Passenger Lights Firecrackers on Northwest Flight!

[coachrowsey]

Again not to argue but they can take a flying leap before I go in one of them.

[emshighway]

Again not to argue but they can take a flying leap before I go in one of them.

You may not have a choice if you want to fly. They may become part of all lanes and will be similar to the walkthrough metal detector.

[emshighway]

Uninvestigated terrorism warning about Detroit suspect called not unusual
By Karen DeYoung and Michael Leahy — Monday, December 28th, 2009 ‘The Washington Post’ / Washington, DC


When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father in Nigeria reported concern over his son's "radicalization" to the U.S. Embassy there last month, intelligence officials in the United States deemed the information insufficient to pursue. The young man's name was added to the half-million entries in a computer database in McLean and largely forgotten.

The lack of attention was not unusual, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who said that thousands of similar bits of information flow into the National Counterterrorism Center each week from around the world. Only those that indicate a specific threat, or add to an existing body of knowledge about an individual, are passed along for further investigation and possible posting on airline and border watch lists.

"It's got to be something that causes the information to sort of rise out of the noise level, because there is just so much out there," one intelligence official said.

The report entered on Abdulmutallab, 23, after his father's Nov. 19 visit to the embassy was "very, very thin, with minimal information," said a second U.S. official familiar with its contents.

Abdulmutallab's alleged attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound commercial airliner on Christmas Day has put the information in a new light, however. It has unleashed sharp criticism of the watch-list procedures and the explosive-detection systems that apparently allowed him to board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with materials for a bomb.

On Sunday, the air travel system responded to another alert when a second Nigerian man locked himself in the bathroom on the same Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit. Officials said he was belligerent but genuinely sick and not a threat, according to the Associated Press.

Republican leaders placed responsibility for what they called lapses in preparedness squarely on the Obama administration Sunday, and questioned whether the president appreciates terrorist threats. "I think there's much to investigate here," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on ABC's "This Week."

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined GOP critics in asking how the suspect was able to retain a U.S. visa -- issued by the U.S. Embassy in London in 2008 -- after his name appeared in the terrorist database.

"What happened after this man's father called our embassy in Nigeria?" Lieberman asked. "What happened to that information? Was there follow-up to try to determine where this suspect was?"

White House officials struggled to explain the complicated system of centralized terrorist data and watch lists, stressing that they were put in place years ago by the Bush administration. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Obama has ordered reviews of the watch-list system and the airport explosives screening.

"The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take -- to take our fight to those that seek to do us harm," Gibbs said, emphasizing stepped-up military activity against al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" that Abdulmutallab's assertions of al-Qaeda contacts and training in Yemen were being investigated, but that "right now, we have no indication" his actions were "part of anything larger."

A Justice Department official said Abdulmutallab was released Sunday from a Michigan hospital where he was treated for burns suffered in the failed bombing. He was in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., according to the Associated Press. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Michigan on Jan. 8.

The youngest of 16 children of a prominent Nigerian bank executive, and the son of the second of his father's two wives, Abdulmutallab was raised at the family home in Kaduna, a city

in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north, relatives there said. He graduated with an engineering degree from City University in London. Later, his father sent him to Dubai to study for an advanced business degree.

In July, relatives said, his father agreed to his request to study Arabic in Yemen. The family became concerned in August when Abdulmutallab called to say he had dropped the course but would remain in Yemen for an undisclosed purpose. Several days later, they said, he sent a text message saying he was severing all ties with his family.

Relatives said that message provoked his father's visits to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja and to the Nigerian intelligence service. U.S. intelligence officials insisted Sunday that the visit did not occur until mid-November.

Abdulmutallab's movements after that are unclear, although a Nigerian official said Sunday that he "sneaked" into the country on the 24th. He paid cash for a ticket on a Dec. 24 KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam, connecting to Northwest 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day.

"The e-ticket was purchased from KLM airport office in Accra [Ghana] on 16th December 2009," Harold Demuren, a Nigerian aviation official, told a news conference in Lagos. "His passport was scanned, his U.S. visa was scanned, and the APIS [Advanced Passenger Information System] returned with no objection."

Abdulmutallab's name would have bounced back if he appeared on the U.S. "no-fly" or "selectee" watch lists. Although the size of the government's overall terrorist database has expanded since such information began to be systematically collected in 2003, the number of people prohibited from boarding a domestic or U.S.-bound aircraft, or subject to special scrutiny and notification of U.S. law enforcement, has shrunk, from an estimated 30,000 in early 2007 to 18,000 today.

Widespread complaints in the past tended to focus on lists seen as too long, rather than too short. Many came from members of Congress who objected to constituents and spouses being delayed or prevented from boarding flights because information about them or someone with a similar name had been listed.

The White House review will examine protocols for watch-listing individuals, currently based on a "reasonable suspicion" standard, according to the intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"Do we as a country believe that the bar is too high in light of this one individual who didn't reach it? Do we want to lower the bar? If we do, what are the implications? We are going to have a lot more people on the list."

The existing system was established by the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. It was designed to close gaps in intelligence-sharing that allowed a number of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers to enter the United States, although the CIA had identified them overseas as terrorism suspects.

The reforms set up the National Counterterrorism Center, which administers a huge database of terrorism information called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE.

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field assessments, captured documents, news from foreign allies and the media, and reports from worried fathers -- pour into the NCTC computers in McLean. At 11 each night, selected information from TIDE is downloaded into the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, administered by the FBI. Overnight entries are examined each morning by an interagency team drawn from across the government.

Under FBI direction, individuals assessed as significant risks are then "nominated" to specific watch lists, each of which has different criteria. In addition to the "no-fly" and "selectee" lists, the State Department maintains a list of people who should not be granted visas; other lists single out people who cross land borders and domestic fugitives.

In Abdulmutallab's case, a single, non-specific entry in TIDE was not enough to send his information to the TSDB, so he was never considered for a watch list. Among the gaps in the system already being addressed by computer technicians, officials said, is the absence of an "automatic feedback loop" that would have let TIDE know that the random report from Nigeria referred to a man who already had a valid U.S. entry visa, issued more than a year before.

Staff writers Carrie Johnson and Joby Warrick in Washington and Anne E. Kornblut in Kailua, Hawaii, and special correspondent Aminu Abubakar in Kano, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

[emshighway]

And the finger pointing continues:

GOP Voted Against Funding TSA Measures Like Explosives Detection Systems
December 28th, 2009, 2:32 PM UTC
While Republicans are busy blaming President Obama for the Christmas day terror event on Flight 253, they’re ignoring their own unwillingness to vote against funding for the Transportation Safety Administration and South Carolina Jim DeMint’s hold on appointing a TSA chief out of fear of unionization.

Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure that the 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Joe Wilson.

The conference bill included more than $4 billion for “screening operations,” including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems, with $778 million for buying and installing the systems.

DeMint responds that “Democrats have only themselves to blame” for there not being a TSA administrator, but there is so far no explanation for the unwillingness to fund needed measures to secure our safety.

[Gerard]

[quote="emshighway"]And the finger pointing continues:

God is there anything these idiot politicians can agree on? This blame game crap from both sides
is really really annoying.
And while they argue the terrorists laugh at us and think of new ways to blow us up.

[PhilDernerJr]

I understand and respect your views on rights to privacy, but I ask what you recommend be done to prevent the terror threat then?

[T-Bird76]

Again not to argue but they can take a flying leap before I go in one of them.

You may not have a choice if you want to fly. They may become part of all lanes and will be similar to the walkthrough metal detector.

Sir, when that happens I've taken my last plane ride. Your un American agency has already cost the airlines thousands of dollars due to customers who refuse to fly unless they have no choice. Not that it's a big deal but a couple months I drove to Mo & back rather than deal with TSA harASSment & I will continue to drive unless I have no choice.

Mate I think your going a bit overboard here. I fly over 100K a year and the TSA isn't all that bad. Yes a few years ago they sucked...no other words to describe their performance then suck. However in the past two years I'd say there is a marked improvement in their professionalism, customer service and procedures. Even when the TSA IMO wasn't up to snuff I never once got harassed by them.

Most of the agravation at the security line is from passengers who don't follow simple rules like "please remove all metal objects," "please take your laptop out," etc etc.

[coachrowsey]

I understand and respect your views on rights to privacy, but I ask what you recommend be done to prevent the terror threat then?

Phil:
First off people should avoid the WBI's at all cost & write their reps & let them know that K-9's are the way to go. I don't claim to be an expert but I do have some experience with K-9's myself as well as I talk to our local K-9 guys.
ETP & ETD. These are starters. I'm not against anything that makes since. I'm against the stupid knee jerk reactions.

With this said, I'll not post anything else here as I respect you & your site to much & do not wish to get in to trouble.

Edit to add puffers. Most likely this idiot would've been caught.

[PhilDernerJr]

You can share your thoughts as long as they aren't profane and hateful. I am not a huge fan of the xray machines but I can't really think of any alternatives.

Honest question...would dogs or puffers have caught this underwear bomb?

[T-Bird76]

You can share your thoughts as long as they aren't profane and hateful. I am not a huge fan of the xray machines but I can't really think of any alternatives.

Honest question...would dogs or puffers have caught this underwear bomb?

Puffers would not have, at least the current GE models that are out there. They're initial designs were to find money and drugs..not explosives. GE updated the software but to many false positives didn't allow them to be rolled out nationwide.

[coachrowsey]

You can share your thoughts as long as they aren't profane and hateful. I am not a huge fan of the xray machines but I can't really think of any alternatives.

Honest question...would dogs or puffers have caught this underwear bomb?

Phil:
IMO Yes.

[Tom_Turner]

If the TSA profiled the ACLU sues, they sue over the WBIs.

Well, perhaps its time to cross that bridge already... ?

Tom

[emshighway]

If the TSA profiled the ACLU sues, they sue over the WBIs.

Well, perhaps its time to cross that bridge already... ?

Tom

There is a smaller WBI which was planned to start being deployed even before this incident. 150 initially but I would expect much, much more.

[Tom_Turner]

If the TSA profiled the ACLU sues, they sue over the WBIs.

Well, perhaps its time to cross that bridge already... ?

Tom

There is a smaller WBI which was planned to start being deployed even before this incident. 150 initially but I would expect much, much more.

By all means, turn up the dial I suppose.

But I was actually referring to the profiling though....

Tom

[Gerard]

Everyone screaming about the TSA but in this incident the problem started in Nigeria then Amsterdam which is not controlled by out TSA/DHS. Correct?
And I dont usually fly a lot but since my youngest son has been in UA at Tucson I've been out there 5 times
since June 08 and one trip to L.A. and I've never had one problem with TSA who always been courteous and professional.
Of course now that I've seen "Up In The Air" I will always follow Asians!! :)