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Intelligence efforts are said to be focused on finding those involved in the plot to get Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the Northwest Airlines plane with explosives in his underwear. Security officials are also likely to identify other "high value" al Qaeda targets who could be the target of strikes. The suggestion comes as US President Barack Obama condemned the "systemic failures" that saw intelligence about a Nigerian trained in Yemen planning a bomb attack squandered with the potential cost of hundreds of lives. Mr Obama called for "lessons to be learned" over the failures to link up intelligence. The...

In response to national and local liberals who continually bash former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, I, as a conservative along with millions of conservatives across the country, would like to set the record straight. Palin has more common sense solutions regarding the problems facing our country than the entire administration of President Barack Obama. An example: Palin understands that the health care system needs to be fixed, but also understands as do most people that the Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid 2,000-pages of smoke and mirrors is not the answer. Common sense says you don't destroy the system to fix it. Palin...

It is just one attempt after another of Muslims trying to attack us. Anyone still want to say that there is no Islamic threat? It is time that we all wake up and realize that this war is forever, as commanded by Mohammad. Three men suspected of being al-Qaida associates have been indicted on charges they plotted to ferry drugs through the Sahara Desert to raise money for terrorist attacks.

Returning Gitmo's detainees to Yemen defies common sense. President Obama has belatedly declared that the near miss above Detroit constituted "a catastrophic breach of security" and ordered a review of America's intelligence efforts. We're glad to hear it, but let's hope the Commander in Chief also rethinks his own approach to counterterrorism.Recent events have exposed the shortcomings of treating terror as a law enforcement problem and rushing to close Guantanamo Bay. A new wave of jihadists is coming of age, inspiring last month's deadly attack at Ft. Hood and nearly bringing down Northwest Flight 253, and next time we may...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, numerous experts tried to warn the American people that Democrat nominee Barack Hussein Obama's expressed foreign policy approach would weaken the United States and undermine our safety and security. What was their motive and to what end? Politics? Self-aggrandizement? Or, perhaps concern for the preservation of our American way of life and the safety and security of our country? Now, less than one year later, the hypocrisy, ambivalence, equivocation and vagueness of the Obama Administration's commitment to combatting terrorism here and abroad is indeed being exploited as weakness by those who wish us harm -...

Delta Air Lines Inc. is offering travel credits to passengers on the Amsterstam-to-Detroit flight that a suspected terrorist tried and failed to blow up on Christmas. Spokeswoman Susan Elliott told The Associated Press on Wednesday the world's biggest carrier is notifying passengers about the vouchers. The amount wasn't disclosed. According to authorities, a Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as the plane was preparing to land in Detroit on Friday. It was carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members. Delta is offering its gratitude to one of the...

PRESIDENT Obama’s manner in responding to the attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was a statement in itself. He was unruffled, focused strictly on the facts, and conveyed his commitment to locating the plotters in clear, unmistakable language. The message to the world, communicated in Obama’s serious but measured manner, was that America is concentrating on preventing terrorism, not changing the world. Obama’s approach contrasted so sharply with that of former president George W. Bush that critics quickly chided Obama for being too cool and failing to grasp the gravity of the situation. Many Americans would like to believe -...

Times Square Shut Down Due To Suspicious Vehicle 42nd Street And Broadway Closed As NYPD Investigates Park White Van NEW YORK (CBS) ― The NYPD has closed down part of Manhattan's Times Square in response to a report of a suspicious vehicle, CBS 2 HD has learned. Police blocked off Broadway at 42nd Street just after 11 a.m. Wednesday to investigate a white 1992 Dodge van with tinted windows that has been parked at the location for two days. The van has temporary plates and a tarp is covering the windows, police say.

A growing number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees are said to be returning to terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere.  The Pentagon most recently released a report in May showing that one in seven former detainees either returned, or is suspected of returning, to terrorist activity. At least two of them have taken leading roles in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group that has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.  The Obama administration says it will proceed with caution in transferring any more detainees out of Guantanamo Bay but...

Sadly we have lost more US Troops, but I have to wonder how an attack like this could even happen. Did this Muslim pose as a friend in the past, or did this maybe have something to do with Obama’s and our General’s new Rules of Engagement (ROE)? May they RIP.

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. "We learned of Abdulmutallab in November, when his father came to the US embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him. We did not have his name before then," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "Also in November, we worked...

Known for leaping in front of cameras to bolster support for health care "reform" or cap and trade, President Obama gives resounding campaign-style speeches to back agenda items he actually cares about. Terrorism doesn't rate that much effort. After Fort Hood and Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Mr. Obama seemed like he was dragged in front of the American people. Since Mr. Obama initially approached the Fort Hood shootings as a footnote in an already scheduled speech before the Tribal Nations Conference in November, national security matters haven't gone smoothly. He managed to belittle the massacre, giving shout outs to government...

Your thoughts on how the Obama administration is handling Abdul Mutallab in comparison to how it handled Hasan? The embarrassing and leaving-us-open-to-terror saga continues? Napolitano, as we know, emerged with some moronic statements. Your thoughts? McCarthy: Jamie, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure. It would be nice if the government spent half as much energy focusing on what actually catalyzes jihadist terror as it does denying that there is terrorism. This problem is not unique to Obama officials, but this administration is raising willful blindness to a new level. Basically, unless they catch a guy wearing an al Qaeda...

(CNN) – In blistering new comments Wednesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney says President Obama's reaction to the botched terrorist attack on Christmas Day is proof the president "is trying to pretend we are not at war." In his first statement since the Christmas Day terror attempt, Cheney hits Obama for what he describes as the president's "low key" response to the events last week, and criticizes the administration's broader approach to national security. "He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at...

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he was encouraged that President Barack Obama talked openly about the "systemic failures" involving the attempted Christmas bombing of Northwest Flight 253, but criticized him for not focusing more on terrorism since taking office. "The president has downplayed terrorism since he took office. He doesn't use the word anymore," DeMint told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith. "He waited eight months to nominate someone as head of [the Transportation Security Administration] and then they wanted to rush it through without any debate or roll call vote. So the focus on terror as a threat is real...

In what is shaping up as a major intelligence debacle on Obama's watch, Dennis Blair looms as the official most likely to be thrown under the Obama Bus. (You may recall him as the National Intelligence Director who suggested that we not only release Gitmo detainees to live here among us but also put them on public welfare so American taxpayers could pay for the privilege of living side-by-side with jihadists dedicated to killing them). It's worth remembering, though, that the Office of the National Intelligence Director, like the Department of Homeland Security, is an ill-considered legacy of the vastly...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Three senior US senators on Tuesday called on President Barack Obama to stop transferring Guantanamo detainees to Yemen until Sanaa can guarantee that they will not return to the battlefield. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman -- the first two Republicans and the third a political independent -- said that such transfers are "highly unwise and ill-considered." Close to half of the 198 "war on terror" detainees still at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- which Obama has vowed to close -- are from Yemen. The senators wrote to express their "deep concern"...

A series of bomb attacks in Iraq have killed at least 20 people and injured at least 30 others. Two bombs exploded in the provincial capital Ramadi - the first by a suicide bomber in a car near the governor's offices. A second bombing a short while later exploded at the entrance to the governorate building and struck the convoy of the governor Qassim Mohammed Abid. There are conflicting reports on whether he was killed or wounded. A deputy police chief and other officials were killed. Anbar province, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, was once the heartland of the Al...

WASHINGTON (Dec. 29) -- A partisan skirmish has left the nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration sitting on the sidelines for weeks. And both sides increased the volume of that debate Tuesday, as the nation continues to focus on aviation security in the wake of an attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing. Counterterrorism expert Erroll Southers was nominated in September by President Barack Obama and approved by committee last month. But Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up the nomination over whether TSA workers should have collective bargaining. "Sadly the Republican obstructionism of just one person, Senator DeMint, prevented TSA...

Last May at the National Archives, President Barack Obama warned that “more mistakes would occur” if Congress continued to politicize terrorist detention policy and the closure of Guantanamo Bay. “[I]f we refuse to deal with those issues today,” he predicted, “then I guarantee you, they will be an albatross around our efforts to combat terrorism in the future.” On June 17, at the Administrative Maximum (ADX) penitentiary in Florence, Colo., one of those albatrosses, inmate number 24079-038, began his day with a whole new range of possibilities.(snip) Reid was arrested in 2001 for attempting to blow up American Airlines Flight...

“We’re still focusing on keeping prohibited items off planes, but that calculus is working against us,� says Andrew Thomas, an aviation security expert at the University of Akron in Ohio. “The terrorists are constantly developing more sophisticated attacks. Meanwhile, the range of explosive devices that terrorists are developing is outstripping the ability of screening systems to catch them. Last August, an alleged suicide bomber who had explosives implanted in his body injured Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Even controversial full body scans don’t pick up such hidden devices, Mr. Thomas says. New profiling methods Instead, Thomas says authorities should focus...

The Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was linked to a Muslim extremist under surveillance by MI5 while he was living in Britain, it has emerged. The connection was discovered after record checks by MI5 following the attempted suicide bombing on Christmas Day by Abdulmutallab on a US-bound plane. It is feared he had been involved with other extremists while he was a student at University College, London between 2005 and 2008. It has also emerged that the bomber wrote of his desire for Muslims to “rule the whole world� by carrying out a “great jihad� in internet postings four years...

Luck was with us on Northwest flight 253. Dumb luck.This terror attack could easily have been averted but for the Aloha, baby! attitude of the Obumblers regarding domestic terrorism. At Fort Hood last month, a couple of cops finally brought down an Islamofascist killer after he murdered twelve soldiers and left thirty wounded on the tarmac. On Flight 253 to Detroit it happened to be an alert Dutch filmmaker who jumped the would-be bomber when his pants started to burn. But the bomb was an ingredient of Semtex, and he was trying to inject a liquid detonator that could have...

War On Terror: The recent attack on a U.S. jet in Detroit brings Yemen to the fore as the nexus of virtually every terror attack that's come from a resurgent al-Qaida. This is one hellhole in need of attention. As wearisome as the thought of a new front in the war on terror may be, the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day signals loudly that terrorists are not only still out there, but in resurgence. Since 2001, according to Heritage Foundation's James Jay Carafano, there've been 28 failed attacks on U.S. targets. This year there have...

Congressman Steve King says the suspected terrorist who tried to blow up a plane bound for Detroit should be taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. King, a Republican from western Iowa, says the man should be not be tried in the American court system. “We ought to be taking a look at taking people like this ‘Christmas Day Bomber’ and declaring them to be an ‘enemy combatant’ even if they have set foot in the United States. This plot took place in a foreign country and I don’t even know if he was over U.S. airspace when this actually happened. This...

Sharia and Our Friends the Yemenis   [Andy McCarthy] From Monday's Wall Street Journal.  As you read, remember we have preserved Islamic law in the constitutions the State Department helped draft for Afghanistan and Iraq: A Loophole Emerges In Yemeni Campaign Against ExtremistsA Judge Sympathetic to U.S. Frees 19 of Its Enemies; Islamic Law Allows JihadSANA, Yemen — The U.S. has spent millions of dollars in Yemen to help the government crack down on Islamic extremists who want to wage violent jihad against nonbelievers.There is just one problem with the strategy: It is not clear that jihad is illegal in Yemen.Last...

President Obama created by executive order Tuesday a National Declassification Center to oversee efforts to make once-secret government documents public. The order comes as part of Obama's promise to push government to err on the side of disclosure as it tackles the need to keep certain information from the public. In a post on the White House blog, William H. Leary, the senior director of records and access management at the National Security Council, writes that the effort is aimed at shifting the burden of defending secrecy to the government.

Napolitano:  Security worked before it didn'tOn Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed that the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam to Detroit flight last week demonstrated that "the system worked." On NBC's "Today" show on Monday, she claimed that her comment was taken out of context, and that she agrees that the system "failed miserably." Ms. Napolitano's second attempt at honesty was just as disingenuous as the first. In her interview on Monday morning, she claimed that her reference to the system working just dealt with how security responded after the attack had been thwarted. Matt Lauer...

Online messages that appear to have been posted by the Nigerian accused of trying to bomb a U.S. airliner reveal a devout young man who, amid school and sports, said he indulged in "jihad fantasies."Law-enforcement officials said they so far can't verify that the postings were made by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.  But information from the messages appears to jibe with biographical details known about the suspected attacker.Many of the messages on the Islamic Forum Web site appear to have been posted while the alleged bomber was at boarding school in the west African state of Togo.  They were made under...

Flight 253 becomes an excuse to organize airport screeners. The notion that unionized airport baggage screeners in Detroit could have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a plane in Amsterdam or Lagos doesn't make much sense. But sure enough, some in Congress are using the thwarted Christmas Day terrorist attack to argue that a new leader for the Transportation Security Administration could have saved the day. Rahm Emanuel's famous declaration that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste seems to have become a way of Washington life. That's the meaning of the political and media beatdown now being visited...

Security: Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the attempted destruction of Flight 253 were released from Guantanamo two years ago. The case for indefinite detention has been made once again, and not in Illinois. Sometimes America's chickens do come home to roost. In a statement released Monday, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which counts among its leadership two former Guantanamo detainees, claimed responsibility for the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the crotch bomber, told FBI agents he was trained for his Christmas Day mission in Yemen by top leaders of the group who provided...

Date / Time: 12/29/2009 10:00 PM at Jihadi Killer Hour radio. LT Behenna is the US Army officer imprisoned for shooting and killing an AQ terrorist that attacked him. Get the story on Michael, his life, and his current, tragic and unjust imprisonment at the hands of the same system and mentality that brought you Ft. Hood. Keep in mind that Vicki Behenna successfully prosecuted Tim McVeigh for the Oklahoma city bombing, a bombing which killed one of Michael's mentors, when Michael was 11 years old. Call in to speak with her. Get the background, here: http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/12/army-officer-kills-al-qaeda-operative-imprisoned-after-prosecutors-ignore-own-expert-witness/

HONOLULU – President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the intelligence community had bits of information that should have been pieced together that would have triggered "red flags" and possibly prevented the Christmas Day attempted terror attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. "There was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security," Obama said. Senior U.S. officials told The Associated Press that intelligence authorities are now looking at conversations between the suspect in the failed attack and at least one al-Qaida member. They did not say how these communications with the suspect, Umar Farouk...

A congressman who oversees American intelligence operations, a former CIA operative and an intelligence official agree that Christmas Day's aborted attack on a U.S. airliner proves that the nation's anti-terrorism efforts are flawed. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano praised the nation's aviation-security system Sunday but backtracked Monday, admitting the system "did not work in this instance." "Clearly, the system did not work," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told the Tribune-Review yesterday. Hoekstra is the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "Success is not a person on a plane with an explosive," he said. "That is a failure. The system designed...

<p>HONOLULU -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday said a "catastrophic breach" of security led to the Christmas Day attempted bombing on a Detroit-bound airplane.</p> <p>"A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable. There was a mix of human and systemic failure that contributed to this catastrophic breach of security," he said.</p>

WASHINGTON -- U.S. investigators are pursuing possible links between the Christmas Day airline bomb plot and former Guantanamo Bay prisoners now thought to be leaders of an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. Defense Department documents released earlier this year show that Said Ali al-Shihri and Muhammad al-Awfi, released from Guantanamo in 2007, are thought now to be leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni group that Monday claimed responsibility for the bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged in the botched Christmas Day plot, told investigators that he was...

The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki, the same Muslim imam suspected of radicalizing the Fort Hood shooting suspect, a U.S. intelligence source has told The Washington Times. The intelligence official, who is familiar with the FBI's interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said the bombing suspect has boasted of his jihad training during interrogation by the FBI and has said it included final exhortations by Mr. al-Awlaki. "It was Awlaki who indoctrinated him," the official said. "He was told, 'You are going to be the...

WASHINGTON -- The father of terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab met with the Central Intelligence Agency at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, and told of his son's likely radicalization, according to the CIA. The Flight 253 Bomb AttemptObama Calls Security Breach 'Catastrophic' U.S. Turns to Strained Yemeni Leader Posts Reveal Lonely, Devout Man Al Qaeda Claims Role in Bomb Plot Obama Ends Silence With Stern Warning U.S. Authorities Missed Terror-Threat Signs Flight Delays Ease; TSA Tweaks Rules U.K. Visa Policy Didn't Flag Suspect A Primer in PETN Routine Turned to Mayhem on Terror Flight . The initial meeting Nov....

President Obama said Tuesday that a "systemic failure" on multiple levels allowed a passenger armed with explosives to board a Detroit-bound flight last week. The president, in his most extensive comments so far on what went wrong in the security process, said information about the terror suspect was not properly shared among intelligence agencies. He said that information, particularly a warning to authorities from the 23-year-old suspect's father in Nigeria, should have landed him on a no-fly list well before he boarded the Northwest Airlines flight in Amsterdam. "The warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would...

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans. American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia, where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials. ABC News described their enrollment in the art...

This image provided by ABC NEWS shows charred underwear with explosive packet, a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN that was smuggled onto the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. (AFP/ABCNews-HO)

In the wake of the miraculously failed Christmas day Jihadi attack over the skies of Detroit, we are starting to see our governmental mechanisms crank into gear to institute policies to prevent terrorists from attacking us successfully. Never mind that it was that very governmental bureaucracy which enabled the Jihadists to penetrate secure areas with explosives and come close to killing 270 people on Christmas day. It was our incompetent governmental bureaucracies which granted a known Jihadi a visa to enter the United States. It was our governmental bureaucracies which let him get on an airliner without a passport. It...

The number of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay sank to under 200 this weekend with the transfer of a dozen former prisoners in the last day to Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somaliland. One hundred ninety eight detainees remain at Guantanamo. Since President Obama took office, 42 detainees have been transferred to other countries, and one detainee -- Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani -- was transferred to New York City for trial. Over the weekend six Yemeni detainees, Jamal Muhammad Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed,Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami and Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al...

AFP - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad branded Sunday's anti-government protests as a "nauseating play" staged by the United States and Israel, state news agency IRNA reported. "Iranians have seen lots of these games. Americans and Zionists are the sole audience of a play they have commissioned and sold out," he said on Tuesday in reaction to the protests, in which eight people were killed. "A nauseating play is performed," he said.

There are many valuable lessons to be learned from the failed Christmas attack on a Detroit-bound airliner; throwing more money at airline security is not one of them.The most effective means of stopping terrorist attacks is get as far to the “left of the boom� as possible—i.e., stopping attacks before they even come close to fruition. Since 9/11 many systems and programs have been put in place to allow the U.S. government to get “left of the boom.� The failed Christmas Day attack made one thing clear: The Administration has to use these tools more effectively.Where There Is Smoke...

After all it was a massive security gap that got exposed. A Nigerian claiming links to Al-Queda tried to set off an incendiary device on a plane that was landing in Detroit on Christmas Day in “an attempted act of terrorism”, according to a White House official. But America needs to find the answer to a very basic question after right wing racist rule of eight years by the neo cons. What made Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab become a terrorist? Unless this questions is answered the attempt to act as terrorists may never go away. Think about a simple scenario. Abdul...

This is Dr. James Manning's most recent video and well worth the listen. Below I have typed a transcription which is partially paraphrased. Reverend Manning says that Al Qaeda doesn't fail and he suspects that the terrorist attack on Christmas Day is new psychological warfare. He said if Al Qaeda wanted that plane out of the air, it would have happened. He said that he feels that Al Qaeda did not want the plane out of the air because it would have forced Obama to go to war, just like President Bush. Obama would have been forced to go...

Just wonderin'.... traveling to the Caribbean in two weeks....

The US State Department on Monday said there was "insufficient" evidence to revoke the visa of a Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jetliner, even though his father had raised concerns about him. The State Department said the father of 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had gone to the US embassy in Abuja on November 19 to raise concerns about his son. The embassy relayed those concerns the following day in a diplomatic cable to the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, which coordinates intelligence among various government agencies, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. But Kelly...

A global search for accomplices in the Detroit airliner plot was under way yesterday after an al-Qaeda group based in Yemen claimed responsibility for the operation and the would-be bomber was reported to have said that more attacks were being planned. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a terrorist cell led by a former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden, issued a statement saying that the failed attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a response to American-backed airstrikes on the group in Yemen this month. Yemeni government forces, acting on US intelligence and using what officials have admitted was American military...