Category: war on terrorism
Michelle Malkin gets it wrong
I hate to be the one to do this; but, seeing she’s not answering my e-mail.
Michelle Malkin royally screws one up.
She links to this story here, about a container of PETN getting punctured with the comment of:
Okay, how does this just happen?
However, if you actually click to the website and look, you will see this:
Morehead City Mayor Jerry Jones says a forklift operator accidentally punctured at least one container filled with PETN, forcing the port to shut down.
Has Malkin corrected the damn story? No. 🙄
Do not misunderstand me here, I am all for the reporting and exposing of Islamic Jihad. But, I am not for the stoking of irrational fear and that is what Malkin is doing here; she’s feeding a damned talking point.
My feeling is, either report factual information and responsible enough to post updated info, or don’t bother posting at all.
Michelle is better than this; but yet, she does it anyway. It is quite disgusting. Color me unimpressed.
Countdown to Malkin-bots calling me a racist, sexist, and whatever else in 5….4….3…2…
Breaking News: London Police Board Plane due to passanger making threats
Man, decide to take the weekend off and all hell breaks loose… Oy!
The Video, Via Sky News:
The Story, via Sky News:
Armed police have boarded a plane at Heathrow airport and are believed to have arrested two men after a “verbal threat”.
Passenger Cameron McLean said: “Police just swarmed the guy and rushed him out.
“I think he was a white male. There was another one but I didn’t see him.”
He said the man was taken out in handcuffs then sniffer dogs were brought on board.
An airport spokesman said: “I can confirm there has been an incident on the EK004 flight to Dubai.
“Police are attending. It’s not affecting the rest of the airport which remains opens.”
Sky’s crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: “A verbal threat of some description was made. It was overheard. It was reported to members of the crew.
“They were understandably very concerned.
“They stopped the plane. The plane was taken back to some part of Heathrow, at which point anti-terror police boarded the plane.
“I think, at the moment, this was just a verbal threat but, of course, an investigation ensues until police are satisfied.
“It’s an indication of how jumpy airlines and anti-terror police are.”
Fox News is now reporting that it was group of drunken passengers. But it does show how jittery the authorities are here in America and in England.
Folks, if you’re flying, do not, I repeat, DO NOT make a stupid remark while flying. You will go to jail. It is being reported that these guys were trying to be funny. How stupid. They should be jailed for making false terror threats.
It is being reported that the Heathrow Airport is back to normal.
Update: Fox News is now reporting that three men have been arrested in London.
Steven Crowder on the Crotch Bomber
(H/T Minority Report)
Crowder does that Southern Accent waaaaaaay too good. It’s spooky. 😯 He’s a freakin’ Canadian for goodness sakes!
Updated Obama Says, 'Ultimately, the buck stops with me' Briefing Video Added
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
It was a good speech, but lacking any specifics. There is a security briefing going, I will get video of it, as soon as it is available.
Via Politico:
President Barack Obama on Thursday accepted responsibility for intelligence shortcomings that led to a failed Christmas Day bombing plot on a Detroit-bound airliner, saying, “Ultimately, the buck stops with me.
“As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility,” Obama said.
Obama said an intelligence review found that the U.S. government had the information needed to thwart the plot but failed to do so because of a series of compounding shortcomings, including that intelligence analysts didn’t focus heavily enough on information warning that al-Qaeda in Yemen wanted to strike the United States.
“The U.S. government had the information scattered through the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack. Rather than a failure to collect and share this intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence we already had,” Obama said at the White House.
Obama’s buck-stops-here message marks a change in tone from earlier statements in which Obama and other officials repeatedly noted that the watch-listing system that failed to flag the suspect, Umar AbdulMatallab, was put in place under the Bush administration.
I am glad to see that the President is taking the hit for it and not passing the buck. I look forward to seeing what the Government does. Speeches are nice, but let’s see what the action is.
Update: As promised, here it is:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Update #2: Ace is not impressed, at all:
I’m not, and was talking about it with cobloggers (similarly unimpressed) and figured why talk about it in email.
He dodged responsibility for a week. He minimized it and claimed it was just an independent actor, unconnected to anything bigger, even when it was pretty firmly established it was Al Qaeda.
I don’t think he made this statement because he believes it, or because he wanted to. I think he made this statement because polling and focus-groups told him that if he didn’t make it, he was risking an even bigger loss in his poll numbers than anything he’d seen before.
So it’s a case — I am 99% confident — of “doing the right thing when there are no other options left.”
Good point.
What? No Terrorism Charges? Some Turban-Headed Twerp from Toledo gets stupid on a plane
Oh good lord. 🙄
The Toledo man who Wednesday yelled racial slurs and caused a Detroit flight from Miami to turn around is being held in a Florida jail today.
Mansor Mohammad Asad, 43, has been charged with threats against a public servant, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after the incident aboard Delta Airlines flight 2485, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Witnesses told investigators that Asad yelled anti-Semitic references such as, “I’m Palestinian and I want kill all the Jews,” in Arabic. The pilot turned around as the plane was taxiing for take-off at 6:35 p.m., according to police.
Officers then escorted the Asad off and performed a safety inspection of the plane before it continued on to Detroit.
But Asad charged officers while he was in custody, using racial slurs and threats while he chanted, leading police to use a Taser to subdue him.
via Toledo man charged in flight fracas – Detroit Free Press.
Wow. Looks like the crazies are out in force. Wonder if President Hussein is on top of this one too?
Can one be charged and imprisoned for being a FUGLY Arab too?
Ship ’em to GITMO, water board his ugly ass. Better yet, just shoot the asshole between the eyes! One less terrorist, one less Arab, one less of “THEM“.
Others: Atlas Shrugs
It is nice to know that Michael Leiter was on top of the situation
Remember what I wrote here? Scratch that. They’re still idiots… sigh… 🙄
WASHINGTON – The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats did not cut short his ski vacation after the underwear bomber nearly blew up an airliner on Christmas Day, the Daily News has learned.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.
“People have been grumbling that he didn’t let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation,” said one of the sources.
The NCTC, the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., is under intense scrutiny for failing to “connect the dots” on Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Leiter’s spokesman declined to say when the terror-center chief returned to Washington and fully retook the helm of his analysis agency, which is near CIA headquarters just outside the nation’s capital.
“It is our policy to not make our director’s schedule available to the public,” center spokesman Carl Kropf said in an e-mai
via NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.
Indeed the monkeys are running the zoo! Psychos are running the nuthouse, ect… and so on.
I ask you all publicly, where the hell is our leadership in Washington D.C.?
Remember this come 2010 and 2012.
Others: JammieWearingFool, Another Black Conservative, Hot Air, ThreatsWatch and Gateway Pundit
(Fixed stupid misspelling in the headline…I need more coffee….)
President Bambi Teleprompter Says, 'Yeah, We screwed up'
(H/T HotAir)
Yeah, Where the hell were you on Christmas Eve? 🙄
An aside, This agency, National Counterterrorism Center, was slated for budget cuts, before this little incident happened:
The highly touted intelligence fusion center at the heart of the nation’s counterterrorism establishment was preparing for deep budget cuts across 2010, senior intelligence officials said. According to one official, who asked not to be identified because intelligence budget matters are classified, the administration and Congress slashed the budget for the National Counterterrorism Center by at least $25 million. Those affected, the official said, included employees responsible for maintaining the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) system, which contains the list of about 550,000 known or suspected terrorists…
“Without question, recent events will cause those proposals to be re-considered,” an intelligence official said.
As I wrote before, “Government Incompetence? Yes, We haz it!” 🙄
Updated: It is official, Keith Olbermann and MSNBC have gone off the cliff!
Two Words for this video clip…. Holy hell…. 😯
The Video, which comes to us via Olbermann Watch: (H/T to Ace)
No wonder I quite watching that idiotic network. 🙄 As an extra added bonus, a 9/11 truther at the end this video; makes for a great one.
Update: Reader Rich Writes in to say:
I think that Olbermann Watch is connecting dots that aren’t there on this one. Several reasons:
1) The theory is based on Wolffe’s statement about what the White House is examining. Unless you hear this type of claim coming from a White House spokesman, I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in it. I’m sure the White House is looking at lots of things but that doesn’t mean they have drawn any conclusions; perhaps Wolffe is hearing only what he wants to hear.
2) Obama calls this episode the result of a “systematic failure.” That sure doesn’t sound like a statement from someone who wants to duck responsibility for it.
3) Does one intelligence agency not share complete information with the other agencies? Probably. But the reason is likely related to competition between the agencies, not any conspiracy plot.
TV, be it Olbermann or Fox, is always looking for controversy; that doesn’t make it true. Same goes for the “Obama wasn’t out there” (after the event) line; I understand that Bush took six days to make a statement after the Richard Reid episode and that, at Bush’s next press conference, the neither the President or the press even spoke about Reid until well into the press conference. It is all about stirring up conflict, which makes for a more engaging story. Unfortunately, doing so only distracts from the genuine problem that we face here, which is best addressed though bipartisan action rather than political bickering. Very sad, IMHO.
BTW, I just discovered your blog; I like to read a wide range of political views, so I will be back!
Best regards,
Rich
BREAKING NEWS: Michael Yon arrested at Seattle airport
(H/T Ed @HotAir)
That’s right, Michael Yon, famed independent war corespondent was detained at the airport, handcuffs and all.
For not disclosing how much money he makes…. 🙄
From his facebook fan page:
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 eve…ntually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies.
and…:
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….:
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.
Jazz Shaw asks, “WTF??!?!”:
Very strange. Even if you’re into profiling, Yon would hardly fit one you’d be interested in. Of course, his passport, by now, doubtless has a list of countries stamped into it which could give an inspector pause, but that’s no excuse. Very, very strange. I expect this one will be high profile enough that you’ll see an apology coming from the government.
Ed Morrissey weighs in:
Unless there is more to this story, an apology would be the least owed to Yon. When an American citizen with a valid passport presents himself for travel, there should be some reasonable screening to verify identity and to determine whether there is a physical risk, ie, weapons and the like. Why should border security be interested in Yon’s annual income? How does that relate to national security and border protection? Unless this is an arm of the Internal Revenue Service, it doesn’t, and Yon was right to refuse to answer the question.
Instead of hassling American citizens about their income or watching the ice melt, how about paying attention to actual security and intelligence issues? Please?
I must say that I agree with both of these assessments, and I personally believe those responsible for detaining Mr. Yon, ought to be fired. I honestly have to ask this question, that neither Jazz nor Ed would even ask. If Michael Yon had been, say, Arabic or even black; would he have been detained? I somehow doubt it. But, because he’s a White American, he gets asked a stupid question and because he refuses to answer it, which was well within his rights; he gets detained. Welcome to Obama’s America people. Where white men are oppressed, interrogated and harassed; by the black power establishment. You say this isn’t about race? I disagree. This is all about race and as long as Barack Hussein Obama is President, you will continue to see this sort of nonsense happening in America. Bank on it.
Others: Michelle Malkin, Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit, Mudville Gazette, The Jawa Report, Atlas Shrugs, JammieWearingFool, Moonbattery
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.