White House: 'No smoking gun'

I watched This Week and was DISAPPOINTED the host did not make Hoekstra answer his question regarding the despicable practice of trying to use this latest terrorist attempt to raise money for his political campaign. I would like to see just anyone hold these guys accountable for their very bad behavior no matter what flavor of party they belong to.

This statement has a ring of truth about it.

At least to someone who's listened to bureaucratise for a long, long time.

What it comes down to: how much "inconvenience" will the public put up with?

Famously impatient, Americans really detest standing in line with their shoes and belts in a basket......Yet that is what is required to prevent shoe bombers. Americans won't put up with the inconvenience...

So my guess is: little will change.

After all, banks are paying bonus money. Public option is apparently iced. Congress is unresponsive to crisis after crisis.

Janet Reno once said it would take a debacle like the 1929 crash to shake off the corporations' stranglehold on Washington.

She was right, of course. So, paradoxically, emergency measures pursued by Obama blunted the force of his agenda.

On pants-on-fire, Obama was lucky this time.

[Well, duh. He's a pretty lucky guy generally...]

Lochness, how about holding the party accountable that seems to be oblivious to Al Qaeda and terrorism? This administration wants to call terrorist acts, "man-made events" or some such nonsense. It wants to make nice-nice with the terrorists by treating them like common car thieves rather than terrorists. Heck, Obama called this guy (and wrongly too) "an isolated extremist." Come on!
Anyway, Brennan says there was no smoking gun.
Hmmm, what are these then:
1. Terrorist's father goes to U.S. embassy to warn them about his son.
2. Terrorist is on terrorist watch list.
3. Terrorist buys one way international ticket with cash and has no luggage and it's one way.
Missing these signs indicates to me the Obama White House is completely incapable!

"There was no piece of intelligence that said, 'this guy's a terrorist. He's going to get on a plane'" - Really? Didn't the terrorist's daddy tell our embassy personnel about his son? Wasn't the terrorist on some list of the state department? The no-fly list needs to get expanded.

This was pure...cover thy president panty waists a$$.
Nope, no smoking gun here!
The would be bomber gets on a jumbo jet with no luggage, one-way ticket paid for in cash while his father warned U.S. authorities that his son was a jihadist nut case and was trained by alQaeda in Yemen.

Thank-God for faulty detonators and Heck-of-a-job, obama...no smoking gun here.

Paulo

Oh jeez. Terry Moran is going to be just as vapid and silly as David Gregory! Let's see. Abdulmutallab DID have a Facebook page. So why didn't Facebook detect Abdulmutallab's terror plot? After all, according to Moran, Facebook can "connect dots," unlike the entire counterterrorism infrastructure of the United States. Better journalists, please!

And, Mr. Tankersley, I believe that Brian Ross' story that "several al Qaeda leaders in Yemen [allegedly were] former Guantanamo prisoners released during the Bush administration" has been retracted, yes? It would help if you journalists would note that, unless you are comfortable with reporting GOP lying and distortion as assertions of fact.

"We are doing everything possible to scour all the intelligence to see if there is another Abdulmutallab out there,"
You can bank on it that there are.
Our government has twice in the past 3 months (Ft Hood & the skies over MI), let down it's guard and ignore the warning signs.
Get with the program!!

Which is stronger evidence, a smoking gun, or flaming briefs?

No, no smoking gun. Isn't that the whole idea to stop them before they have a smoking gun? But, then that would take a Global War on Terror...hmmm. But, you liberals are solving the problem by being nice and saying it's our fault in the tried and tested (and proven destined for failure of course) method of appeasement.

Maybe its time for another Obama apology for America (that would be #4, but who's counting).

And, all this world wide accolade that Obama has reaped for himself, er, ah I mean for his country the United States and it citizens, doesn't seem to have changed any underwear (bombers).

Aren't underwear bombs bad for the environment?

Shouldn't Al Gore be involved somehow?

Instead of releasing the Gitmo terrorists back to Yemen, let's just release them here. That way we can find them easier when they blow us up. And, then we can have a trial and pay for their defense lawyers, give them a platform to preach their hate for America, and the world will really love us.

John D:

Thank god this guy did not succeed. The regulations and procedures we were folllowing were put into place by the Bush administration. We still cannot 'connect the dots" so we need to make some changes to those procedures. At least now we know where some holes are and working together we can plug them.

As far as Hoekstra is concerned, I think it is awful the way he is using this near tragedy and failure to line his campaign pockets and make himself look like he is keeping us all safe because of HIS actions.

Let us take a moment's pause and honor the memory of one of Illinois' exemplary citizens, the late, great Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, whose birthday, it is today. His years upon this earth were, 1896-1969. He was truly a giant among men, particularly among politicians, no small feet, in his time, when politicians were a little less greedy and a great deal more honest.
Here is a shout out to the Republican Party, that they may find their way back to the Party of President Lincoln and Senator Dirksen, and not continue on the sheeple's path, shepherded by the likes of Richie Armey, Neut Getrich and of course, "Crash" McCain !! That gang who, still, can't shoot straight !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO THE WOMEN AND MEN OF OUR ARMED FORCES.

You do realize, Mr. Tankersley, that the ABC story that asserted that "several al Qaeda leaders in Yemen are former Guantanamo prisoners released during the Bush administration" has been RETRACTED, don't you? A good journalist would add "Mr. Bond was referring to a story by ABC's Brian Ross, who has retracted his original story." That way, the journalist isn't just repeating GOP lies and distortions uncritically, a practice that some call "stenography" but others chalk up to just plain laziness. This is how journalists contribute to the poisonous public discourse. I've seen an unfortunate tendency for political journalists to leave their the fact-checking to PolitFact, but it is an unsatisfactory substitute for real journalism because it doesn't reach the same audience that was given the bad information. Another alternative would be to leave out the untruth, if there was no time to fact check the statements. But you SHOULD make note somewhere in your blog post that the statement is untrue, don't you think?

An Awful First Year
But Obama can still succeed.
*
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTZiNzE1YTBmNDJmMWUwMTczOWUzNDZjZDY3OGMyYjM=

The WSJ has a useful antidote to Brennan and Obama's CYA mumbo-jumbo:
"Intelligence about terror threats rarely comes on such a silver platter: A Nigerian banker went to the U.S. Embassy in Lagos to warn that his son had fallen under "the influence of religious extremists based in Yemen" and was a security risk. This came after months of U.S. intelligence intercepts about al Qaeda plans for an attack using a Nigerian man. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab paid for his ticket with cash and didn't check any luggage."

If you take what Mr. Brennan says seriously, a terrorist would have to wear a sign proclaiming himself a terrorist, before the US would deny him a plane ticket.

The eunuch-bomber's father notified US authorities that his own son had become radicalized months before.

Yet, the eunuch bomber was allowed to board a plane??? How was it that he still had a valid visa? Further...buying a one-way ticket, not checking any luggage didn't raise any red-flags?

Seems like the State Department should be answering a few questions on the visa thing.

Re: "President Obama's leading counter-terrorism advisor said Sunday that human error, not turf battles among federal intelligence officials, allowed an Al Qaeda-trained operative to carry out an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound passenger plane on Christmas Day."

IMHO, Brennan is sugar-coating the CIA's lapse; human error???, try incompetence.

The guy's father tells the CIA "his kid has gone bad" and the CIA sits on the information instead of sharing it with other agencies that can act on it like DHS/TSA that creates no-fly lists and shares watch lists or DoS that can lift visas.

TSA has twenty-one TSA Representatives (TSARs) and more than 50 TSA inspectors responsible for coordinating and conducting security assessments at more than 300 foreign airports and repair stations in more than 100 different countries. TSARs serve as transportation security liaisons to these host governments in addition to the local U.S. Embassy. TSA inspectors perform onsite security assessments that focus on personnel and equipment preparedness. Through their efforts, TSA has successfully vetted all airports with direct flights into the United States.

IMHO, TSA has a good system but it works best when the CIA isn't out to lunch .... withholding vital information.

http://www.tsa.gov/approach/harmonization.shtm