Jan 02 2010

White House Briefed On Flight 253 Bomb Technology Two Months Prior

Drip, Drip, Drip. As more information is known, the depth of the Obama Administration’s failures continue to deepen and shock. Not only did:

  • the NSA pick up chatter in August about al Qaeda planning attacks on the US with a “Nigerian”  – possibly going by the name Umar Farouk,
  • the NSA pick up Nigerian Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab this fall communicating with radical Yemen cleric and al Qaeda recruite al-Aulaqi sometime this fall,
  • the the UK revoke Abdulmutallab’s student visa earlier this year (and in all likelihood notified the US),
  • Abdulmutallab’s father alert the US State Department and CIA of his sons radicalization while in Yemen in November,
  • Yemen know Umar Faroul Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from August to early December,
  • a Somali man get stopped by Somali airport security attempting to use the same sophisticated stealth bomb in November as Abdulmutallab used,
  • the President get a briefing on December 22nd about some kind of holiday attack,

It turns out the White House was also briefed in October regarding this exact same explosive device – and its ability to make it pass airport screening systems:

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was briefed in October on an assassination attempt by Al Qaeda that investigators now believe used the same underwear bombing technique as the Nigerian suspect who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence and administration officials tell NEWSWEEK.

The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official.

What is wrong with the people in the White House? You get a briefing on a bomb attack that almost succeeded in killing a key Saudi ally, then the same type of bomb shows up one month later in Somalia. All the while warning signs are blaring about a possible holiday attack and a distraught father is shooting off warning flares about his son’s transition to the dark side.

And through all of this, including the failed bombing attempt itself, our young and inexperienced President is still vacationing in Hawaii playing golf, taking a week to realize what the entire planet had figured out days ago.

It is not hard to see how this slow to react, overly cautious, consumed by analysis White House is failing to detect and respond to threats. Their tempo borders on the lazy, and is clearly risky to the extreme. You cannot allow vacation to be a priority over terror threats.

Update: Allahpundit has some good comments on this revelation over at Hot Air, check it out.

10 responses so far

10 Responses to “White House Briefed On Flight 253 Bomb Technology Two Months Prior”

  1. kathie says:

    al Queda won, the White House lost=how do we spin this fiasco? It took days to write the scenario.

  2. Redteam says:

    I said before the election the man was clearly not qualified for the job. I’m now of the opinion that it was worse than that.
    He was so unqualifed for the job he is a hazard to the country and it’s citizens.

  3. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Suhr Mesa, AJ Strata and topsy_top20k, topsy_top20k_en. topsy_top20k_en said: new: White House Briefed On Flight 253 Bomb Technology Two Months Prior http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/12131 […]

  4. BarbaraS says:

    The Obama administration want a crisis. That’s why they ignored these warnings. They want to instigate martial law so that they can tell us what we can do more so than they do now. They also want to rescind the November elections. That is their game plan.

  5. BarbaraS says:

    That is why the dems are not worried about being re-elected in November. I have wondered why they can be so arrogant and ignore the wishes of their constituents and this is why.

  6. Mike M. says:

    No. The Democrats won’t try martial law – the military won’t do it. They loathe Obama with a passion.

    The problem is that the Democrats have always considered national security to be secondary to domestic political dogma.

    This goes all the way back to Jefferson squandering the funds that would have bought a fine, strong Navy on useless gun-rowboats – because those were politically appropriate for the nation of yeoman farmers Jefferson wanted to create. And I can quote a long litany of other blunders.

  7. hedgehog43 says:

    The entire response could be viewed as having been already prepared for the success of the hijacker; when the attack was thwarted, a whole new response was called for. That’s why it took so long to respond.

  8. MarkN says:

    Happy New Year AJ – part two. The second biggest event of 2009 was the Stupak Amendment. The vote on this was so shocking that the Democrats went into spin mode faster than ride at a county fair. At the time I mentioned that the Stupak Amendment was a FREE vote (you can look it up). This comment did not spark any comments and I chalked it up to ignorance as to its significance. I knew at the time that in DC, there is no such thing as a free vote. By that I mean that the rep is free to vote his mind. Every vote is bought one way or another through earmarks, special provisions, arm-twisting, or just threats.

    One month later Sen. Ben Nelson of NE blew the cover right off the notion of a FREE vote. Everyone knows the price of his vote even if they have no electronic assets. But the prize truly goes to Sen. Reid who said in defense of Ben Nelson, that if a Senator did not get a special deal for their vote then they weren’t a good Senator. Reid just admited what I already knew (and quite a few others) that every vote in DC in bought and paid for and the price is the only thing they haggle over.

    Which gets us back to the Stupak Amendment. Pelosi had already bought Stupak’s vote on health care, plus Pelosi told Stupak that even if his amendment squeaked by, it would be taken out in conference. So you had a rare occurance in DC, an actual free vote. Something that was so big that the Democrats had to keep it secret from the Republicans. Which is why the Republicans were going to vote present so the amendment would fail and Stupak and his allies would vote against the final bill. Somehow, Cantor got wind of the nature of the vote and switched the Republicans to vote for it.

    The consequence of the vote (240-174-1) was immediate. The pro-abortion lobby, who usually could buy off a closer vote or an outright defeat were stunned. The size of the anti-abortion victory on an amendment more draconian than the Hyde amendment sent the pro-abortion activist into a panic. Of course the state controlled media ignored the panic on the left.

    The political fallout in 2010 from the Stupak Amendment, coupled with Maine’s rejection of Gay Marriage is that social issues are off the table. Social conservative issues won big in the House and even in Maine. Gay Marriage is also having a hard time in New York and New Jersey. The state controlled media cannot paint the Republicans as the rump social conservative party without support in the suburbs. When it comes down to federally funded abortion and gay marriage, the social conservative have found majority issues.

    The NJ governor race showed that social consevative who concentrate on economic issues can win statewide races. In the MA Senate race the social conservative has a shot if he concentrates on economic issues. Jobs, taxes, deficits, ObamaCare, out of control spending programs. Coakley is having trouble with the far left pro-abortion folks over her support of the Senate abortion language which is nothing even close to Stupak’s language.

    All thanks to the one FREE vote of 2009.

  9. […] Administration’s complete “ignorance” of it, should not be surprised over their reaction to the Hot Pants Bomber .  Rick Moran has an interesting take.  I’m not sure which way to go on this, but I […]

  10. owl says:

    Redteam…..
    “I said before the election the man was clearly not qualified for the job. I’m now of the opinion that it was worse than that.
    He was so unqualifed for the job he is a hazard to the country and it’s citizens.”

    Yep. I called it Scary. Heck of a note when you are actually scared of your President. A first for someone that has seen quite a few good, bad and the ugly. Most were good even if I did not agree 100%.

    Kathie, at this point I am not as concerned about martial law as the changes for Interpol. It fits perfectly with my rearrangement of wars in 2003.

    #1 MSM (most still do not fully understand this power and dismiss it because of internet. Only MSM had the power to give us Obama.

    #2 Internationals/UN/International Criminal Court/One World.
    I have been patted on the head the last few years by people saying it couldn’t happen. Why the exemptions?? Tie it to the NY trials. I do not even think the DIMS understand that Clinton might be the first black president, but Obama is the first World President. I expect to see him in that office.

    #3 Terrorists…….those top two are not only destroying USA but they are going to get us killed. Zealots all.

    Sure makes you wonder which part of that “World” educated this charmer, made his connections and bought his ticket.