Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (AFP)
In the wake of last Friday's Christmas incident aboard a plane preparing to land in Detroit, President Obama has ordered a review of the watch-list system and the screening process to board a flight.
Even as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab didn't appear to be part of a larger network, questions abound about whether more could have been done to stop the 23-year-old Nigerian from boarding the flight in the first place.
As has been widely noted, more than a month ago, the man's father, a prominent Nigerian banker, warned the U-S embassy about his son's increasingly radical views but the information wasn't specific enough to pursue. Instead, Abdulmutallab was entered into a huge terrorism database that includes around half a million names. People on that list aren't prevented from flying to the United States.
Although it seems clear now that authorities should have paid more attention, U-S officials say that the information didn't catch anyone's eye because it was so general and didn't include a specific threat. The NY Times notes that Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't canceled and says officials probably would have done a more thorough background check if he ever reapplied for a visa. Officials insist the report on Abdulmutallab was "very, very thin, with minimal information," but lawmakers were quick to raise criticism of the security system that allowed Abdulmutallab on a U-S-bound plane just like anybody else.
Everyone notes this episode might create a shift in the way Americans think about watch lists, after several years when the big focus has been on cutting names out after lots of criticism that the net was being drawn too wide. This incident might also step up the introduction of full-body imaging machines at U-S airports that have been repeatedly criticized by privacy advocates. Amsterdam has more of these machines than "just about any airport in the world," notes the Times, but one official there said they couldn't be used on U-S-bound passengers, although the reason is far from clear.
Worth noting, James Joyner over at OutsideTheBetlway.com notes:
There have been precisely three attempts over the last eight years to commit acts of terrorism aboard commercial aircraft. All of them clownishly inept and easily thwarted by the passengers. How many tens of thousands of flights have been incident free?
You'll find that math calculated here.
Meanwhile, the United States has quietly opened front against al-Qaeda in Yemen. It hasn't received much attention, but this has been ongoing over the past year, with the United States stepping up efforts after the Yemeni connection to Fort Hood and now, the possible link with the Nigerian passenger in Sunday's Christmas incident. All authorities know about that possible connection so far is what he has told them, that he told FBI agents he had received equipment and training from an al-Qaeda operative in Yemen. Some have their doubts, because, as one expert tells the LA Times, al-Qaeda's "people know how to make a bomb."
Still, that doesn't change the fact that al-Qaeda's network in Yemen has been stepping up efforts to make the unstable and impoverished country the new headquarters for the terrorist network.
Yemen is no stranger to terrorism, but over the past year, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has grown exponentially as "a new generation of Yemeni and Saudi militants" move to transform "Yemen into a launching pad for jihad." The U-S military has increased efforts to train and equip Yemeni forces to combat terrorism, which included secret visits by Gen David Petraeus and John Brennan, Obama's counterterrorism adviser, this past summer. Some believe Yemen could soon replace Pakistan's tribal areas as the base of operations for al-Qaeda.
Comments
Well, if there was no problem and "the system worked" why the review?
After all, this guy was just a crazy lone wolf and not a terrorist right?
Jihad Watch says: Well, if there was no problem and "the system worked" why the review? After all, this guy was just a crazy lone wolf and not a terrorist right?
We don't know what this guy was. We know what he told the FBI. It's based on what HE says that media is reporting he was connected to Yemen. We don't know that. That's what investigators will find out. Don't you get that?
And as far as asking why the review, you're late. Read here:
www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2009m12d26-Many-questions-raised-after-terrorist-flight-scare
Try to pay attention.
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574
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