Did they get anything right ?- Christmas Bomber

[volinbham]

Sheesh what an F'up.

Admit they should have stopped the guy.

Admit they were not consulted before the guy was mirandized.

Admit he should have been questioned first by the High Value Interrogation Group (the replacement for the evil Bush years of interrogation).

Admit the HVIG or HIG isn't in place yet - one year after signing away the evil Bush approach.

Nice work :clapping:

The only saving grace for the admin is all the attention on the MA Senate race.

Intelligence chief admits missteps | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/21/2010

Sleep well.

 

[lawgator1]

I agree. It is mindboggling that a guy on any list can buy a ticket for cash and go around the world with no luggage and nobody think anything was a bit off. I don't know what our authority is in a foregin country in terms of people boarding planes there and ultimately connecting to the U.S.

I would hope that we adopt a policy that any person traveling through an international airport to get to the U.S. has to be fully rescreened and that this include a simple comparison of identitification to the manifest and then the manifest to whatever lists we have.

I personally do not view it as profiling to single out for a thorough search someone who buys a ticket for cash and has no luggage.

 

[TennTradition]

I still don't understand how he wasn't rescreened. Every time I have connected through Amsterdam on a US-bound flight, I have gone through X-ray(carry-on) and magnetometer screening as well as an interview with an American official at the gate - to the point that they have even taken my laptop out and turned it on twice to make sure it worked. I did not witness any sort of comparison of names on the manifest to the watch lists, but that, of course, would go on largely behind the scenes. It makes me wonder if our approach has changed...I haven't connected through Schipol in about a year.

 

[lawgator1]

I still don't understand how he wasn't rescreened. Every time I have connected through Amsterdam on a US-bound flight, I have gone through X-ray(carry-on) and magnetometer screening as well as an interview with an American official at the gate - to the point that they have even taken my laptop out and turned it on twice to make sure it worked. I did not witness any sort of comparison of names on the manifest to the watch lists, but that, of course, would go on largely behind the scenes. It makes me wonder if our approach has changed...I haven't connected through Schipol in about a year.

I actually don't know if he was re-screened. But even if he was, I am bothered by the apparent superficiality of it, or at least the failure to connect any dots at all.

You know, the system probably does catch a number of would-be terrorist that we never hear about for obvious reasons. We only hear about the failures, of course.

Thing is, they watch what is being done and adapt their approaches to circumvent whatever new strategy we come up with. No matter what we do, they will study it and come up with a way around it.

 

[rjd970]

If somebody is willing to give their life to kill other people, it is almost...if not actually...impossible to stop them 100% of the time.

 

[volinbham]

If somebody is willing to give their life to kill other people, it is almost...if not actually...impossible to stop them 100% of the time.

I agree. I'm most troubled by the lack of communication among agencies (still), the over emphasis by the DoJ on treating these people like common criminals and the slow walk of replacing the interrogation techniques that were banned on Day 1 of the BO admin.

Someone can sneak through the cracks but this is a systematic failure pre and post.

I think Obama is having a bit of a "Mission Accomplished" moment. He made great fanfare about closing Gitmo and eliminating enhanced interrogation before he had any plan to replace either. He's finding out that a subpar solution still has more value than no solution whatsoever. A year later and the replacement for enhanced interrogation techniques are still not in place (per FBI director). Did they just hope nothing would happen for a while so that could put this on the back burner?

 

[volinbham]

More boneheadedness.

Robert Gibbs tells the Sunday morning crowd that it was a couple days before the terrorist was mirandized and that the FBI said they got all the information they could from the guy.

On Monday he tells the press he's not sure when the guy was mirandized. Seems info came out (court documents) showing less than one day after the incident that court charges were filed. Additionally, it appears the FBI had about 50 minutes with the guy prior.

1. 50 minutes gets all you can get out of the guy - a guy who was reportedly very talkative?

2. Obama ordered a "comprehensive review" of the whole deal but Gibbs can't give a time line and will have to get back to the press? The time line he spouted is wrong?

Full CYA mode. Nice work.

 

[CSpindizzy]

What bothers me most is putting someone in a civilian court. The whole counter is "don't you believe in our system of justice?" Yes I do. That is not the issue. Odds are the guy will be convicted. Problem is what will be exposed in the process? There are certain processes that will have to be followed and observed. Methods and personnel exposed. A forum to voice their ideology to the Ameican public. Relaying of valuable intel. And a method of making a mockery of the process. Yes, the guy will be convicted but at what cost?

This is a war of psychology. It's mind games. One attack on several planes was physical but think of how it changed our thinking. We did not know who to trust. Could government save us? What about those darker skinned people? All sorts of questions ran through the minds of Americans. Making a court hearing look like the OJ trial on steroids could do even more harm to the mindset of Americans. Second guessing the military, the intel community, the government, courts, etc. Completely chipping away at the mindset of Americans.