Posted on 01/01/2010 6:44:00 PM PST by Saije
President Barack Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, Newsweek has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by US intelligence agencies, entitled "Key Homeland Threats", a senior US official said.
The senior Administration official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen, whose Al-Qaeda affiliate is now believed to have been behind the unsuccessful Christmas Day attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a transatlantic airliner with a bomb hidden in his underpants. However, the official declined to disclose any other information about the substance of the briefing, including what kind of specific warnings, if any, the President was given about possibly holiday attacks and whether Yemen came up during oral discussions.
According to the senior official, the holiday threat briefing, one in a series of regularly-scheduled sessions with top counter-terrorism officials, was held in the White House Situation Room on December 22. Present were representatives of agencies involved in counter-terrorism policy and operations, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The CIA and National Intelligence Directors Office were represented by deputy agency heads: CIA deputy director Steven Kappes, and David Gompert, the principal deputy to National Intelligence Czar Dennis Blair. Also present was Michael Leiter, director of the National Counter-terrorism Center, a unit of the Intelligence Czar's office which was created after 9/11 to ensure that intelligence reporting about possible terrorist plots was shared quickly among all US agencies who might have some capability to do something about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.newsweek.com ...
There is to such thing as terror, war on terror, or evil. We all love each other and need to try to understand other people more
There is to such thing as terror, war on terror, or evil. We all love each other and need to try to understand other people more
Of course not, the briefing probably focused on home grown threat like tea-party types, and veterans.
hic-up
He thumbed through it and flew to Hawaii so concerned was he.
OBAMA KNEW!
“. . . nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen . . .”
Well, there sure as heck should have been “mention of Yemen.”
When this old gal from Texas is aware of the threat, surely the National Security folks should be. And I’ve been hearing about terrorists training in Yemen for some time now.
He thumbed through it and flew to Hawaii so concerned was he.
________________________________________________________
Guess he wasn’t “deeply concerned”, huh? /s
Ping.
Too busy worried about destroying our health care by getting the senate bill passed by Christmas. I don’t think the issue is the daily threat briefings that all presidents get. I am sure we would all be very nervous if we knew all the potential threats the president sees EVERY day. It’s about having the right policies and practices in place. Obama thinks if he goes out and apologizes to the world, everyone will love us and terrorism will stop. Instead these world leaders see Obama is weak, and laugh at him at every meeting. It’s almost embarrassing for us. Every world event he attends, he gets openly humiliated. Obama is the most inexperienced and worst president of modern times. Makes GW Bush look like a genius.
AKA the Three Stooges.
OK Newsweek, now explain to me and every other American why Obozo took three days to respond to the Undi-bomber, and why it took only two hours to respond to Cheney’s criticisms of Obozo’s overall performance.
The beatings will continue until morale improves ...
"Homeland"? There's a terror threat to Kenya? Who knew?
You forgot Henry Waxman. He’s charged with getting to the bottom of corruption and coverups in the White House.
Remember, he was totally preoccupied with pushing healthcare through the Senate before he left. He held his trip up to push healthcare through, but having been briefed on possible terrorist plots?......hey, no big deal!
Remember, he was totally preoccupied with pushing healthcare through the Senate before he left. He held his trip up to push healthcare through, but having been briefed on possible terrorist plots?......hey, no big deal!
You mean 'the One' knew and did nothing? Damn that sounds worse than slow katrina response to me! Where is the media on this??????
They keep calling America the Homeland. I hate that. Homeland=Hitler.
And when it did Obama's ass should have been on Air Force One on his way to The White House to deal with it. Hell he didn't even talk about it for almost three days. Is he still on vacation on our dime?
What about Nigeria and London? Or the Netherlands?
We KNOW there were threats about a NIGERIAN.
It is meant to place the blame on the failings of anyone and everyone except Obama. Obama never accepts responsibility for any of his failings. This is no different. It is someone else’s fault.
And some of you are so all over the guy for his inattentiveness to our country's safety. You know who you are. Be honest! Is it racism that makes you feel this way?
No worries.
Everyone settle down.
Well, don’t all Presidents get briefed on this stuff, every day?
“I don’t think it is supposed to be bad news. It is meant to absolve him.”
The left, and maybe others, made a very big deal about the August 2001 intelligence briefing Bush got, even though that had no specifics that would warn anyone about 9/11. So I think the Obama people are trying to get out ahead of a similar story here. If Obama gets hammered as bad as Bush did for supposedly “knowing” ahead of time, then it could be a very bad story.
They are such nice people that only want to give millions of dollars to Americans.
I read it that way also. It is meant to absolve him.
Too busy getting his skinny butt out of the Continental United States in case the attack is successful.
I do too. Didn't like it when the "Department of Homeland Security" was set up in the first place and now it's Øbama Uber Alles.
What good will any briefings do Obama when he will discount them, ignore them or downplay them.
And yet... U.S. helps Yemen in attacks against suspected al-Qaeda targets on December 19th and that President Obama had called President Ali Abdullah Saleh to congratulate him on Yemen's efforts against al-Qaeda.
It’s probably a misunderstanding. When they told him that the homeland was in danger he thought they were talking about Kenya.
Re: Yemen
Is it possible to write a competent report on “Terror Threats to the Homeland” that does not mention Yemen?
He's playing it even cooler than Bubba did....just ignore it like it didn't happen and it will go away....
All you need is love.
These dots practically connect themselves.
Just the headline makes me so angry.
Now to read the article. If you hear of another earthquake in Papua, you know that I’ve finished the article about The Great Pretender.
Seems to me the Yemen was all over the net at the same time, because of the Ft. Hood attack and the communications with the US citizen mullah who was hiding out there. Again..maybe he should be reading FR every morning before his “intelligence” briefing. More going on here than in the briefing room.
Does this mean we should all drive around with bumper stickers which read “OBAMA KNEW”?????
Don’t kid yourself...They’re lying through their teeth. He should be getting a security briefing every day.
As a rule, conservatives are far more well-informed, well read and wekk spoken people than liberals. Conservatives usually have the facts, statistics and history to back them up. All liberals have are lies, more lies and downright filthy disgusting lies.
:D Very Good!
Briefings don’t matter when you refuse to recognize that we have an enemy it is Radical Islamic Extremeists and they want to Murder Americans. I always notice how the Liberals want to label AL-QAIDA as the culprit because it fits neatly into their narrative about a distinct difference in Iraq and the rest of the world. However, it is folly to think that other terror groups and radical Muslim extremeists are not linked and bent on our destruction.
So Obama Let it happen on Purpose. Thank God and God alone that the bomb was a dud. What will he say after the next attack? The question that he needs to be asked is why more Americans must die before he defines what it is that is killing us.
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