Pure Genius, I wonder how she figured all this out?
"One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens,"
ore than 120 people have been indicted in federal court on terror-related charges. About 50 of them were U.S. citizens
Dammit Janet, at least you seem to be catching on.
USA Today
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano offered a sobering assessment of the terror threat facing the United States on Wednesday, saying it was at perhaps the "most heightened state" since the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.
Napolitano, appearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, said the threat from al-Qaeda, the group that planned the assaults in 2001, has been augmented by al-Qaeda-inspired groups and the emergence of homegrown radicals in the USA.
"One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens," she said. "We are now operating under the assumption, based on the latest intelligence and recent arrests, that individuals prepared to carry out terrorist attacks and acts of violence might be in the United States, and they could carry out acts of violence with little or no warning."
During the past two years, more than 120 people have been indicted in federal court on terror-related charges. About 50 of them were U.S. citizens, said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., homeland committee chairman, citing Justice Department statistics.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
U.S. faces terror threat from within, Napolitano says
Monday, May 10, 2010
Officials Consider New Tactics to Keep Pace With Evolving Terror Threat
"We're now dealing with international terrorism, and I think we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have, and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face," Holder said. "We certainly need more flexibility."
Holder stressed that any modifications would be "constitutional."
Reading someone who just knocked off a gas station or Robbed a house , their Miranda Rights , Is Good !
Doing the Same for a Suspected Terrorist , No Good !
Glad to see someone taking things seriously !
( Heads up "Anonymous" )
Foxnews
U.S. officials are considering new tactics -- including re-examining the right to remain silent -- in the ever-evolving war against Al Qaeda and its affiliates, with some saying the changes are needed to keep up with foreign terror groups in the wake of the failed Times Square bombing.
Officials say the plot proves foreign networks are intent on using American citizens to launch deadly attacks on U.S. soil. Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday that the investigation has revealed that the Pakistani Taliban were behind the failed attack, and that suspect Faisal Shahzad -- a U.S. citizen -- likely acted on their direction.
It would mark the first time the militant group has breached America's defenses to launch an attack and signal a shift in focus, from attacks inside Pakistan to a more global target range -- using people like Shahzad as well-placed pawns.
"We certainly have seen with the Shahzad incident that they have not only the aim, but the capability of (infiltrating the United States)," Attorney General Eric Holder said on ABC's "This Week."
Holder, whose Justice Department has taken criticism for reading rights to terror suspects like Shahzad and alleged Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, revealed Sunday that the administration plans to work with Congress to propose possible changes to Miranda rights.
"This is in fact big news," Holder said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It is a new priority."
Holder would not reveal many details but acknowledged he may try to change the law so investigators have more time to question terror suspects before reading them their rights and so flexibility is added to allow more evidence to be admissible in court.
Friday, January 29, 2010
"Where the hell is Secretary Napolitano?"
From CNS News:
"Top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee publicly scolded Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for failing to show up at a Wednesday hearing where the committee examined the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253. One Democrat on the committee said he wanted to know “where the hell” Napolitano was.
That evening, Napolitiano did prominently show up at the Capitol to attend President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. But earlier in the day, she dispatched Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute to testify on her behalf in the Homeland Security Committee on what went wrong in the homeland-security process that allowed would-be suicide-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a plane bound from Amsterdam to the Detroit.
The committee has primary oversight over Napolitano’s department ..."
Friday, January 22, 2010
Obama's TSA nominee, Errol Southers, withdraws
Good riddance. Errol Southers, Obama's choice to head up the Transportation Security Agency, has withdrawn from the nomination.
Southers stated that stopping terrorism "deserves to perhaps have some parity with global warming, with education, with the economy". He also stated that the TSA should be on the look out for Christian identity survivalist types who are against abortion. Washington Post
The Obama administration's choice to lead the struggling Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday, just weeks after revelations that he had provided misleading information to Congress prompted several Republicans to suggest that his nomination would not move forward without a fight.
Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and homeland security specialist, was presented as a leader who would improve the TSA's sprawling operations and enhance passenger screening to prevent such attacks as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner.
But GOP opposition to Southers escalated rapidly after The Washington Post reported that he had given Congress and the White House misleading information about incidents two decades ago in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database to obtain information about his estranged wife's new boyfriend, possibly in violation of privacy laws.
Intel Chief: We dropped the ball and we'll do it again
The Director of the National Intelligence, Denis Blair, recently stated that the intelligence community dropped the ball with regard to the Christmas underwear bomber and that he wrongly caved to pressure to shorten the no-fly list. Blair also added that the intelligence will drop the ball in the future. Fox News
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, in a candid assessment of what went wrong before and after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, said he had wrongly caved to external "pressure" to trim the no-fly list and even admitted the intelligence community would probably drop the ball in the future.I don't think people were upset that the no-fly list was too long but that security agents were no targeting the most probable demographic that would carry out terrorist attacks.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, in a candid assessment of what went wrong before and after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas, said he had wrongly caved to external "pressure" to trim the no-fly list and even admitted the intelligence community would probably drop the ball in the future.[...]
Blair also said criteria for adding people to the government's "no fly" list was too legalistic. He said that in recent years there has been pressure to shrink rather than expand the list because of a cascade of complaints from people getting "hassled" by authorities.
"Why are you searching grandmothers?" was a too-common refrain, he said.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Remember that 1/7/10 "shocker" report on the Pantybomber?
If you will recall the only shock to come out of the report was Obama semi-shouldering the blame before he turned around and blamed the intelligence community. Other than that, it all ended up being a dud.
Well, as it turns out that's because the Obama administration apparently covered up redacted all the juicy bits involving the administration's laissez faire attitude towards Islamic terror.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Obama this month presented his government’s findings on how the plot went undetected. But a detailed review of the episode by The New York Times, including more than two dozen interviews with White House and American intelligence officials and with counterterrorism officials in Europe and Yemen, shows that there were far more warning signs than the administration has acknowledged.
The officials also cited lapses and misjudgments that were not disclosed in the declassified government report released Jan. 7 about what went wrong inside the nation’s counterterrorism network.
Several high level meetings were held in the White House on December 22 to discuss the escalating threats and the multiple sources of intelligence pointing to threats from the Arabian peninsula. Among them:
A warning from the UN Nations that a similar device used in a prior attack in Saudi Arabia could be smuggled onto airplanes.
Multiple phone intercepts mentioning a 'significant event' on Christmas day.
A phone intercept identifying Umar Farouk as a volunteer for a coming operation.
More phone intercepts from al Qaeda in Yemen looking for ways to get people into the west.
An al Jazeera televised warning from an al Qaeda fighter in Yemen on the actual date of the WH meetings.
And most telling of all:
Counterterrorism officials assumed that the militants were not sophisticated or ambitious enough to send operatives into the United States. And no one shifted more intelligence analysts to the task, so that they could have supported the military assaults by Yemen while also scrutinizing all incoming tips for hints about future attacks against Americans, one administration official said.So, though intelligence analysts had enough information in those days before Christmas to block the suicide bomber on the Northwest flight, they did not act.
In my opinion this wasn't so much a failure of intelligence or imagination as it was a failure of INTEREST on the part of the Obama administration officials.
"We have agreements with a number of different countries that work with us cooperatively on intelligence matters," says the State Department employee. "A number of the treaties work through our justice departments or foreign offices or intelligence and interior or homeland security agencies. Several departments here in Washington got the information from London and it didn't trigger anything within our own system.
This employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover "we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer."
Shocking indeed.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Speaking of photos: Have you seen the cover of the DOD's report on Ft. Hood?
In my view, it speaks volumes about the politically correct, whitewashed mumbo jumbo contained within "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood".
The cover shows two arms clasped - the slightly darker skinned one (islamist?) on the top grasping the lighter skinned one (infidel?) on the bottom.
Islamic terrorist Hasan is referred to as a "gunman" and the "alleged perpetrator", the terror attack is referred to as an "incident" and their review "focused on the non-criminal aspects of the tragedy". By jove, our first responders were magnificent though!
What a joke.
86 pages and I could only find one mention of Islam and its derivatives (Islamic, Islamist and Muslim)- and it was in a freaking footnote!
What a disgrace to the memory of those killed and to the suffering of those who were wounded.
Monday, January 11, 2010
TSA nominee: Stopping terrorism should be no higher priority than global warming or education
Via Hotair
“Due to connectivity that we have with countries such as Israel, France — countries that are seen by groups, by al Qaeda, as infidels or anti-Islamic — by the true nature of our alliance with them means that we subject to be attacked as well. I do think, however, it deserves to perhaps have some parity with global warming, with education, with the economy
Our 'connectivity...with countries such as Israel, France' is the reason al Qaeda wants to kill as many Americans as possible and institute shariah law in the US of A? I doubt America's relationships with other nations has the ability to piss off terrorist groups that much. The only reason why al Qaeda et al. are/want to attack us is because we don't live under shariah law and bow down to Mecca 5 times a day.
OMG...Obama's nominee for the TSA, Errol Southers, wants the priority of preventing terrorist attacks to be on par with stopping global warming (which even UN scientists are starting to distance themselves from). We will be in a lot of trouble if Congress approves Errol Southers to run the TSA.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Obama calls bomb attempt an intelligence "screw-up"
"We dodged a bullet but just barely," the White House quoted him as telling the security chiefs. "It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable."
Dodged a Bullet , That is a great understatement !
If The Obama administration really wants to clamp down on security loopholes , then I have a major suggestion For them ...
Try looking at Al Qaida and the Taliban along with Al Shabaab and Hamas As Terrorists !
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner was a potentially disastrous "screw up" by the intelligence community, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday as he vowed urgent action to plug holes in air security.
Sharpening his tone as he sought to limit political fallout over the intelligence breakdown, Obama said spy agencies had enough information to uncover the December 25 plot to blow up a Detroit-bound transatlantic flight from Amsterdam but failed to "connect those dots."
On Obama's first full day back from his Hawaii vacation, he faced the challenge of spotlighting national security -- suddenly pushed to the top of his agenda -- while not looking distracted from other pressing public concerns like reducing double-digit U.S. unemployment.
"We have to do better and we will do better. And we will do it quickly," Obama said after a two-hour meeting with his national security team to discuss what he has called "human and systemic failures" in the Christmas Day incident.
Obama used his sharpest language behind closed doors, telling more than two dozen security chiefs gathered in the Situation Room, "This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous," according to the White House.
"We dodged a bullet but just barely," the White House quoted him as telling the security chiefs. "It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable."
Now Michael Yon gets arrested at Seattle airport.
WTF? He was taken into custody for refusing to say how much $ he makes? (h/t NetRightNation)
<--- Another isolated extremist.
On Michael Yon's Facebook Fan Page, the following updates were posted:
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security.Port authority police eventually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies.
And then this update shortly after:
When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.
Comedian Joan Rivers aka Joan Rosenberg - national security threat.
You can bet if her name had been Mohammed and she was wearing a hijab she would have been waved right through...what a joke this has become.
From the NY Daily News:
Can we talk?
Rivers, 76, was deemed a danger to national security and booted from a Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica on Sunday by a jittery Continental Airlines gate agent who found the two names on her passport fishy.
Her passport reads: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers. Rosenberg was her late husband's last name.
Read more here.Tuesday, December 22, 2009
CIA, USAF duped by con artist in al Jazeera TV scam?
A con artist convinced the CIA and other US agencies in 2003 that he could decode secret messages sent by al-Qaeda through al-Jazeera broadcasts, Playboy magazine reports.
Duped by claims that "barcodes" on al-Jazeera television contained targeting information for al-Qaeda attacks, former president George W Bush's administration raised the terror alert and cancelled several transatlantic flights in December 2003, the report says, citing former CIA officials.
The swindler at the centre of the scam was Dennis Montgomery, head of a small software company in Reno, Nevada. He persuaded the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security his technology could decipher messages with flight numbers and longitudes and latitudes meant for al-Qaeda operatives.
With assistance from French intelligence, CIA officials eventually concluded there were no secret messages in al-Jazeera television broadcasts, the report, published in the magazine's latest edition, says. "A branch of the French intelligence services helped convince the Americans that the bar codes were fake," it said on Monday.
CIA and French officials asked another technology company to find or recreate codes from al-Jazeera transmissions and "found definitively that what Montgomery claimed was there was not", it said. But even after the CIA stopped cooperating with Montgomery, he succeeded in convincing other government agencies he had valuable code-breaking technology.
In January this year, he signed a $US3-million (about $A3.4 million) research contract with the US Air Force, Playboy said. "We were testing some of the software. We were just looking at it to see if there was anything there," Joseph Liberatore, an Air Force program manager, told the magazine.
Montgomery has faced a number of lawsuits and last year was charged with bouncing nine checks worth a total of $US1 million in Las Vegas.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
12 bin Ladens licensed to fly in the US
No terror threat, though. Really.
At least 12 members of Osama bin Laden's family currently hold FAA pilot's licenses that make them eligible to fly aircraft anywhere in the United States, including three who received their licenses just this June, according to an analysis of FAA records provided to ABC News by a computer security firm, Safe Banking Systems.
One of the three who received his FAA licenses this year, Yeslam bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, is named in a civil lawsuit brought by the families of 9/11 victims alleging he helped to finance Osama's al-Qaeda network as it started up in the 1990s in Yemen and the Sudan.
Nothing to see here, sheeple. Move along now.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Still a little distracted today; so was the Ft. Hood Jihadi - about his HIV test.
Hasan was worried about results of recent HIV testing. Must have been all that lap dancing.
Major Nidal Hasan seemed worried about the results of an HIV blood test taken a week before the Fort Hood Shooting rampage, according to federal investigators piecing together background details on Hasan's life.
The information came from a member of the Fort Hood medical staff who was in the building where Hasan is accused of opening fire on November 5 and killing 13 people.
Speaking of lap dancing and the Ft. Hood Jihadi: I spent my morning listening to and freeping Senator Joe Lieberman's Hearing on the Ft. Hood Terror Massacre. FYI- only half of the senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee managed to make the hearing. You can view the hearing in its entirety here.
And I have a prime example of that political theatre that Pres Obama was worried about when Senator Carl Levin brought up Rev Pat Robertson's statement on Islam. The senators and expert witnesses then proceeded to put Rev Robertson on trial with a vigor and venom they did not display against Hasan that's for sure. It was unbelievable.
Continue reading here.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Janet Napolitano working to prevent anti-muslim backlash
Homeland Security would rather protect the muslim community from a non-existent anti-muslim backlash then actually protect Americans from radical muslims.
From AP
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.
Janet Napolitano says her agency is working with groups across the United States to try to deflect any backlash against American Muslims following Thursday's rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who reportedly expressed growing dismay over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Hotel accomodations for detained illegal immigrants
Will that include room service? Reuters
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said illegal immigrants ranging from criminals to newly arrived asylum seekers would be held in different facilities according to the risk they pose.
"This is a system that encompasses many different types of detainees, not all of whom need to be held in prison-like circumstances," Napolitano told a conference call.
Referring to noncriminals such as newly arrived asylum seekers, Napolitano said, "We will begin efforts to house these populations near immigration service providers and pursue different options like converted hotels or residential facilities for their detention."
Napolitano Says Al Qaeda-Type Terrorists in U.S.
Another Statement from a Master of the obvious !
Homeland Security Secretary ,Janet Napolitano !
Foxnews....
Law enforcement authorities are tracking terrorists with Al Qaeda leanings in the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Bloomberg Television on Monday.
"It is fair to say there are individuals in the United States who ascribe to Al Qaeda-type beliefs," Napolitano told Bloomberg. "And so it makes information-sharing, it makes effective law enforcement and it makes the shared responsibility of law enforcement ever so important."
Napolitano told Bloomberg that since the Sept. 11 attacks, information between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies is "much improved."
But, she warned that the threat of an attack is "always with us," Bloomberg reported.
Napolitano said the combination of some Al Qaeda leaders being killed or caught, and their financing being traced or blocked, has prevented the terror group geographically.
She told Bloomberg its kept the main organization contained to northwestern Pakistan, but that they are using other affiliated groups to help plan attacks.
Nice paying attention there Janet !
Friday, October 2, 2009
TSA to use body scanners
Total Recall. USA Today
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration plans to install 150 security machines at airport checkpoints that enable screeners to see under passengers' clothes.What if the terrorist hid the explosives up his ass?
The installation will vastly expand the use of the controversial body scanners, which can reveal hidden bombs and knives. But the devices have been labeled as intrusive by some lawmakers. The House of Representatives in June overwhelmingly passed a measure that would restrict their use by the TSA to passengers flagged by other types of screening, such as metal detectors. The measure is pending in the Senate.[...]
Passengers may choose to avoid the scanners and be screened by a metal detector, but those who do will be pulled aside for a pat-down, Lee said.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Homeland Security official affirms Mexican drug cartel violence has spilled over into Texas
So much going on ! Jaurez Mexico , and other border cities to the U.S. are a Great attraction for the Cartels ,With The ease at which you can get through the border crossings ! ( just by running on some occasions ) Naturally , their have been some instances of Spill over violence ! Wake up dummies ! It's not all Tortilla's and Rose's , down here !El Paso Times
....
AUSTIN -- Violence from Mexican drug cartels has spilled over into Texas, state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said Monday.
"Yes, absolutely it has occurred; there's no question about it," McCraw said after a hearing before the House Committee on Border and International Affairs.
McCraw answered lawmakers' questions about Gov. Rick Perry's request for another $135 million for border security operations on the same day Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked lawmakers for a new tool to help bring down transnational gangs that threaten border communities.
During the border committee meeting,
state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, asked McCraw whether some incidents that have been reported in the El Paso area would be considered elements of spillover violence from Mexican drug cartels.
Moody asked, among other things, if threats against American citizens, individuals seeking treatment at U.S. hospital for injuries sustained in Juárez and Mexican nationals seeking asylum would be evidence of spillover.
McCraw said yes.
"Anything that involves cartel activity that impacts Texans on this side of the border is, by definition, spillover violence," he said after the meeting.
McCraw told lawmakers, though, that Texas has a contingency plan to deal with large-scale violence and that local, state and federal agencies are working to
prevent that from happening.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Big border Issues
A couple of interesting items ,
Ex-U.S. drug czar warns of Mexican border rush
U.S. ready for Mexico violence
Both of these are a telling tale of what could possibly be a serious problem Across the entire Border.
There have been some news reports that the drug cartels are trying to "Mellow Out"
But there have been 20+ murders across the region so far this year ! Last year there were over 5300 murders and a still unknown number of kidnappings (Between 700 and 7000 , depends on who you want to believe )
many people are saying it is going to get worse !
El paso Times
....
Former drug czar Barry McCaffrey :
"A failure by the Mexican political system to curtail lawlessness and violence could result (in) a surge of millions of refugees crossing the U.S. border to escape the domestic misery of violence, failed economic policy, poverty, hunger, joblessness, and the mindless cruelty and injustice of a criminal state," McCaffrey said in an after-action report based on the Dec. 5-7 International Forum of Intelligence & Security Specialists in Mexico, an advisory group to Mexican law enforcement leaders.
U.S. ready for Mexico violence :
EL PASO --" If Mexico's vicious drug war ever spills into El Paso, the United States has several response plans, one of which calls for a military surge along the U.S.-Mexico border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this week "
"We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge if I may use that word -- capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with" the Defense Department, Chert off told The New York Times.
He did not give details on how, when or where the military might be used.
