Flight 253 and Counterterror’s Epic Fail
12/28/09
An attempted jihad attack on Christmas Day has revealed that Americans are much more vulnerable to such attacks than most have believed – while government officials whistle in the dark. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 just before it landed in Detroit. In response, Barack Obama chose not to cut short his golfing vacation in Hawaii; the White House announced that he would “likely” have something to say about this latest attempted jihad attack on U.S. soil “in the next few days.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was ebullient, maintaining that “the system worked” and “everything happened that should have.”
Unless the “system” was consisted of relying on passengers to tackle jihadists (as Jasper Schuringa, the Dutch passenger on Flight 253, subdued Abdulmutallab), and trusting that jihadis’ detonators will malfunction (as did Abdulmutallab’s), Napolitano’s statement couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth. In reality, nothing worked. Nothing at all, both in terms of security procedures for individual air passengers, and in terms of the larger strategy for dealing with jihad terrorism.
All the stupid and humiliating airport security procedures, all the little baggies for toothpaste and shampoo, all the padding through the security scanner in stocking feet, didn’t work. Abdulmutallab was able to board the plane with the makings of a bomb that would have destroyed the aircraft and killed everyone in it. The Transportation Security Administration has scrambled since Christmas Day to stiffen security procedures, but its effort is foredoomed: jihadis study these procedures carefully, always searching for ways to circumvent them. And such ways exist, even if every passenger were subjected to a full body cavity search – bomb ingredients can be separated and combined mid-flight, or spirited onboard in ways as yet unimagined by the most visionary TSA official.
Abdulmutallib was also on a terror watch list, although that fact, and the fact that he had been known to anti-terror officials for several years, did not prevent him from boarding Flight 253 – showing that such lists and even official scrutiny are as useless as taking off your shoes in the airport security line. What’s more, the jihadi’s father warned American officials about his son, who was being watched already. And still nothing was done to keep him from boarding the plane.
Abdulmutallab likewise demonstrates the failure of long-term anti-terror strategies. Educated at the British International School in Lome, Togo, he was a classic recipient of Western largesse designed to win over the loyalties of Muslims. Yet his encounter with kindly non-Muslim Westerners spending their lives to educate him and his peers did not blunt the fervor of his jihadist fanaticism. And as a rich man’s son, he once again gives the lie to the firmly and widely held assumption that poverty causes terrorism. All the aid programs based on the assumption that poverty does cause terrorism and that money for schools and roads and hospitals would win over Muslim hearts and minds have not worked, and will not work.
All the concerted efforts by the State Department and DHS to ignore the jihad doctrine and reach out to people they deemed to be “moderate Muslims” have likewise not worked. According to the Nigerian newspaper This Day, when Abdulmutallab was at the British International School, “he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called ‘Alfa,’ a local coinage for Islamic scholar.” This illustrates yet again that, contrary to the popular view, Islamic jihadists present themselves among their fellow Muslims as the exponents of authentic Islam, making their case from the Qur’an and Sunnah — and those Muslims who oppose jihadist violence and Islamic supremacism have never successfully refuted their arguments. Outreach to moderate Muslims has not aided in this effort, and has deceived the general public into thinking that the influence of peaceful Muslims over jihadists is much larger than it actually is.
As far as the DHS and Janet Napolitano are concerned, the Flight 253 incident is a massive and unmitigated disaster, showing the complete and abject failure of their anti-terror policies across the board. The Flight 253 attempted jihad attack shows that the American response to jihad terrorism has failed not just in one detail or a single area. Rather, the failure is massive, comprehensive, all-encompassing. The anti-terror approach adopted since 9/11 is not working, and is never going to work. Until it is scrapped, there will be many, many more incidents like the one on Flight 253. But rather than have the decency to admit the truth, the DHS chief is putting on a brave face and pretending that up is down and down is up. And the President keeps golfing.
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Because those policies were designed not to work to begin with. Jihad is a war of Islam against Western Civilization. Not "radical islam" mind you, but islam as a whole. The arguments of jihadists cannot be refuted by anyone for the simple fact that quran and sunna are by themselves big jihadi arguments and as such must be accepted by all moslems in total entirety. Any attempt to ague against jihad immediately makes one a non-moslem with all the imaginable consequences in the islamic land. Consequently, there simply cannot be such arguments or discussions among moslems, period.
Unfortunately, we have pro-islamic, pro-communist government that is so anti-american that it openly tries to destroy America and american way of life by all means possible, barely covering it's actions with public lies they do not even believe themselves.
Napolitano's slip of a tounge "everything happened like it should" is not coincidental, our government along with al-qaeda wanted to make "security" procedures even more humiliating (especially on Christmas) as it will contribute to the economic downturn. And economic downturn is a common goal of current American government and al-qaeda together as it is a way to destroy capitalism in USA and create socialist/communist/islamic regime instead. Now they've made next step towards it. Sounds too fantastic? Find Obama's own citation about "redistributive change" and think what else could that mean.
"Jughead Janet"is out of context and reality. She should resign and go to Yemen to study terrorism
"Was consisted of"? No: "consisted of" is correct. Not "epic fail" but "epic failure", "doomed," not "foredoomed"... holy cow... you guys need a copy editor bad!
No one has yet noted what may happen to any Muslim (TSA employee or otherwise) who dares expose and circumvent a jihadist on Allah's cause.
Can you spell "apostate"?
Yes, what a comfortable feeling we Americans had while our President was in Hawaii working out at the gym in the morning and golfing in the afternoon.cheeshhhhhhhhhhhhh while we had a near disaster and not the last to look forward to.
What SHOULD be Wakeup Call number 376 will join the previous 375 in the dustbin of political correctness (while the Chief Executive busies himself about executing his golf swing...). Will it take a resounding success on the part of those dedicated to destroy us, before those in whom we have entrusted our security will admit their abject failure? How close did THIS one come to succeeding? Why walk that thin line between barely slipping through, and total destruction? Were I one of the passengers aboard that flight, I would be highly incensed at the deep level of utter failure exhibited by those spending our money to "protect" us and, instead, humiliating and insulting very nearly the whole sum of air transport customers. Having recently flown myself, I found it difficult to restrain my inner rage at the insanity of the present protocols. I'm not particularly devious, and certainly not so motivated, yet I can think of at least a dozen schema that could be executed to down a commercial airliner in flight, had I the motivation (I do not.....) How much more creative can these berko juhadists get, particularly in view of the fact that the vast majority of them have nought to spend their time on other than working out the details of how to accomplish their foul ends? Many are supported by funds WE have got to them through various means. Thus we are, in a not so roundabout way, sponsoring our own undoing.
Those entrusted with our safety will not succeed until, and unless, they set aside the political aspects of things as profiling, targetting, we will continue to experience such attempts... perhaps even after the horrible success of one of them. When an American citizen, born and raised in this country and with absolutely NO criminal or suspect past, finds himself on a May Not Fly list and is denied boarding, and a known Islamist with a history as suspect as this man clearly has was allowed to board, and armed as he was, something is VERY rotten. What will it take for those "in power" to rise up and FUNCTION according to their oaths of office?
and what does it take to remove such incompetents from their overpaid positions? Seems our DHS chief should be hanging her head in shame that someone succeeded in coming this close. I thought the name of her game was to PREVENT suspect persons, and dangerous goods, from ever boarding aircraft in the first place. But then, what do I know... other than that I have to cut the bottom half off my toothpaste tube, put that into a one quart ziploc bag (and ONLY one per passenger) remove my shoes and place them into a separate dish tub... and hope no one steals my ten thousand dollar camera bag I refuse to put in checked baggage (because I've witnessed how the Baggage Handlers throw things, and experienced how the TSA Baggage "inspectors" steal things from my suitcase when checked)
Now I learn everyone must, for the last hour of any flight, sit bolt upright, hands on lap and nothing else.. just like in Third Grade Detention. What, then, if the next attempt is made in the FIRST hour of a flight, shall we be so put upon during that time period as well?
Rather than just pointing out what is wrong, what can we as individuals do to help turn things around and make a real difference. How can we influence the policy makers [whom we did not elect and many of whom were not even confirmed, but were just appointed by the president]. I feel as though my hands are tied and my mouth taped when it comes to really doing something of consequence about our safety. Although I don't get on airplanes, I do go to shopping malls and other places that are vulnerable to attacks by these maniacs. I am 70 years old and a widow on social security with very limited financial means.[We didn't even get a COLA for 2010] I don't even know to whom I can complain that would make any difference. I can see the problem, I just can't see the solution.
Many of you may already know this. I haven't done the research - just shooting a quick post. If this stuff isn't up to date; please correct me.
I was just listening to an MP3 clip of Dennis Miller's radio show which had a passenger from the flight; Kurt Haskell. He said while waiting in line, that Umar didn't have a passport. The rich Indian-looking man escorting him said he didn't need one and that people from "Sudan" boarded without papers "all the time". Then they were both led to a closed room down the hall. Next thing, Umar is on the plane.
But documented people can't bring toothpaste tubes on a plane. Pilots even have to be searched - though all they have to do is steer the plane into the ground if they actually wished to do harm.
All the terrorists I've heard of have a documentable history of being members of and receiving guidance and training from known terrorist organizations, and are allowed to do as they wish - whenever they wish.
Yet, as an American citizen, just TALK about harming someone (especially a Muslim) and see the attention you get.
My head is about ready to split wide open.
This link may get you to the ITunes podcast of the interview: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=79458842...
Otherwise just go to ITunes store for 'the Dennis Miller Show' and click the "Get Episode" button on 12/28 for Kurt Haskell.
Here's the first newspaper interview of Haskell:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger...
On the page it has an update that says that Umar had a valid passport and US Visa.
Hmmm, I wonder about that. Why would he have to be led away to another room if his papers were legit?
[And how did this cretin get a US Visa with all the info they had on him. Hell, just by the stuff that real reporters have shown us - never mind what is classified. I mean, his own father said he had gone over to the Dark Side.]
Something else comes to mind. The reason his little hot pants misfired was probably because of the wires sewn into his panties being too thin. Remember the last time the Times exposed our security techniques? I recall that they disclosed the gauge of wire limits they were looking for. Maybe they were using wire below the threshold. And just maybe, next time, they will use a stronger wire that still meets the thickness to get through.
'They only have to be lucky once'.
Curt
If we don't wake up and smell the roses there will be no roses to smell and that is a fact.
I agree with everything in this article!
The public and those in positions able to make a difference have to inform themselves and understand the ideology of Islam as taught from the koran and the hadith. It has nothing to do with poverty or adverse conditions in the childhood and teenage years of a person.
It states in their so-called holy book that they must make war on all unbelievers, Christians and Jews so as to make a worldwide Islamic Caliphate. Therefore these people who believe the words in the koran and carry out its instructions are being faithful and obedient to their god "allah"
In effect the moderate ones who do not do this are not following this religion properly which is why there are many murders muslim on muslim especially in predominantly muslim countries like Iraq etc. and in the Middle East.
The only way to defeat this evil ideology is to face what we are up against and take strong measures to stop its spread, which won`t be easy as they are now amongst us in the West!!
As a member of the military and frequent flyer, I am really getting annoyed with the extra scrutiny and humiliation I have to endure every time I board a flight.
Here are some facts,
1. WTC 911 hijackers…. muslims,
2. Richard Reid aka Shoe Bomber…. muslim,
3. Liquid bomb plotters attempting to down 19 airliners over the Atlantic…. muslims,
4. Flying Imams…. muslims,
5. Crotch Bomber…. Muslim,
6. The authors of a multitude of probing incidents that do not get reported by the mainstream media…. muslims.
In light of these facts, wouldn’t it be more rational to subject just muslims to enhanced security checks when they attempt to fly? And seeing that they are the reason for these knee jerk reaction security measures shouldn’t they be subject to a special fee to defray the added expense of us protecting ourselves from them?
If the muslims are not happy with this simple solution, they can take a bus.
In the mean time show your support for the war on terror by donning the T-Shirt adorned with the logo of the new crusaders the next time you check in for your flight.
http://www.zazzle.com/major_league_kafir_subdued_tshirt-235864551170544946
Other tasteless war on terror stuff,
http://www.zazzle.com/pred+porn+gifts
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e289/razorsedgesfor/LionofKabulswag.png