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Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers. Heck of a job, Brownie.

Cindy Sheehan said Facebook deleted an invitation to the CIA Drone Protest in Langley, Virginia, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2010. Sheehan said "the CIA is becoming overly involved in terrorizing populations." Sheehan joins a powerhouse of women activists to lead the CIA Drone Protest, including Cynthia McKinney, Ann Wright, Kathy Kelly and Debra Sweet. "We had an event with over 250 confirmed guests and it was deleted by Facebook," Sheehan said. "We are going to the source of one of the big problems in the US Empire -- the CIA -- to protest its extra-judicial killings of people in Pakistan....

Democrats have begun to add their voices to the Republicans asking the President to stop the transfer off terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, who said last week," "Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time. It is too unstable." Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday that officials should review the transfers. She does support plans to close the prison and open one in Illinois for terrorism suspects.''I think it is a bad time to send the 90 or so Yemenis back...

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's plan to begin phasing out nuclear weapons has run up against powerful resistance from officials in the Pentagon and other US agencies, a US newspaper reported late Sunday. Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague last April. But citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the Obama administration is now locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the US nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in country's military strategy. The Pentagon has stressed the importance of continued US deterrence, an objective Obama has...

The Obama administration on Sunday acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies missed some red flags that could have helped unravel the plot to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, but said there had been no single "smoking gun" indicating that the attack was coming. John Brennan, the White House's top counterterrorism official, used a round of appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows to defend the administration's handling of the attempted attack. A 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had allegedly tried to set off explosives that he had smuggled underneath his clothing onto a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to...

A spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service said the agency is investigating an effigy of President Barack Obama found hanging from a building in the Georgia hometown of former President Jimmy Carter. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told The Associated Press that the large black doll was found Saturday morning along Main Street in the small town of Plains. According to footage from WALB-TV, the doll was hanging by a noose in front of a red, white and blue sign that says "Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President." A witness told the television station that the doll...

Take President Obama’s poor timing in response to a failed terrorist attack on a U.S. jetliner, add the politicization of that event by his surrogates and a ridiculous message by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and what do you get? A complete failure when it comes to a commander-in-chief’s most important job: Protecting Americans from harm. “It was arrogant and stupid,” one Democrat strategist, who supported Obama the candidate, admits privately. “The president needed to set the initial tone on a matter of such importance,” said Mark Rozell, professor of public policy at George Mason University. “Press secretaries don't calm...

The accused "underwear bomber" made a dramatic final call to his father that he found so alarming, the father approached Nigerian officials who took him directly to the CIA's station chief in the Nigerian capital, sources told ABC News.

The U.S. Government is offering the suspect charged with attempting to bomb an aircraft on Christmas Day, Omar Abdulmutallab, some kind of incentives to share what he knows about Al Qaeda, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday. Asked why Abdulmutallab should cooperate given his right, as criminal defendant, to remain silent, Brennan replied: "He doesn't have to but he knows there are certain things that are on the table... if he wants to engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways he can do that." Asked if Abdulmutallab's willingness to talk changed once he had an...

<p>Washington (CNN) – The man once charged with overseeing the CIA’s hunt of Osama bin Laden said Sunday that the threat posed by al Qaeda is greater now than at the time of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that bin Laden orchestrated.</p>

Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday that airlines based in the United States should threaten to stop flying to airports with lax security.

Al Qaeda’s Yemen Connection, America and the Global Islamic Jihad December 30, 2009 — The attempt to destroy Northwest Airlines flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day underscores the growing ambition of al Qaeda's Yemen franchise, which has grown from a largely Yemeni agenda to become a player in the global Islamic jihad in the last year. Since merging with the al Qaeda franchise in Saudi Arabia last January and renaming itself Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), it has stepped up operations in Yemen itself, struck into Saudi Arabia, and now operates on...

More than eight years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, New York City authorities are demanding that developer Larry Silverstein fork over almost $35m in commercial rent taxes on the Twin Towers and two other buildings that no longer exist. The city's reasoning is that Silverstein continued to pay rent to the Port Authority after the towers fell. That, city officials claim, subjects his transactions to the 3.9 percent commercial rent tax ... On May 27, 2007, the city's finance department sent Silverstein a bill for $34,866,549 - including penalties and interest - on his four trade center buildings. City...

In the days after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to kill himself and bring down Northwest Flight 253, the story followed a familiar pattern. First, there were the daily revelations of what various intelligence and other government agencies didn't do with what they had already known about Abdulmutallab's behaviour and associations: from his father's effort to alert US officials about his son's radicalisation, to Abdulmutallab's cash purchase of a round trip ticket and his checking in for the flight without luggage - both "red flags" that should have warranted secondary airport screening. As the full picture emerged, it became clear...

All travelers flying into the U.S. from foreign countries will receive tightened random screening, and 100 percent of passengers from 14 terrorism-prone countries will be patted down and have their carry-ons searched, the Obama administration was notifying airlines on Sunday Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31122.html#ixzz0baIviaU6