9/11 has taught me two things about terrorism and our Government’s inability to protect us from it.
For all of the money that we Americans throw at those who are charged, by the Constitution to protect us it is a wasted effort. We have a wide array of gizmo’s and high tech gadgets that theoretically should provide at least a modicum of protection against allowing entry into the country or of certain “high value” targets that terrorists covet in their symbolism, yet they are rendered useless by the pervasive “collective Political Correctness” of our highest echelons of law enforcement.
For instance, in response to the 9/11 attacks John O. Brennan, the newly appointed Director of Terrorist Threat Integration Center gave testimony to the 9/11 Commission that “rubber stamped” the newly acquired “communication” abilities between all members of the US Intelligence communities fixed”!
The lack of communications between law enforcement was a “key breakdown” that allowed the 19 terrorists to enter the United States illegally, take flight lessons and ultimately board domestic flights to utilize aircraft as missiles in their terror plans.
The opening of Brennan’s testimony has solidified this failure:
“We learned some painful lessons on September 11, 2001. We learned that while we had developed a wide array of U.S. Government counterterrorism capabilities and accrued a vast amount of information about those who would do us harm, we lacked a government-wide ability to integrate knowledge, data systems, expertise, mission, and capabilities, which are the critical weapons in the fight against terrorism. It is only through such integration of effort that we will be able to prevent future 9/11s.”
We must remember that at the time Brennan gave this testimony (April 2004) he and his intelligence agencies were on the job for an entire year (or 2 ½ years post 9/11).
Brennan continues to testify:
“At the direction of the President, TTIC began its mission May 1, 2003, specifically to achieve this objective for counterterrorism analysis. TTIC represents a new way of optimizing the U.S. Government’s knowledge and formidable capabilities in the fight against terrorism.
For the first time in our history, a multi-agency entity has access to information systems and databases spanning the intelligence, law enforcement, homeland security, diplomatic, and military communities that contain information related to the threat of international terrorism. In fact, TTIC has direct-access connectivity with 14 separate U.S. Government networks -- with connectivity to another 10 networks planned -- enabling information sharing as never before in the U.S. Government. This unprecedented access to information allows us to gain a comprehensive understanding of terrorist threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad and, most importantly, to provide this information and related analysis to those responsible for detecting, disrupting, deterring, and defending against terrorist attacks.”
“There exists within the TTIC “joint venture” real-time collaboration among analysts from a broad array of agencies and departments who sit side-by-side, sharing information and connecting the scattered pieces of the terrorism puzzle. These partners include not only the FBI, CIA, and the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, but also other Federal agencies and departments, currently including the Capitol Police, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Other federal departments and agencies have been invited to join.
• As envisioned by the President, this physical integration of expertise and sharing of information enables and empowers the key organizations involved in the fight against terrorism. Collectively, they are fulfilling their shared responsibilities in a fused environment, “doing business” jointly as TTIC. This fusion and synergy will be further enhanced when TTIC and most of CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and FBI’s Counterterrorism Division collocate at a state-of-the-art facility this summer.
• This integrated business model not only capitalizes on our respective and cumulative expertise, but it also optimizes analytic resources in a manner that allows us to cover more effectively and comprehensively the vast expanse of terrorist threats that will face the Homeland and U.S. interests worldwide for the foreseeable future.
• In simple terms, we are closing the seams among U.S. Government entities engaged in the identification and analysis of terrorism information.”
Finally concluding his testimony:
Under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6 of September 2003, TTIC is also responsible for integrating and maintaining a single repository of all U.S. Government international terrorist identities information in support of a streamlined Government-wide system for “watch listing” and terrorist screening activities. To date, TTIC has approximately 100,000 (**as of 12/09 has risen to over 550,000) known or suspected international terrorist identities catalogued. This information is provided to the FBI-administered Terrorist Screening Center, which ensures that front line law enforcement officers, consular officials, and immigration and border personnel have the capability to rapidly screen individuals known or suspected to be terrorists before they enter the United States.”
I had written a critical article about John O. Brennan when it was learned that President Obama appointed this man to his White House Homeland Security” post and subsequently lead the investigation into the who’s, what, where’s and why’s of the Ft. Hood terror attacks (which the leading federal law enforcement agencies refuse to call a terror attack). This Ft. Hood investigation is going over the same ground that Brennan and the 9/11 Commission had already completed.
To be fair, we have disrupted planned terror attacks on American soil (May 2007) and the one of these successes was the apprehension and conviction of the “Ft. Dix Six” plotters. In spite of the success of this disruption, one key element of this planned attack on a US Army base was ignored or intentionally overlooked and would lead directly to the success of the Ft. Hood.
Testimony of one of the six terrorist of the Ft. Dix plot said this:
“Another defendant, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22, a Jordanian native employed as a taxi driver in Philadelphia, was quoted in the indictment as saying that "you can hit an American base very easily."
Civilian responsible for thwarting the Ft. Dix plan:
“The FBI first got wind of the alleged plot in January 2006, after an unidentified store clerk alerted police to a video that showed the men firing assault weapons, calling for jihad and yelling "God is great" in Arabic, officials said. The men had submitted the video file to the store so that it could be copied onto a DVD, authorities said.”
The Ft. Hood terrorist was able to walk freely onto the US Military Base, armed to the teeth in spite of multiple FBI investigations into the Major and his direct contacts with an al-Qaida leader. The ridiculous explanation that the FBI gave after the attack and its failure to act against Hasan was that the multiple contacts were overlooked because the content of the conversations were in line with an article Hasan was writing.
In addition to the FBI's failure of Hasan, the Military also had multiple warning signs of radicalism behavior of its Major yet sitting side-by-side in the TTIF task force room were unable to connect-the-dots to prevent his murderous activities. This in spite of the Ft. Dix plotter boasting "you can hit an American base very easily."
“ABC News reported that officials were aware that Hasan had attempted to contact Al Qaeda, and that Hasan had "more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI" than just Anwar al-Awlaki.
Hasan was investigated by the FBI after intelligence agencies intercepted at least 18 emails between him and al-Awkali, who was under surveillance, between December 2008 and June 2009 (just 2 years after the Ft. Dix plot was uncovered).
According to journalist Brian Ross, in one of the emails Hasan wrote al-Awlaki:
"I can't wait to join you [in the afterlife]," and said Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a military analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies: "It sounds like ... he's actually either offering himself up or that he's already crossed that line in his own mind." Hasan also asked al-Awlaki when jihad is appropriate, and whether it is permissible if innocents are killed in a suicide attack. In the months before the attacks, Hasan increased his contacts with al-Awlaki to discuss how to transfer funds abroad without coming to the attention of law authorities.”
I think that it is safe to say that once al-Qaida commits to an American target (airlines, Army Bases, etc) they will continue to attempt attacks on those venues repeatedly.
A case in point is the attempting terror attack on a US flight from London to Detroit by Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day.
Despite the history of a former al-Qaida plot to blow up an airliner mid-flight by Richard Reid (Shoe Bomber) and the creation of the TTIF with agents sitting side-by-side after 9/11, it took a civilian to stop Abdulmutallab’s efforts and save innocents from being blown to bits over Michigan’s landscape.
Ironically, it took Todd Beamer’s leadership on flight 93 on 9/11 to thwart the 9/11 destruction of another target in Washington, DC as well as civilians that wrestled Abdulmutallab on this UK to Detroit flight on Christmas.
It is apparent to everyone except our intelligence agencies that Army bases and Airlines are prime targets of terrorists. If anyone recalls the Pentagon was hit by one of the airliners on 9/11.
In spite of Brennan’s boasting that our intelligence agencies are now, more intelligent the Obama Administration has systematically eroded our abilities even further by ordering Guantanamo closed, terrorist nomenclature changed, enhanced interrogation methods ceased and coddling up to terror sponsors like Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and elsewhere.
In fact, in 2009 the Obama administration did the following that went unnoticed by the MSM:
“Reid (Convicted shoe bomber) filed a lawsuit against the security restrictions placed on him in prison. In 2009, he went on a hunger strike and was force-fed.
In the summer of 2009, the Obama administration lifted the Special Administrative Measures placed on Reid without an explanation.”
The final insult to the intelligence community and our government’s coddling and collective PCism in protecting the Muslim Islamic Extremists is the three separate “dry runs” that the “flying Imams” and two subsequent domestic airline disturbances that further erode the safety of airlines."
It is obvious that “law enforcement” tactics do not work as the Clinton Administration proved. It is obvious that our intelligence agencies do not work as the latest terrorist attacks at Ft. Hood and the Christmas Day attempted bombing of the airliner prove. The terrorist that failed in the airline attack, was on our terror watch list that Brennan boasts about and still managed to gain entry onto the airplane where it was the heroic actions of the civilian passengers (as was on the Shoe bomber flight, and flight 93) that thwarted the carnage in spite of our governments statements that we are all safe in their trusted hands.
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