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Obama: U.S. intel had info ahead of airliner attack

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Up front and forthright. Obama clears the cobwebs and highlights the problems only 4 days after the failed attack.

Now let's wait and read what the Obama haters have to say. More interesting would be the neutral posters.

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Neutral posters?

Hehehohohaha...

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H, are you 'neutral'... 'unbiased'... ?

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How much garbage can one stomach? “As Secretary Napolitano has said, once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, after his attempt, it’s clear that passengers and crew, our homeland security systems, and our aviation security took all appropriate actions.” The passengers and crew's actions have nothing to do with the "homeland security system." The only reason why the passengers and crew were able to do anything was because the explosive device failed. If it had not failed, there would be a lot of funerals in progress about now for the passengers,crew, and probably a few people on the ground at the time and place. Homeland security and related security systems all grossly failed and no amount of political rhetoric and whitewashing is going to allow any intelligent individual to believe otherwise.

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seems all that 8 years of "heightened" security has achieved is unhappy and violated travelers, power crazed staff and 0% increased safety

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Obama says 'systemic failure' allowed airline plot

Let's see, Obama's uses Mr. Bush's system then blames Mr. Bush when it fails? He's trying to have it both ways again.

So, he now admits there never was a review by his administration of the system President Bush put in place? Obama is soooo busted!

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Omik, this isn't the first flight that passenger and crew proaction probably saved all aboard, or - as in the case of Flight 93 - saved unknown hundreds or thousands. They died doin' it and're national heroes. "Let's roll..."

Texas passengers actually killed one provacateur.

Wasn't it a fifty-year-old stewardess who took out a terrorist tryin' to set off one of these things? I wish I remembered her name. She's a national hero, too... a living symbol that the spirit of the American individual doesn't wait for 'the government' or someone else step in and pull them out of the jam.

Omik... As proven, anyone who acts hinky on an aircraft doesn't have to worry just about government agencies. They'd better worry about the guy sittin' next to 'im.

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The White House says her (Napolitano's) job is safe.

Too bad the same cannot be said about those flying aboard U.S. air carriers with her at the helm.

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USARonin, actually neutrality and being unbiased are fictions. The problem is when people deny they are unbiased. The radicals on both sides suffer from this problem.

RR is your point is to never trust anything that Bush did?

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I just listened to a top-of-the-hour news playback of President Obama on this incident.

He clearly blamed 'intelligence sources'. Maybe they didn't play the part where he apoligized and said it was really his fault.

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H, I agree with you. No one's neutral and when someone states that they are, I either smile or watch what they say or do more closely.

On almost every JT thread I post, I enter bein' biased. Ya remember those folks close to the last presidential election who still called themselves 'undecided'? How uninformed... how out of touch... how un-exposed does one have to be to remain in that state? And they vote, too... for whoever.

H, I agree with you.

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@H -

The point is that when finally pinned against the wall with the facts that the system did not work, rather than man up and admit that to the American people, Obama is trying to blame Bush for the system that he himself was using until his luck ran out.

Until Christmas Day Obama did not believe our national security was a priority. Here's a whole list policies and executive orders from Bush that Obama did think needed to be reversed or changed:

http://www.google.com/search?q=obama+reversal+of+executive+orders&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGQD

NOTE: All are liberal social issues. None were about protecting the safety of American people.

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You're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. If all you need is a phone call to report someone and get them on the no-fly list then basically any of us can get anyone on the list anytime we want to. That's going to lead to abuse. On the flip side if you don't investigate every claim or try to be as cautious as possible then some people might slip through the cracks. They're going to have to try to find some kind of middle ground.

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This was a failure but we got lucky. Let's pocket that and fix the problem. The one person I have the most trouble with at this point is the Homeland Security secretary. She tried to minimize the issue by suggesting that the system worked. That was just crass politics trying to cover up for an Executive branch failure. I don't like that her first inclination was to spin and not fess up to an obvious failure and explain how she would fix the problem. She may not be the right person for such an important job.

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I'm kinda surprised that no real attack occured on the US during President Bush's watch post 9-11. Ya gotta give the guy his creds.

I'm with those Americans when surveyed after 9-11 who believe a major attack will occur again on American soil. It's just a matter of time. President Bush wasn't omnicient and neither is President Obama.

If another attack occurs, it'll come down to how President Obama tried to avert it... despite it. He's been president for a year and Gitmo is still runnin' not just for us, but for all Allied countries. He's listened to our generals on the ground and increased troop numbers in combat zones. I can't fault that. At the Nobel Peace Prize, he stated he - if necessary - will act alone - and without the approval of other nations - to protect the USA. Whatta guy.

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I've got a coupla things goin' on simultaneously on my end, so please don't slam me if I mis-heard the news in he background.

Did they just say that two individuals involved behind these lastest attempts - also in the background - had been released at Gitmo because they promised to attend 'art therapy' as part of their rehabilitation. One of 'em might've been that home-grown, spoiled first-world US traitor kid 'Adam' somethin' or another?

Anybody else got some clarity on this?

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USARonin,

The two your refering to were two GITMO prisoners that were released into Saudi Custody under a terrorist rehabilitation program in 2007. The program is suppose to de-program the Jihadi in you. They enrolled got the treatment and then promptly dissappeared and showed up in Yemen. They are now the leaders of Al Queda in Yemen. That is the GITMO link. Note that they were released under the Bush administration so you can actually put that one in his lap. My personal opinion they all should have been given Military tribunals and sentenced to very long prison terms if found to be Jihadis, but the political environment under both G.W.B and Obama wouldn't support that and both his and Obama administration have made some very bad concessions in trying appease the A.C.L.U types and courting to world opinion when dealing with international terrorists in our custody. Just my opinion on the matter.

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Sailwind, thanks.

If you've got the facts accurately, I agree with Bush administration culpability and how they should've been handled.

I know it'll offend the delicate sensabilities of liberals, but I've got this impulsive instinct to wanna spend a few quality moments with that Adam character with a Louisville Slugger.

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USARonin,

The link for you.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/29/gitmo.northwest.flight.investigation/

Pretty informative article on the GITMO link.

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Sailwind, thank you. I'll give it further dissemination off JT.

It's good that you used a 'liberal' source for this. I try to do the same thing. It makes it somewhat more difficult for a liberal or leftist who consider themselves 'open-minded' or 'un-biased' or whatever to just brush it off condenscendin'ly... exactly as I would with a story from The Daily Kos, et al.

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I really can't believe that Obama let this happen on his watch!! And where was he? On VACATION!! Was he reading a book about a goat?

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[Now let's wait and read what the Obama haters have to say. More interesting would be the neutral posters.]

I wonder what all the Bush haters are thinking now that their beloved wonderboy Obama is becoming just like their behated Bush... The comments should be interesting.

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Napolitano and Gibbs have been out there, saying that the system worked. So relax, folks.

"The system" apparently relies on bombs malfunctioning and passengers jumping on jihadist bombers.

So the US can happily continue to give religious visas to young muslim men, fresh from madarassa training in Yemen, flying without luggage on one-way tickets payed with cash. No problem, folks. The system works, and profiling would be islamophobic. Sleep well!

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"Meanwhile, Napolitano asked to meet with security and counterterrorism experts, including at least two former Bush administration officials, according to a person familiar with the meetings. On Tuesday, she met with former Bush homeland security adviser Fran Townsend and former DHS undersecretary for policy Stewart Baker, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was not on the secretary’s public schedule."

-this is probably the smartest thing the Obama administration has ever done. =We need consul from people that have a record of keeping America safe and not just talking safe.

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Obama is to the extreme right the mirror image of what Bush was to the radical left. I was thinking with Obama being more moderate that things would be less polarized politically in the US, but reading stupid comment after mindlessly stupid comment regularly here from those still bitterly greiving over Nov 4th 2008 never ceases to amaze me.

Head's should roll over this, but I don't see what shrieking about Obama will do to change the fact that the system is far from fool-proof.

There was a flight here not so long ago in France, where an exceptionally stupid British woman had been given a WW2 land-mine (fully functional :O) and popped it in her luggage to take back to the UK....

...the French authorites found that no sweat and her only crime was being an idiot, let alone being on a terror suspect list. What the hell happened here? Surely there are methods for detecting explosives at the screening points?

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I know what you mean Madverts!! I remember reading those mindlessly stupid comments day after day. I mean, do we expect our leaders to have direct control of every little part of the government every waking moment of the day? The nerve of some posters!!

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"I mean, do we expect our leaders to have direct control of every little part of the government every waking moment of the day?"

Not exactly what I'd call a little part of the government, but I think the Republicans pathetic efforts at using this for political gain are certainly laughable.

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Heh, in fact bushlover, it reminds me of sarah palin attempts to give the then Senator Obama's "ties to terrorists".

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One of the Guantanamo Saudi released was apparently killed in a Yemen strike last month.

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Republicans pathetic efforts? Well you should have also heard the Democrats and liberal airhead's pathetic efforts when it was the Repubs in office. Hey and maybe Sarah P had something there I mean this all happening on his watch and all. After all you're gonna tell us he wasn't reading about a goat at the time.

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lostrune2, I think that while under waterboarding the Republicans implanted a micro GPS under his skin and they tracked them all and are now having target practice with the 'ex-detainees'. That's one fine kill there I'd say.

I think any liberal could tell you that a conspiracy like that is totally possible. They know. They get that these James Bond movies are based on real life Republican Big Brother technology.

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Napolitano should already be gone by now. She is ineffective and worse, she misinforms the American people. We cannot have that in such an important position.

The Secretary of Homeland Security needs to be sharp, intelligent and sure of what they are telling all of us and sure of what intel they are getting and knowing how to handle that information. Janet obviously does not.

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"Well you should have also heard the Democrats and liberal airhead's pathetic efforts when it was the Repubs in office."

Really? I thought the democrats were pathetic in standing up to bush when his administration was doing everything conceivable to freak out the American public for the Iraq debacle.

Only once did they rightly pull bush up in his re-election campaign for using graphic 9/11 images after (cough) "promises" to "never use 9/11 for political gain".

"Hey and maybe Sarah P had something there I mean this all happening on his watch and all"

No, when sarah p was flogging that horse even the McCain campaign were cringing at their loose cannon.

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"I think any liberal could tell you that a conspiracy like that is totally possible."

You mean it isn't?

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"Don't fret Madverts, the undiebomber is receiving the finest medical care, three hot meals a day in accordance with Muslim dietary guidelines, a Koran, and the best lawyers for his defense as we speak."

Why on earth should I be fretting?

They should change the legal system to fast-track the trials of scum like this, or the shooter at Fort Hood. There is no doubt so why bother keeping 'em healthy to execute them at a later date?

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"She is ineffective and worse, she misinforms the American people."

Gee whizz ramen, I remember back when you were calling for Bush's impeachment for doing exactly that over Iraq and all the other scandals. Ahhh, the good old days!!

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Romeo:

" Napolitano should already be gone by now. She is ineffective and worse, she misinforms the American people. We cannot have that in such an important position. "

Alas, Janice Napolitano represents the politically correct ignorance of the Westen intelligentsia in general and the current US administration in particular.

So, expect more jihadist terrorism to hit us, much more.

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It seems like the Obama supporters/terrorists are coming out of the woodwork now. =2010 will be interesting.

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This is all George Bush and Dick Cheney's fault. They created all these terrorists! This is so unfair to President Obama, disrupting his vacation like this...

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Ramen at 10:08 PM - Good one.

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"it seems like the Obama supporters/terrorists are coming out of the woodwork now."

Heh, and right on cue with another load of radical nonesense. Bush tried all that "if you disagree you're helpin' the terrists". It was comical then....

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sarge,

"This is all George Bush and Dick Cheney's fault. They created all these terrorists!"

I wouldn't go that far melado, but they sure haven't helped the cause in all fairness. Whoever heard of al-Qaida in Iraq before March 2003?

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Even if there were no airport security at all, the risk of being killed by an in-flight act of terror would be a fraction of the risk of being killed by pharmaceuticals in any given year. So why are U.S. authorities going crazy about airport security when so many Americans are dying from pharmaceutical toxicity every single day? Statistically speaking, the number of people killed by dangerous prescription medications is equivalent to one jumbo air liner falling out of the sky and crashing to the ground every single day.

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The problem with the US Gov't is that we are too afraid to call a "spade a spade" and say that certain Islamist hate us, and are out to kill us. They think that it will incense the Middle East, well it probably will. But just because they come out and say it does not mean that we have to go there and conduct "regime change."

If Obama is so much more smarter than "W" he should just come out and say it, and let them know we will take measures to eradicate the threat to the US, and we will not go there to set up new regiemes. Instead we get this hemming and hawing from the Administration and the military (in the case of the Ft. Hood shooter).

Just come out and say it is a certain type of profile that fits the bill, and we will take measures to stop it.

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“We learned of him in November, when his father came to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him. We did not have his name before then,” CIA spokesman George Little said.

Let's see, a rich Nigerain banker comes up to you and he says that he has information that is vital to US National Security, but he needs to pay the sources. So it you could just send him a small fee he can get the info and share the reward.

I hope he didn't use that email to get their attention, and if he did, good for the US Gov reps who probably deleted it. :)

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Nothing will change here. Obama views terrorists as criminals and doesn't have the backbone to do the right thing. Further, while U.S./Russian tensions were low during the Bush presidency, they're now increasing with Obama's cowardice (note Putin's recent statement that Russia will develop offensive weapons so that American can't "do what they want"). Obama is the worst thing that could have happened to the U.S. in this environment.

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Giving it some thought there is always an error rate. Considering the amount of flights it has to be very low. So we have this terrorist who was successful in setting his crouch on fire. Nice going there high speed..

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Madverts,

Gee whizz ramen, I remember back when you were calling for Bush's impeachment for doing exactly that over Iraq and all the other scandals. Ahhh, the good old days!!

Madvert, Ramen never called for bush's impeachment. Ramen was a bush supporter and never changed from that. Never called for bush's impeachment.

It sounded to me that Obama was upset that we had the information and didn't act on it. He said he should never have gotten on the plane and didn't banter around with it.

I agree with Obama that when the father called and notified us of his suspensions about his son, we should have had him on a no-fly list immediately. < :-)

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while U.S./Russian tensions were low during the Bush presidency, they're now increasing with Obama's cowardice

The whole invasion of Georgia and threatening to invalid Poland thing never happened eh?

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I don't know whether or not Napolitano should be tossed, but I don't believe she has been effective. Whether or not its Obamas fault, is likewise up for debate. This "System worked" comment though, was just inexcusable. Might as well just hang a banner up saying "Mission Accomplished".

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Heh, "Mission Accomplished"........ I remember when people used to say that like it was a good slogan......... How times change.........

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Molenir

This "System worked" comment though, was just inexcusable. Might as well just hang a banner up saying "Mission Accomplished".

Obama said that there was a systemic problem.

Just because Napolitano (a cabinet member) misspoke doesn't mean anything like "Mission Accomplished." Remember bush donned a flight suit and strutted across the deck of the USS Lincoln like some victorious warrior. Yeah Napolitano was totally wrong, but she wasn't the flamboyant attention magnet that bush was.

I do agree that Abdulmutallab should never have gotten on a plane. He should have been caught and handed over to authorities in Amsterdam. When dis Dad called, he should have been taken seriously. < :-)

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If Napalitono was an isolated incident, we could overlook it. Unfortunately, Obama has his cabinet filled with miscreants and criminals. At least with Bush, I thought his heart and head were in the right place even if he made mistakes. With Obama, it seems like everything has a hidden agenda attached to it.

Case in point. Obama recently pushed the Mortgage modification plan which spent $27B to convert 31,000 mortgages. That's $871K per mortgage, where the national average home price was $178K. Huh? Only in Obama's pretend world does that make sense, but then again, I'm just a bitter conservative (who doesn't like his tax dollars wasted)...

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Just because Napolitano (a cabinet member) misspoke doesn't mean anything like "Mission Accomplished."

Way to downplay. I find the claim that she "misspoke" amusing. Yes, I know thats what shes claiming as well.

What I think happened, is that she was going on TV, her advisors, who had already talked to Obamas advisors, on how to spin this, said, calm the public, tell everyone that things are going the way they should, that we're on top of things. And that the system worked the way it should. She did as instructed. Of course, the people involved, herself included had no idea of how badly they had screwed up. At least not until more details started to come out, and they realized, the system had not only failed, it had failed miserably. Thus, it was very much like "mission accomplished", complete nonsense.

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But the famous "Mission Accomplished" mission was accomplished. It was to take Saddam out of power so that succeeded. Who cares what mess was made afterwards. That's up to Iraqis to fight it out on the political stage of Iraq. But of course it seems their political stage includes a little bit of violence.

If the US had intel ahead of this airliner attack then I guess you can say that Obama and the wonderboys in the white house at present are just repeating the mistakes of the previous admin. Poor Obama just can't help himself when it comes to emulating Bush and Co. And you fools still love him to death. How cute.

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"Who cares what mess was made afterwards."

Some people justify blowing up airliners with that kind of pathetic regard to the hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq.

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