maar als krokodillentranen bestempelen.

Ernst Debets/
Zaanstad

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: owner-d66 at nic.surfnet.nl [mailto:owner-d66 at nic.surfnet.nl] Namens
ceesbink at xs4all.nl
Verzonden: woensdag 30 december 2009 19:06
Aan: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
Onderwerp: USA had Nigeriaan moeten verwachten

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Het is goed dat nu blijkt dat meer informatie verzamelen niet nodig is,
gebruik maken van alle aanwezige informatie moet het doel zijn.
Daarna kijken of informatie ANDERS verzameld moet worden en pas als
laatste of nog meer 'algemene informatie verzameld moet worden.

- Two officials said the government had intelligence from Yemen before
Friday that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda were talking about "a
Nigerian" being prepared for a terrorist attack. While the attacker was
not named, officials said it would have been evident had it been compared
to information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian
charged with trying to blow up an American passenger jet on Christmas Day

- The president's withering assessment of the government's performance
could reshape the intensifying political debate over the thwarted
terrorist attack. Instead of defending the system, Mr. Obama sided with
critics who complained that it did not work and positioned himself as a
reformer who will fix it. At the same time, the decision to speak a second
time after remaining out of sight for three days underscores the
administration's concern over being outflanked on national security.

Groet / Cees

PS. Ook na 9/11 was de conclusie 'we hadden het kunnen zien aankomen'!!!!

December 30, 2009
U.S. Had Early Signals of a Terror Plot, Obama Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/us/politics/30obama.html?hp
By PETER BAKER and CARL HULSE

HONOLULU - President Obama was told Tuesday about more missed signals and
uncorrelated intelligence that should have prevented a would-be bomber
from boarding a flight to the United States, leading the president to
declare that there had been a "systemic failure" of the nation's security
apparatus.

Two officials said the government had intelligence from Yemen before
Friday that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda were talking about "a
Nigerian" being prepared for a terrorist attack. While the attacker was
not named, officials said it would have been evident had it been compared
to information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian
charged with trying to blow up an American passenger jet on Christmas Day.

The government also had more information about where Mr. Abdulmutallab had
been and what some of his plans were before boarding the Northwest
Airlines flight to Detroit. Some of the information was partial or
incomplete at the time, and it was not obvious that it was connected, one
senior administration official said, but in retrospect it now appears
clear that had it all been examined together it would have pointed to the
pending attack.

The official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
the sensitive review, said the government was "increasingly confident"
that Al Qaeda had a role in the attack, as the group's Yemeni branch has
publicly claimed. Such a conclusion could lead the United States to
provide more intelligence and equipment to the Yemeni government and even
consider fresh targets in a continuing campaign against radicals in Yemen.

The fresh information about what the government knew before the flight on
Friday was provided to White House officials Monday night and to the
president on Tuesday while he was here vacationing in Hawaii.

Shortly after being briefed, Mr. Obama told reporters that a review had
revealed a breakdown in the intelligence system that did not properly
identify Mr. Abdulmutallab as a dangerous extremist who should have been
prevented from flying to the United States.

"A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally
unacceptable," Mr. Obama said.

He said he had ordered government agencies to give him a preliminary
report on Thursday about what happened and added that he would "insist on
accountability at every level," although he did not elaborate.

Mr. Obama alluded to the intelligence in his statement. "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 president said. "The warning signs would have triggered red
flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane
for America."

The president's withering assessment of the government's performance could
reshape the intensifying political debate over the thwarted terrorist
attack. Instead of defending the system, Mr. Obama sided with critics who
complained that it did not work and positioned himself as a reformer who
will fix it. At the same time, the decision to speak a second time after
remaining out of sight for three days underscores the administration's
concern over being outflanked on national security.

The aftermath of the attempted bombing has been marked by an increasingly
fierce partisan exchange over culpability heading into a midterm election
year. With Republicans on the attack against the administration as not
taking terrorism seriously enough, Democrats returned fire by accusing the
opposition of standing in the way of needed personnel and money while
exploiting public fears.

The debate has escalated since Mr. Obama's secretary of homeland security,
Janet Napolitano, said Sunday that "the system worked" after officials
said the suspect tried to ignite explosive chemicals aboard a Northwest
Airlines flight approaching Detroit. Ms. Napolitano made clear the next
day that she had meant the system worked in its response to the attempted
bombing, not before it happened.

Mr. Obama appeared to be trying to contain the damage on Tuesday, offering
"systemic failure" as a substitute diagnosis for "system worked." He
framed Ms. Napolitano's statement by saying she was right that "once the
suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, after his attempt, it's clear
that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems and our aviation
security took all appropriate actions."

The president praised the professionalism of the nation's intelligence,
counterterrorism, homeland security and law enforcement officials. But he
spared little in his sharp judgment about how a known extremist could be
allowed to board a flight bound for the United States after his own father
had warned that he had become radical.

"There was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this
potential catastrophic breach of security," Mr. Obama told reporters at
the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay outside Honolulu, near his vacation
home in Kailua. "We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix
the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at
stake."

Mr. Obama suggested that he would overhaul the watch-list system. "We've
achieved much since 9/11 in terms of collecting information that relates
to terrorists and potential terrorist attacks," he said. "But it's
becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not
sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we
collect and the knowledge we have."

Mr. Abdulmutallab, who has been linked to the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda,
came to the attention of the American authorities when his father went to
the American Embassy in Nigeria last month to report that his son had
expressed radical views before disappearing. The father, a respected
retired banker, did not say his son planned to attack Americans but sought
help locating him and bringing him home, United States officials said.

After Mr. Abdulmutallab's father asked for help, embassy officials from
several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, met to
discuss the case, officials said.

Paul Gimigliano, a C.I.A. spokesman, said that was the first time the
agency had heard of the young Nigerian. "We did not have his name before
then," he said.

The embassy sent a cable to Washington, which resulted in Mr.
Abdulmutallab's name being entered in a database of 550,000 people with
possible ties to terrorism. But he was not put on the much smaller no-fly
list of 4,000 people or on a list of 14,000 people who are required to
undergo additional screening before flying, nor was his multiple-entry
visa to the United States revoked.

"It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component
of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to
get the suspect's name on a no-fly list," Mr. Obama said of the father's
warning. "There appears to be other deficiencies as well. Even without
this one report, there were bits of information available within the
intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced
together."

Mr. Obama's appearance came after another day of Republican criticism. On
Tuesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee sought to inject
the bombing attempt into next year's midterm races. In a series of news
releases, the committee sought to press vulnerable Democrats on whether
they agreed with Ms. Napolitano's initial assessment.

"All year long, we've asked the question: What is the administration's
overarching strategy to confront the terrorist threat and keep America
safe?" Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said
in a statement Tuesday. "We haven't gotten a satisfactory answer, and the
secretary's 'the system worked' response doesn't inspire confidence."

Democrats countered that Republicans had shown disregard for any terrorism
risk by blocking the president's nominee for head of the Transportation
Security Administration and by voting this year against a measure
providing $44 billion for Department of Homeland Security operations.

"They have essentially voted against and delayed providing the tools that
are necessary to prevent these kinds of actions," said Representative
Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee.

They also criticized Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the senior
Republican on the intelligence committee and a leading critic of the White
House, for tying the thwarted bombing to an appeal for money for his race
for governor. In a letter first reported by The Grand Rapids Press, Mr.
Hoekstra sought donations to help counter Democratic "efforts to weaken
our security."

A spokesman for Mr. Hoekstra's campaign said the letter was appropriate
and sought to inform potential donors of his leadership on national
security issues.

Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said on
Tuesday that once the Senate returned on Jan. 19, he would move quickly to
overcome Republicans' objections to the nomination of Erroll G. Southers,
a former F.B.I. agent, to lead the security agency.

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, has blocked the
appointment, saying he was worried Mr. Southers might allow T.S.A. workers
to join labor unions. "Republicans have decided to play politics with this
nomination by blocking final confirmation," Mr. Reid said.

Mr. DeMint said he was seeking an opportunity to debate the nomination
rather than have it approved without discussion, and he accused Mr. Reid
of grandstanding. "Senator Reid completely ignored this nominee until the
recent terror attempt," Mr. DeMint said, "and now he's trying to show
concern for airport security."

Peter Baker reported from Honolulu, and Carl Hulse from Washington. Mark
Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington.

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