Tough questions need to be asked of not just the US security agencies – such as the CIA and the FBI – but also of Britain's MI6, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorist unit.And haven't we been told all these years that the reason these people turn to terrorism is because of poverty, and yet this guy lived in a $4 million dollar London apartment and came from a very wealthy family...not unlike Osama bin Laden.
How can a Muslim student, whose name appears on a US law enforcement database, be granted a visa to travel to America, allegedly acquire an explosive device from Yemen, a country awash with al-Qaeda terrorists, and avoid detection from the world's most sophisticated spy agencies?
Every intelligence agency across the world is fully aware that the targets of choice for al-Qaeda and its numerous affiliates and sympathisers are airliners – preferably those flying to the US. Yet Abdulmutallab seems to have avoided detection in both Nigeria and Holland when he passed through the various security checks at Lagos and Schiphol airports respectively.
Embarrassingly for the Washington, Lagos airport had recently been given the "all clear" by the US's Transportation Security Administration, an agency established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks which was supposed to improve the security on American airliners.
Attacking airlines is not exactly new territory for al-Qaeda. After 9/11, Richard Reid, a British Muslim convert, tried to blow up a transatlantic airliner by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes. More recently, Britain was the base for the so-called liquid bomb plot when a group of British Islamists plotted to destroy up to 10 US bound airliners in a series of attacks designed to kill thousands.
As 9/11 showed, for a relatively cheap outlay- the cost of the operation was estimated at round £300,000 – the impact of an airline attack can be global: the desired conclusion for every al-Qaeda mission.
Yet Abdulmutallab, a 23-year Nigerian, who US officials said studied mechanical engineering at University College in London, came frighteningly close to committing a terrorist atrocity undetected.
I have my doubts that there will be another successful airline attack, mainly because passengers today won't put up with it, but if our intelligence "experts" can't keep a guy like this off an airplane, even the most proactive passengers may have a tough time stopping such an attack.
UPDATE: Amazingly, Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, stated today that "the system worked".
Really? Since when are 23-year old Dutch film producers part of the "system"? That's what stopped this attack, not anything the "system" did.
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3 comments:
It is hard to understand how Janet Napolitano came up with her statement. Obviously, she was not aware, or totally out of touch, with what had occurred on this flight!! Amazing!!
The details are far too sketchy to determine the loopholes. I would think that to fly to the US the perpetrator had to have a current visa. This visa had to have been cleared through the US embassy, the date may have been years before the information from his father reached them. Clearance to board the plane would have been largely the country of flight origin's control including security inspection. US homeland security would have no standing there. Without a tag on the person's electronic record, there would be no means to prevent his flying.
Perhaps Ms Napolitano is correct...the system worked as designed...but the system needs massive debugging?
Janet just doesn't really know how to perform her job. She is out in left field at best. How she was ever appointed to her job is a joke.
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