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Author Topic: Shooting at Ft. Hood Texas 11/05/09 13 dead, 43 wounded-(Murder Charges)  (Read 730840 times)
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« Reply #1080 on: January 11, 2010, 10:08:32 AM »

Nigeria: Mutallab - US, Govt Officials Meet in Abuja

Kenneth Ehigiator With Agency Report
10 January 2010
   
Lagos — Officials of American Homeland Security would meet the Presidency and aviation officials in Abuja tomorrow over the attempt by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to blow up a Northwest airliner at Detroit, U.S.A, last Christmas Day.

The meeting is part of the American government's ongoing investigation into the matter, especially as Mutallab's trip originated from Lagos.

A source told Vanguard yesterday that the Homeland Security officials were in the country to sift video evidence of how the suspect beat security screening at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Meantime, it has been established by the American security agencies that Abdulmutallab spent years reaching the radical point of no return and the attempt to blow up a passenger jet that he is now accused of committing in the United States.

A lot more is known now about the Nigerian's final movements before taking the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit allegedly wearing high explosives sewn into his underwear.

But how he came into the Al-Qaeda net and how he was trained for the Christmas Day attempt on the Northwest Airlines jet are key questions that US prosecutors must answer, experts say.

U.S investigators in Nigeria

According to sources, the U.S. government wants to know how seriously its Nigerian counterpart had taken security at airports in the country.

The source said: "The Homeland Security officials will be meeting with senior Presidency and aviation officials in Abuja tomorrow over the Mutallab's issue. They want to see video footage of how the suspect was screened at the airport before he boarded the KLM plane that took him out of Lagos.

"I can tell you that all the relevant government agencies at the airport have been holding security meetings in preparation for this meeting. The essence is to ensure that presentation before the U.S. officials would be water-tight for synergy."

The meeting, it was learnt, would be attended by the National Security Adviser, General Sarki Mukhtar; Aviation Minister, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba; Director-General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren and Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), among others.

Vanguard learnt that the U.S. officials are also out to see how personnel of the various security agencies at the airports have worked together to forestall security breaches, especially against the backdrop of the four 3D scanner machines the U.S. government donated to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) a few years ago.

The U.S. government, it was gathered, would also seek to know why the scanner machines were not also deployed for U.S.-bound passengers.

The source told Vanguard that the Federal Government was not happy that the 3D scanners have not been maximally utilised to boost security at airports, as they were solely monopolised by the NDLEA to check drug trafficking.

The source said government would use the opportunity to highlight what it had done to raise the bar as far as security was concerned at the nation's airports and in what areas Nigeria needed assistance with regards to airport security.

"All along, we have deceived ourselves that all is well at our airports. This meeting will afford us the opportunity of letting the U.S. know where we are lacking in airport security, especially in the areas of training and equipment.

"We have had to lie low at that meeting because we bungled our first reaction to that attempted bomb incident.

"The Americans have also been talking to us about the need to introduce air marshal aboard flights in the country. This would just be the opportunity to assure them of this and other security measures we have put in place," the source said.

Farouk's radical trait led to bomb bid

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab spent years reaching the radical point of no return and the attempt to blow up a passenger jet that he is now accused of committing in the United States.

A lot more is known now about the Nigerian's final movements before taking the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit allegedly wearing high explosives sewn into his underwear.

But how he came into the Al-Qaeda net and how he was trained for the Christmas Day attempt on the Northwest Airlines jet are key questions that US prosecutors must answer, experts say.

Investigators have followed a trail left by the 23-year-old Abdulmutallab that took him to Dubai, Ethiopia, Ghana, his home Nigeria and particularly several months which he spent and during which he partly disappeared in Yemen before the attempted attack.

The Nigerian appeared in court for the first time last Friday and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf on six charges, including one of trying to blow up the jet and kill the 297 people on board.

US media reports said Abdulmutallab told interrogators that Al-Qaeda trained him in Yemen -- but as for the ideological process that drew him closer to Osama bin Laden, much comment has focused on his years as an engineering student in London between 2005 and 2008.

Mutallab's was radicalised in London

"The main radicalisation must have taken place in London where he got talked into it through the Internet and two or three preachers," said Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence chief.

Various officials have also told how Abdulmutallab did extra studies in Dubai in 2009 and then went to the Yemen capital, Sanaa, to study Arabic for two weeks.

He went missing from Sanaa on the day his visa ran out on September 24 but reappeared there again 42 days later, just before the attack.

How Mutallab met Al-Qaeda's leader

Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security Affairs, Rashad al-Aleemi, said Abdulmutallab had met an Al-Qaeda leader, Mohammad Omair, in Yemen, as well as a radical cleric, Anwar al-Awlaqi.

Abdulmutallab met Awlaqi and Omair while hiding in the Shabwa area in Wadi Rafadh which was later hit by Yemeni jets in an attack on the militant hideout, he said.

The United States has accused Awlaqi, a US-Yemeni, of terrorist links and said that an army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people at a Texas military base in November, had also been in contact with him.

But the Yemeni minister insisted Abdulmutallab had already fallen in with extremists in London.

"When he went to Britain, it seems that he was recruited by (Islamist) militant groups," and arrived in Yemen "after he had been recruited by Al-Qaeda," he said.

Meanwhile, Britain's Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has acknowledged concern "about the possibility that Abdulmutallab's radicalisation may have begun or been fuelled during his time studying at University College, London."

But he said the Nigerian's family "believe he turned to violent extremism after leaving the UK."

Abdulmutallab was placed on a watchlist and barred from entering Britain in May 2009, British officials have said.

An Islamist specialist at France's School for Higher Social Science Studies (EHESS), Dominique Thomas, said that despite efforts to stamp out extremism after deadly bombings in London in July 2005, "there still exist small centres of radicalism" in Britain.

Thomas said that once radicalised, the recruits head to Yemen and other countries in the region for religious instruction and Arabic lessons.

"At the campus in Sanaa, we know there can be recruitment of foreign students who can end up following a radical movement like Al-Qaeda," Thomas said.

Aleemi said investigations had shown that explosives found on Abdulmutallab came from Nigeria, a claim Nigeria has disputed.

The United States has said Abdulmutallab's name was added to a watchlist of some 550,000 people just before the attack, following warnings from his father to US officials in Abuja about his son's increasing radicalism.

But Abdulmutallab's name was not added to the no-fly list or the watch list, meaning the US visa he had been issued earlier was not cancelled and he was to get onto to the Christmas Day flight without extra security screening.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201001110148.html
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« Reply #1081 on: January 11, 2010, 12:27:25 PM »

Hasan Relative Joins Defense Team; JAG Empanels "Sanity Board"      |

Written by Joe Wolverton, II   
Monday, 11 January 2010 10:07

In order to determine his competency to stand trial, Major Nidal Hasan is to undergo a mental evaluation by a team of three military medical professionals. The panel is composed of doctors chosen from the Army, Air Force, and Navy medical corps, and it will begin its evaluation of the case by reviewing the voluminous material contained in Hasan’s file.

The names of panel members have not been released by JAG attorneys working on the case; however, they informed The New American that the review can take as much as 45 days and at the conclusion, Hasan will be personally interviewed by the panel, described by JAG as a “sanity board.”

Hasan’s defense attorney, John Galligan, objected to the procedure, claiming that the process is being rushed and that it is impossible for military, especially Army, mental-health professionals to be impartial. When asked by The New American for their response to Galligan’s objections, JAG attorneys averred that they are “following all proper procedures and rules.”

Major Nidal Malik Hasan is accused opening gunfire in a Ft. Hood processing center and murdering 13 people. He is also charged with the attempted murder of 32 others wounded during the rampage. Hasan is currently hospitalized in San Antonio, recovering from injuries he received when he was shot by civilian police responding to the scene of the November 5 massacre. He is reportedly paralyzed from the chest down, but is lucid and communicative.

Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio was placed on lockdown for several hours last week after an unarmed and unidentified man asked security guards to escort him to Hasan’s room. At first the man claimed to be one of Hasan’s lawyer, but upon further inquiry, he identified himself as a doctor. As security guards are familiar with all legal and medical personnel with permission to visit Hasan, they recognized that the man was an impostor, and he was immediately taken into custody without ever gaining access to Hasan.

The man was escorted quickly off base by security, and officials immediately ordered that the Fort’s gates be closed for about 45 minutes in order to evaluate the situation. The visitor was questioned by civilian San Antonio police and was judged not to pose a threat and was not subsequently arrested.

In a further development, Galligan announced that a member of Hasan’s family would be joining his legal defense team. Galligan refused to disclose the identify of the relative or the exact relationship to Hasan. In the days following Hasan’s deadly attack, the Washington Post reported that Hasan has two brothers: Anas, a laywer based in Jerusalem; and Eyad, a businessman in Hasan’s home state of Virginia. Galligan would neither confirm nor deny whether either of Hasan’s brothers was the defense-team addition.

Galligan adamantly denied, however, that the new member of the team was the unidentified person who attempted to visit Hasan’s room, and although he was informed of the intrusion and the resulting lockdown, he had no knowledge of the person’s identity or the purpose of his attempted visit.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/2734-hasan-relative-joins-defense-team-jag-empanels-qsanity-boardq
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« Reply #1082 on: January 11, 2010, 12:31:02 PM »

Pentagon Review Doesn’t Explain Fort Hood Gunman’s Promotions

A Defense Department review of the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood fails to determine why accused gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan advanced in rank despite concerns about his competence.


WASHINGTON (January 11, 2010)—A Pentagon review of the deadly Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center that left 13 dead and 29 wounded fails to determine why accused gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was promoted in spite of worries over his competence, The Associated Press reported Monday.

While the doctors who oversaw Hasan's medical training voiced concerns about his strident views on Islam, he continued to get positive performance evaluations.

The review, obtained by The Associated Press, found that no one challenged his eligibility to hold a secret security clearance, even though his views raised doubt about his loyalty to the United States.

The report is to be delivered to Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the review because it's not complete.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/81142882.html

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« Reply #1083 on: January 11, 2010, 12:46:29 PM »

Al-Awlaki, the Translator of Jihad

How Influential Is Yemen's Mystery Man?

By Yassin Musharbash, Volker Windfuhr and Bernhard Zand

Yemen is not only home to a deadly al-Qaida group, but also to influential Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who had contacts with two of the 9/11 attackers and the Fort Hood killer. But can the US-born imam be persuaded to distance himself from al-Qaida?

The place where everything began and, if the Yemeni government has its way, where everything will also end is near the city's new mosque on Street Number 60 in the Hadda neighborhood of San'a, the capital of Yemen. The city's high-security prison, with its clay brown-colored walls and white trim, looks like a modern, albeit heavily guarded gingerbread house.

Anyone who approaches the prison faces the suspicious gaze of soldiers, who record the license-plate numbers of any vehicle they see more than once. The country's security forces have been nervous since Christmas Day, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who was trained in Yemen, tried to blow up a US airliner as it approached Detroit.

On Feb. 3, 2006, 23 members of al-Qaida escaped from this building, probably with the help of guards. The outbreak marked the birth of the second generation of al-Qaida in Yemen. It also led to a resurgence of the Arabian Peninsula's role as a training ground for militant Islamists. Until then, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida appeared to have been defeated. A US drone killed its last leader in 2002, and his successor was arrested in 2003.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,671188,00.html

Photo Gallery: Yemen's Translator of Jihad
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-50587.html
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« Reply #1084 on: January 11, 2010, 12:51:54 PM »


Ribat Baashen - the picturesque village in Yemen where Osama bin Laden's father lived.

Al-Qaida's New Home
Dealing with the Yemen Dilemma


By Yassin Musharbash, Volker Windfuhr and Bernhard Zand

Bernhard Zand / DER SPIEGEL

Ever since al-Qaida began establishing a presence in Yemen, the impoverished Arab country has become the focus of Western intelligence agencies. The government in San'a has already received massive military aid from Washington. Yet for the West, all the possible courses of action in Yemen look equally unattractive.

Deep inland, 80 kilometers beyond the Doan Gorge in the Hadramaut region, lies the picturesque village of Ribat Baashen. The houses cling to a shadowy cliff, and fields of corn and palm groves line the valley floor.

It was here in the "high mountains and deserts" of Yemen, that land of his ancestors, that Osama bin Laden once wanted to settle and breathe the "fresh air." In the 1920s his father Mohammed left the village, in the 1950s his uncle Abdullah was the first to install running water. Not much has happened there since. Recently the first ever asphalt road was laid and a plaque with the name of the village was erected.

Yemen is beautiful, poor, backward -- and dangerous. Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, this is the place the latest generation of Islamist terrorists have chosen to make their "base."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,670046,00.html
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« Reply #1085 on: January 11, 2010, 12:54:36 PM »

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« Reply #1086 on: January 11, 2010, 01:07:50 PM »

Abdullal El Faisal, Revolution Muslim, and Islamic Thinkers Society

Sheila Musaji
Posted Jan 11, 2010     

by Sheila Musaji

The Jamaica ******* reports that Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal has been arrested in Kenya for allegedly violating his Kenyan visitor’s visa by preaching in a local mosque.

Sheikh Abdullah El-Faisal (aka Trevor William Forest), was born in Jamaica and trained in Islamic studies in Saudi Arabia for seven years.  He went to Britain where he served at the Brixton Mosque where he was ousted in 1993.  He served four years in a British prison for urging his followers to kill non-Muslims, including Americans, Hindus and Jews and was deported from Britain to Jamaica in 2007.  He is the “spiritual advisor” of the Revolution Muslim group in New York.  One of the accused 7/7 bombers was a follower of El-Faisal.  This is the fellow that Yusuf Smith warned about back in 2005.

His followers in the U.S. at Revolution Muslim have posted a “Free Shaykh Abdullah al-Faisal” article.  They also posted a video on their site with the note “Revolutionmuslim were present to protest at the shia rally in NYC on December 2009. Three brothers of revolutionmuslim were arrested by NYPD for few hours for protesting under the charge of disorderly conduct.”  They are actually proud of this terrible action.  It looks from watching the video that there were only three to five of them present in total, so most were arrested.

Yousef al-Khattab (a.k.a. Joseph Leonard Cohen) created Revolution Muslim in 2007.  He is an American born convert from Judaism, who is also an Israeli citizen.  He and another Muslim from Connecticut named Mohammed Ghounem also started a Web site that aims to convert Jews to Islam, called Jews for Allah (JFA).  ADL He is the leader of the Revolution Muslim group.

The Revolution Muslim website says they follow Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faisal.  Their site also says they have participated in protests in front of mosques in NY that they think are too moderate, and at the 2007,  2008, and 2009 Muslim Day Parades.  I had written about another such group in New York, the Islamic Thinkers Society who had disrupted the Muslim day parade, but did not at the time know that Revolution Muslim was also part of this disruption.  Haroon Moghul also wrote about the disruption of the 2008 parade and was confused as to whether the protestors were from ITS or RM or both.  And an interesting post was filed on Talk Islam “The extremist types at ‘Revolution Muslim’ – which I think is the same thing as the ‘Islamic Thinkers Society’ discovered a few weeks ago that their website has been blocked in Saudi Arabia. The RM people produced one long message in response spread over several Youtube clips (here and here). I only listened to the first one, but I think I heard them ‘takfir’ King Abdullah at the end.  One has to appreciate the irony of Saudi Arabia taking action to protect itself from extremists located in America.”

In a video posted on the RM site about a protest at Masjid Taqwa in Brooklyn this past September they are heard shouting “America is the Shaitan” and saying anyone who doesn’t live under Sharia is Kafiroon - capitalism is kufr - obviously the people at the mosque were upset with them.  They also protested outside of the 96th Street Mosque.  The Imam of ths mosque, Shamsi Ali called the police on them.  Good for him for calling the police.

RM also posted on their site approval for Maj. Hasan, the Fort Hood murderer.  It says in part:  “Major Nidal Hasan M.D., An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a preemptive* attack., Get Well Soon Major Nidal, We Love You.”  The Revolution Muslim folks listed on their site are:  Yousef Al-Khattab, Amir and Chief Executive Officer; Younus Abdullah Muhammad, Executive Officer for Media and Marketing; Sipa Salar, Executive Officer for Research and Development;  Shaikh Abdullah El-Faisal, Imam and Spiritual Advisor.  The ITS group doesn’t list any names on their site so it is difficult to compare and see if these are the same people or two different groups.  In fact, the ITS group doesn’t even list its scholars, only scholars to be avoided.

They have recently been featured in the press and on a CNN television report.

It is to be hoped that the arrest of el-Faisal, and of most of the Revolution Muslim brothers will cause them to rethink their positions.  It certainly should have put them on the radar screens of law enforcement.  In the meantime, however, the Muslim community needs to remain alert and aware of any such individuals or groups in our midst.

more...

http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/abdullal_el_faisal_revolution_muslim_and_islamic_thinkers_society/0017841
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« Reply #1087 on: January 11, 2010, 01:17:24 PM »


Deported:Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal is on his way out of Britain after serving a sentence for spreading hate

Al-Faisal’s arrest surprises his mom


BY MARK CUMMINGS Sunday ******* reporter cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 03, 2010

POINT, St James -- Merylene Forrest, the mother of Jamaican-born Islamic cleric, Abdulla al-Faisal, last night reacted with surprise at the arrest of her son by anti-terror police in Mombasa for allegedly violating his Kenyan visitor's visa.

"I am very surprised to hear about it; I didn't even know that he was in Kenya," Forrest reacted when she was told by this reporter of al-Faisal's arrest.

Merylene Forrest, mother of Jamaican-born Islamic cleric Abdulla al-Faisal, speaking with the Sunday ******* at her home in Point, St James last night. (Photo: Philip Lemonte)

The Associated Press reported yesterday that al-Faisal was arrested by Kenyan anti-terror police on New Year's Day after he left a mosque. He was accused of violating the terms of his tourist visa by preaching in mosques.

The cleric was sentenced to nine years in a British Court in 2003 after he was found guilty of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans.

Al-Faisal had his sentence reduced to seven years on appeal and became eligible for parole after serving half his term. He was deported from Britain to Jamaica upon his release in May 2007.

A few weeks after he arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston al-Faisal visited family members and friends in his native Point -- a small farming village in upper St James.

Al-Faisal's 71-year-old mother told the Sunday ******* last night that upon his return to the island, he visited the district occasionally, opting instead to stay with his Muslim colleagues in Kingston.

She noted, however, that more than a year has passed since she heard from him.

"I haven't heard from him since 2008, but he called my daughter Yvonne sometime about in the middle of 2008 saying that he was in South Africa and that he would call back. But we have not heard from him since then," she recalled.

Expressing disappointment at her son's latest brush with the law, Forrest argued that the 45-year-old al-Faisal "is sensible and is not a fool and so he should know that he was not supposed to preach in Kenya".

An outstanding student at the Maldon Secondary School (now Maldon Comprehensive High) where he was called 'Dictionary' because of his fondness for big words, al-Faisal was converted to Islam at the age of 16, after he was introduced to the faith by one of his school teachers.

He emigrated to England in the 1980s and later headed to Saudi Arabia where he spent seven years studying the Islamic doctrine.

An eloquent speaker, who is fluent in Arabic, al-Faisal eventually took up residence in London where he shared his Muslim beliefs with anyone who would listen.

He has written books on the Muslim faith and distributed video and audio tapes of his sermons.

Last night, his sister, Yvonne, expressed hope that the charge levelled against the Islamic cleric was not "too serious" and would not attract a heavy penalty, similar to the one he got in Britain.

Meanwhile, several residents in the Point community told the Sunday ******* that they were unaware of al-Faisal's arrest.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/El-Faisal_7299368


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« Reply #1088 on: January 11, 2010, 09:04:41 PM »

Abdulmutallab: US Senate Intelligence Panel To Begin Hearing January 21      

Written by Abiodun Oluwarotimi, New York   
Monday, 11 January 2010 20:01

US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairperson, Dianne Feinstein,  has said the Senate Intelligence Panel is in the midst of a review of intelligence failures that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a flight to Detroit despite being listed in a database maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Centre.

Senator Feinstein said the panel would begin the  hearing on January 21, 2010 and will issue a report with findings and recommendations.

She continued that national security officials should simplify the criteria for the no-fly list, noting that any individual who is reasonably suspected of connection to a terrorist group should be barred from air travel.

Feinstein also said that technology needs to be improved to allow analysts to more easily digest the flood of intelligence gathered each day, adding that procedures for revoking visas should also undergo review.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman further suggested that President Barack Obama’s administration should consider not repatriating any suspected terrorists to countries where Al-Qaeda has a known presence.

She called on the President not to release any detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a jetliner by a Nigerian man who spent time in Yemen.

Senator Feinstein said she would "tend to agree" with Republican calls for the administration not to repatriate any detainees to countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Afghanistan or Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda is known to have a robust presence.

Obama announced Tuesday that he would suspend the transfers of additional detainees from Guantanamo to Yemen, but Feinstein and the president want him to go further.

The US Senator  hinted that between 24 and 28 suspected terrorists released from U.S. custody have returned to terrorist activity, adding that a total of 74 former detainees are engaged in terrorist activity around the world.

"That's bad," said Feinstein. "Here's the reason. They come out of Gitmo and they are heroes in this world [of terrorists]. This world is the only world that will be accepting of them. Therefore the tendency is to go back. The Gitmo experience is not one that leads to rehabilitation," she added.

While reacting to US President Barrack Obama's acknowledgement that some human errors were made during the December 25 Detriot airline attack in which a Nigerian Suspect Farouk Abdulmutallab  was arrested by security operatives at the airport, the Chairman of the US Senate committee on Homeland and Security, Senator  Joe Lieberman demanded that disciplinary action should be taken against those who let airline attack suspect slip through the cracks and get on the Detroit-bound flight.

Senator  Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the US Senate committee on Homeland and Security, stated that some people have to be held accountable for the mistakes, the human errors that the president acknowledged that were made, that enabled that Nigerian terrorist to get on that plane to Detroit, adding that some things have to be changed in the system

Senator Lieberman continued that investigations will reveal on which heads should roll.

"But the point is that it seems to me clear that, beginning with the Department of State when the father came into our embassy in Nigeria, not only should that name have been sent to the National Counterterrorism Center, but somebody should have checked the visa list and immediately pulled that terrorist's visa, so he never got on that plane," Lieberman said.

"Secondly, at the National Counterterrorism Center, something went wrong. That is the place we created after 9/11. It served us very well, but it did not in this case. he added.

The US Senator pressed further that if human errors were made, some of the humans who made those errors have to be disciplined so that they never happen again.

Lieberman stressed that al-Qaeda had made more than a dozen attempts to attack the United States in the past year, and "three of them broke through our defenses; two of them successfully killing people"

He cited the slaying of an Army recruiter in Arkansas, the Fort Hood shooting spree and the Dec. 25 attempt to take down Northwest Airlines Flight 253, "which averted disaster only by act of God"  he noted.

http://leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/news/headlines/10674-abdulmutallab-us-senate-intelligence-panel-to-begin-hearing-january-21
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« Reply #1089 on: January 11, 2010, 09:09:07 PM »

Ft. Hood report to examine military review system

Julian E. Barnes Washington Bureau
9:05 p.m. EST, January 11, 2010

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon report on the November massacre at Ft. Hood will pinpoint the role of the military's administrative failings leading up to the incident, including how the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, repeatedly earned favorable performance ratings in spite of mounting concerns about his views and behavior.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce preliminary findings Thursday of the investigation into the military's actions leading up to the Ft. Hood attack, in which 13 people were killed, defense officials said.

Among other issues, investigators have examined how it was that Hasan received repeated positive performance reviews that allowed his military career to advance despite concerns about inappropriate behavior, including charges that he proselytized patients and discussed extremist Islamic views with colleagues, according to defense officials.

The investigation was lead by retired Adm. Vernon Clark, a former chief of naval operations, and Togo West, a former secretary of the Army. Because of the ongoing criminal investigation of Hasan, a military psychiatrist, a defense official said that findings released Thursday will focus on the military's administrative failings, avoiding details about Hasan's actions.

But the findings are expected to explore why concerns about Hasan's performance at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were not passed on to his supervisors at his next assignment, at Ft. Hood. The investigation is also supposed to point to ways to overhaul the military performance evaluation system.

As widely practiced in Army culture, few performance reviews contain negative comments, and almost all seem outwardly positive. However, at senior levels and in competitive fields, where only a few officers are promoted, an evaluation that is less than effusive in its praise can derail an officer's promotion.

In less competitive fields and at junior levels, the Army has promoted the vast majority of its officers.

Hasan was a highly trained Army specialist. With a shortage of mental health personnel, few such specialized experts are blocked from promotion.

Especially now, the culture that encourages issuance of mainly positive evaluations has undercut the usefulness of the system for evaluating officers' strengths and weaknesses, according to some military officials. Some argue for a system that better alerts others to potential problems with officers' past performance.

Hasan's performance at Walter Reed, as described by officials and by those who knew him, should have raised red flags and prevented his promotion and transfer to Ft. Hood, many both inside and outside the military have argued since the Nov. 5 rampage.

For instance, Hasan's superiors faulted his light caseload and said he shirked professional responsibilities. He was admonished for discussing religion with his patients and criticized for the subject of at least one research paper on the internal conflicts of Muslim soldiers.

At the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, he was put on academic probation shortly after he began in 2007, and took six years to graduate from a four year program.

Despite those problems, Hasan was promoted to captain in 2003 and major in 2009, and even superiors who had raised questions about his work wrote in references that he was competent.

JBarnes@tribune.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-dc-fort-hood12,1,5077314.story
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« Reply #1090 on: January 12, 2010, 02:13:26 PM »

US Pledges Help For Yemen In Fight Against Terrorists

By DAVID BEDEIN, Middle East Correspondent
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the United States has intensified military and security training in Yemen.

The administration of President Barack Obama plans to significantly increase military and security aid to Yemen this year. They said the aid would enhance training as well as accelerate military and security deliveries to Sanaa.

“It [U.S. aid to Yemen] will more than double this coming year,” U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. David Petraeus said.

On Jan. 2, Gen. Petraeus met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in what officials said marked a review of military and security programs and plans for their expansion. The Centcom chief also relayed a written message from Mr. Obama to the Yemeni president that officials said urged Sanaa to intensify operations against al-Qaida.

In 2009, Washington allocated $67 million to Yemen. Officials said that aid would double over the next 18 months as the U.S. military increases training, intelligence and equipment deliveries to Yemen’s military and security forces.

A key goal of the U.S. aid was to prevent the flow of weapons and fighters to Yemen from nearby Somalia. They said Somalia has been deemed the source of fighters and weapons for both al-Qaida as well as the Iranian-backed Shi’ite insurgency in Yemen. They said al-Qaida has at least 400 operatives in Yemen.

“Al Qaida are always on the lookout for places where they might be able to put down roots,” Gen. Petraeus said.

Washington’s effort would focus on developing Yemen’s special operations forces to rapidly defeat al-Qaida and other insurgents, officials said. They said the CIA and other agencies would introduce counter-insurgency methods and equipment to Yemen.

On Jan. 3, Britain and the United States shut down their embassies in Yemen. Officials said both countries received intelligence regarding al-Qaida strikes.

“There are indications al-Qaida is planning to carry out an attack against a target,” White House counter-insurgency adviser John Brennan said. “We’re not going to take chances with the lives of our diplomats and others at the embassy.”

The United States has determined that the al-Qaida network in Yemen trained a Nigerian that nearly blew up a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25. Officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was believed to have undergone training and indoctrination in an al-Qaida camp in Yemen’s eastern province of Jawf.

“The Yemen government demonstrated willingness to take the fight to al-Qaida and they’re willing to accept our support,” Mr. Brennan said. “We’re providing everything they’ve asked for. They’ve made real progress.”

Yemen has acknowledged U.S. military and security assistance. The Saleh regime said the U.S. effort has included the development of Yemen’s coast guard.

David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us.

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/01/12/news/world/doc4b4c949de1d4a346481715.txt
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« Reply #1091 on: January 12, 2010, 02:21:26 PM »

Unruly passenger charged in AirTran incident

January 11, 2010 7:39 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- A 47-year-old Virginia man was charged Monday with interfering with a flight crew during a flight last week in which he allegedly became intoxicated and unruly, leading authorities to scramble fighter jets and the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The incident occurred Friday when Muhammad Abu Tahir, a Pakistani national and lawful permanent U.S. resident of Glen Allen, Virginia, was aboard AirTran Airways Flight 39 from Atlanta, Georgia, to San Francisco, California.

During the flight, a flight attendant served Tahir, seated in coach, three airplane-serving-sized bottles of wine, then refused to serve him more, according to a two-page affidavit filed Monday by the FBI.

He appealed to the senior flight attendant, who granted him a fourth, then a fifth bottle, both of which he downed quickly, it said.

Tahir then went to a bathroom in the rear of the plane and closed the door, opening it a few minutes later and placing his shoes and socks outside the door, then retreating back inside, the affidavit said.

"A short time later, Tahir again opened the lavatory door revealing that he was shaving with no shirt on," it added.

When a flight attendant knocked on the door and encouraged him to leave the bathroom so others could use it, Tahir refused "and started yelling at the flight attendant that he was being disrespected," it said.

Notified of the passenger's behavior, the captain advised the senior flight attendant to enlist the help of a passenger to stand outside the lavatory in case help was needed, it said.

But Tahir continued yelling and refused to obey the crew, at one point grabbing the senior flight attendant by her arms and hands, releasing her only after a passenger interceded, the affidavit said.

By this time, a fire extinguisher had been carried to the rear of the plane for possible use against the man and a beverage cart was repositioned to contain Tahir, according to the affidavit .

While Tahir remained inside the lavatory, the pilot made an emergency landing in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where police officers took Tahir to the El Paso County Jail, where he remained Monday.

Tahir told the FBI that he felt he was being disrespected when the flight attendants denied his request for food, which was being served in business class, the affidavit said.

The charges Tahir faces will be read Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Denver and a detention hearing and preliminary hearing are to be scheduled for later in the week.

"It is crucial that the flying public obey the commands of the flight crew," said U.S. Attorney David Gaouette.

If convicted, Tahir faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, or both, as well as restitution to the airline.

The incident was the second in three days in which North American Aerospace Defense Command fighter jets were scrambled in response to a passenger deemed disruptive.

On Wednesday, NORAD escorted a Hawaii-bound plane back to its origination city of Portland, Oregon, after a passenger gave a flight attendant a note that was interpreted as being threatening.

The passenger, Joseph Hedlund Johnson, 56, told the FBI he hadn't intended to scare anyone with the note, which began, "I thought I was going to die," and referenced the television show "Gilligan's Island."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/11/colorado.unruly.passenger/index.html
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« Reply #1092 on: January 12, 2010, 03:47:44 PM »

CIA bomber 'may have claimed Madrid attacks

06:25 AEST Wed Jan 13 2010
AFP

Western intelligence services are investigating whether a Jordanian who blew himself up in Afghanistan, killing seven CIA agents, had a role in the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombings, a Spanish news report said Tuesday.

"Western secret services are investigating whether this terrorist is the author of the claim of responsibility that arrived at the Spanish newspaper ABC a few days after these attacks," news radio Cadena Ser reported.

In several letters posted on jihadist websites, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, writing under the pseudonym Abu Dujana Al Khorasani, hailed the Madrid bombings, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and those on July 7, 2005 in London, it said.

A total of 192 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured in the March 11, 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital.

Responsibility was claimed by Islamic militants who said they acted on behalf of Al-Qaeda to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, sent by then Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in support of the US invasion.

Three days after the attacks, Aznar's conservative Popular Party was defeated in a general election by Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who made good on a campaign pledge to withdraw the Spanish contingent.

Cadena Ser said "various data" lead Western intelligence services to believe Balawi was behind the letter to ABC.

These include the fact that it was signed by Abu Dujana, Balawi's pseudonym, and that the Al-Qaeda claim of responsibility for his suicide attack had the "same characteristics" and was signed by "by the same suicide group."

Balawi blew himself up at a US military base in Khost, near the Pakistani border on December 30, killing seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler - a top intelligence officer and member of the royal family.

Jihadist websites have identified him as a double agent who duped Western intelligence services for months before turning on his handlers.

"Thank God I followed (Al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, because I had not ever expected the return of the Taliban, the fall of Aznar, (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi's loss and the overthrow of America in Iraq," Cadena Ser quoted one of Balawi's Internet texts as saying.

"Al Qaeda in Europe has managed to carve blood in the Western calendar."

Cadena Ser is a private radio station that is part of Spain's Prisa media group that also includes leading newspaper El Pais.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=993395
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« Reply #1093 on: January 12, 2010, 04:00:27 PM »


Members of Islam4UK hold a news conference in London Tuesday after British officials announced an impending ban on the group.  (Stefan Rousseau/Associated Press)


Britain bans Islamist group


Last Updated: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 | 12:24 PM ET
CBC News

The British government will ban an Islamist group after it created national outrage by proposing a protest march in a small town known for honouring British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, a government official said Tuesday.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said members of the group, Islam4UK, will be barred from meeting starting Thursday. The move will also allow authorities to seize the group's assets. People who defy the ban could face up to 10 years in prison.

The ban came after Islam4UK drew national outrage for proposing a protest march in Wootton Basset, about 120 kilometres west of London. The town is well known in Britain for hosting repatriation ceremonies for British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Local residents join the families of the dead and war veterans to line the streets and watch the bodies being driven through from a nearby air base.

In early January, members of Islam4UK discussed bringing 500 Islamists to Wootton Basset to highlight the deaths of Afghan civilians at the hands of NATO-led forces.

More than 400,000 people joined Facebook groups opposing the proposed protest march and British lawmakers called for the group to be outlawed.

Islam4UK reacted to the government's decision with anger. The group said in a statement Tuesday that the move was "a clear case of the oppressor and tyrant blaming the oppressed. Britain has today become an apartheid state, where Muslims are treated as second class citizens."

Omar Bakri Mohamed, a Lebanon-based cleric who serves as the group's spiritual leader, said the ban could push some members to take violent action.

In a telephone interview from Tripoli, Lebanon, Bakri said he was lobbying for a peaceful reaction to the ban.

"We [were] never involved with any violence, yet," he said.

Bakri's group argues that, as Muslims, they're not bound by British law and has expressed support for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

In its previous incarnation as al-Muhajiroun, the group was linked to several terror suspects and was accused of recruiting British Muslims to fight in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Bakri has acknowledged that some of al-Muhajiroun members have engaged in militant attacks but said the group can't be held responsible for the actions of individuals.

Bakri, who was deported from Britain in 2005, added that, whatever happened, his followers could regroup under a different name.

"Tomorrow we can call ourselves whatever we think is suitable for us," he said.


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« Reply #1094 on: January 12, 2010, 04:30:30 PM »

Pentagon review of Fort Hood attacks urges focusing on service members who may pose threat

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 12, 2010; 2:01 PM

A high-level Pentagon inquiry into the Fort Hood shootings that left 13 people dead has concluded that the military should focus more resources on identifying service members who might pose a threat to their colleagues and outlines a series of steps the Pentagon should take to prevent future attacks, Pentagon officials said.

The study, which will be presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen on Wednesday, is expected to be publicly released Thursday. One of the report's conclusions is that officer performance evaluations, which often obscure shortcomings in order to preserve officers' careers, need to be more forthright and honest, officials familiar with the report said.

The inquiry, which was led by retired Adm. Vernon Clark and former Army secretary Togo West, also calls on the Pentagon to ensure that it fully staffs FBI-run Joint Terrorism Task Forces so that information collected by other government agencies about potential contacts between troops and terrorist groups is shared promptly with the Defense Department. And it recommends that the Defense Department designate one place to coordinate with other government agencies and assess internal threats.

The accused shooter, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, continued to advance in the Army despite poor performance, erratic behavior and increasingly radical views that drew the attention of some of the officers overseeing him. Despite those concerns, his formal officer evaluations continued to suggest that he was a capable and competent officer, who was eventually promoted to the rank of major last year, officials said.
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A June 2007 lecture he gave on Islam, suicide bombers and threats that the military might encounter from Muslims also caused some of his fellow doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to question whether he was competent to serve. "It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he said in the presentation. Hasan also proselytized his Muslim faith to soldiers, drawing concerns from his fellow doctors

Amid a pressing need for more psychiatrists in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hasan was sent to Fort Hood and selected to deploy to Afghanistan. The pressing need for officers in some specialties has caused the army promotions rate to surge in the 90 percent range for junior and mid-grade officers.

A second inquiry, which is still ongoing, will look into correspondence between Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi prior to the November attack. Hasan exchanged as many as 18 e-mails with the radical Yemeni cleric in late 2008 and 2009, but a joint terrorism task force analyst determined that the correspondence was innocent. In some cases the e-mails weren't shared among FBI offices.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011201976.html
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« Reply #1095 on: January 12, 2010, 04:49:25 PM »


Defne Bayrak

Meet the New International Jihadist Elite
How can we counter educated, eloquent, well-connected Islamists?


By Anne ApplebaumPosted Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, at 10:04 AM ET

Somehow he conned the Jordanian secret service into thinking he was its agent. Then he conned the CIA into thinking he was its agent, too. After that, he conned both the Jordanians and the Americans—his "enemies," he told Al Jazeera—into believing he could track down leaders of al-Qaida. Nevertheless, by far the most intriguing thing about Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi—the suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan two weeks ago—is his wife, Defne Bayrak.

"My husband was anti-American; so am I." That was what Bayrak told the editors of Newsweek's Turkish edition last week. Bayrak is a 31-year-old Turkish journalist and Turkish-Arabic translator who says she met her late husband in an Internet chat room. Her publications include articles for Islamist periodicals as well as a book called Bin Laden: Che Guevara of the East. Unlike others in her family, she wears a black chador, which in Turkey is not merely religious clothing but a political symbol. She is no shrinking wallflower. "I am proud of my husband. He carried out a great operation in this war. I hope Allah will accept his martyrdom, if he has become a martyr," she told reporters in Istanbul.

Bayrak is a shining example of what might be called the international jihadist elite: She is educated, eloquent, with connections across the Islamic world—Istanbul, Turkey; Amman, Jordan; Peshawar, Pakistan—yet not exactly part of the global economy, either. She shares these traits not only with her husband—a medical doctor and the son of middle-class, English-speaking Jordanians—but also with others featured recently in the news. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for example, who grew up in a wealthy Nigerian family, studied at University College London, and then tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day. Or Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Sheik Omar), who was born in Britain, studied at elite high schools in Pakistan and Britain, dropped out of the London School of Economics, and then murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Or even Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was born in Arlington, Va.; graduated from Virginia Tech; and did his psychiatric residency at Walter Reed before killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood.
http://www.slate.com/id/2241119/
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« Reply #1096 on: January 12, 2010, 05:20:26 PM »

Somalis in Yemen al Qaeda's Next Recruits?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/12/politics/washingtonpost/main6086659.shtml

BLANKLEY: Governing class: Elites or idiots?

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/12/governing-class-elites-or-idiots/?feat=home_columns


Al-Qaida Holds The Upper Hand


By WALID PHARES
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

In 2001, one would-be shoe bomber forced millions of travelers to take off their shoes. In 2006, terrorists planned to bring down aircraft on transatlantic flights by smuggling liquid explosives onto planes. They were thwarted but they succeeded in preventing passengers from bringing liquids into airline terminals.

Lesson number one: In this terror war, the jihadists have the upper hand. They are the ones who choose to use a new weapon and they are also the ones who — by using simple logic — have refrained from using the same terror weapons more than once. In fact, since September 2001, al-Qaida’s Terrorists have avoided rushing into the cockpit of an airliner with box cutters. Does this mean we were successful in deterring the terrorists? Of course: as long as we can prevent them from using the 9/11 methods, they won't be naïve enough to repeat the same strategy. So is the U.S. winning the fight with al-Qaida by using these specific measures? No, we are simply protecting our population until the war is won. But winning is not measured by surviving potential copycat attacks.

Instead, this confrontation will be won by striking at the mechanism that produces the jihadists. And on that level, no significant advances have been made either, under the previous administration nor under the incumbent one. For, as President Obama admitted late last month after a near-terror attack on Northwest Flight 253, there is a "systemic failure" in our defense against the jihadi terrorists.

In my analysis, it has to do with the refusal by decision makers — based on the opinion of their own experts — to attack the factory that produces terrorists and instead to wait  until the jihadists show up at our country's ports of entries.

In an imaged vision, the U.S. has been fending off the jihadi operations inside its own trenches and often behind its own lines of defense. Preventing al-Qaida’s zombies from killing our airline pilots and flight attendants by securing cabin doors with steel and installing machines to detect liquid, creams and potential explosives is like fighting an invading army inside our own trenches and neighborhoods with bayonets.

If anything, it means that our strategists have no way to remotely detect this threat and they can't even decide what is and isn't a threat until it actually strikes us or is a few inches from us. It is a pretty ironic situation when the grand narrative of US official strategies is that we are fighting terrorists or extremists — pick your word, it has the same conclusion — in Waziristan, Afghanistan, and beyond, so that our defense perimeters are thousands of miles away.
So are we wrong to institute any of the security measures? No, we need to take all possible measures to secure the population, but we also need to take them in the framework of a grand strategy to defeat the threat. And in this regard, we do not have one. The jihadists are monitoring our actions, our measures and I do assume also are comfortably spying on us and looking into the deepest of our security mechanisms. After the Nada Prouty and Nidal Hasan penetration cases no one can convince me that neither Hezbollah nor al-Qaida haven’t deployed more agents throughout our national security apparatus. The enemy knows our defense strategy, and some would argue that they are already inside our walls.

As we are learning — constantly and dramatically — the so-called “isolated extremists” are not that isolated and those believed to be "lone wolves" are in fact part of much greater, well-camouflaged packs. The jihadists are way ahead of our security measures — even though we need to apply them nevertheless.



In the wake of the Abdulmutalib terror act the Obama administration announced that any traveler flying into the United States from foreign countries will receive tightened random screening, and all passengers from "terrorism-prone countries" will be patted down and have their carry-on baggage searched before boarding U.S.-bound flights. The list includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as well as those traveling from Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen. But here is the problem: In the jihadi war room, this was duly noted. Thus, the next human missiles will be selected from the “other” countries, and there are many countries where combat Salafis are indoctrinated and readied: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Indonesia to name a few, by the way all U.S. allies.

Even better, the jihadi strategists could task recruits with German, British, French as well as Australian and Canadian passports to wreak havoc in our cities. The past year has shown us that the jihadis can also emerge from North Carolina, Illinois, New York and other states all across the land. Most likely the “emirs” of al-Qaida will recommend dumping the use of powder to blow up planes, and soon another Ayman al-Zawahiri tape will rail at us for spending millions on a path they won't use for a while.



As we move to implement our mammoth security measures, the swift men of jihadism are already mapping out the endlessly open areas of our underbellies. In strategic terms we’re not even going anywhere near that direction, it is a dead end.

The Al-Qaida jihadists will keep coming, each time from a different direction, background, with a new tactic. And they will surprise us. Unfortunately, that is the price of a national security policy that identifies terrorism as a “manmade disaster” and jihadism as form of yoga.

Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad.

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/01/12/commentary/op-eds/doc4b4c9a45362b2717979598.txt
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« Reply #1097 on: January 13, 2010, 06:27:23 PM »

Obama Appoints “Mr. Slam Dunk” to Investigate Underwear Bomber and Fort Hood Murders

Wednesday, January 13, 2010


John McLaughlin, President Barack Obama’s choice to uncover the intelligence failures surrounding the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt and the Fort Hood shootings, has been called one of the brightest minds of the intelligence community. But his career in the shadowy world of intelligence gathering is the very thing that has caused some to question McLaughlin’s selection to shed light on these recent incidents.
 
McLaughlin’s involvement with the CIA ranges from the Reagan administration, when he went along with the creative intelligence efforts of Director William Casey and Deputy Robert Gates, to the George W. Bush years. In fact, it was McLaughlin, as the No. 2 man in the CIA, who supposedly told then-Director George Tenet it would be a “slam dunk” to provide evidence of Iraq’s secret weapons of mass destruction program and who presented the evidence as such to President George W. Bush. In so doing, McLaughlin chose to ignore warnings from German intelligence agents that the U.S. should not trust information provided by an Iraqi con man known as “Curveball” who claimed Saddam Hussein’s regime had mobile biological laboratories.
 
Intelligence expert Melvin Goodman has characterized McLauglin as “one of the ideological drivers for the CIA’s policies of torture and abuse, secret prisons and extraordinary renditions.

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Obama_Appoints_Mr_Slam_Dunk_to_Investigate_Underwear_Bomber_and_Fort_Hood_Murders_100113
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« Reply #1098 on: January 13, 2010, 06:33:17 PM »



Report further reveals shooter's threat

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 1/13/2010 4:00:00 AMBookmark and Share

A senior Army strategist and Pentagon advisor says that an official Defense Department review of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, validates earlier reports that many telltale signs about the Islamic suspect were ignored by those in a position to stop him.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates had ordered the review following the November 5 shooting, and the depiction emerging from the information examined by investigators is one of supervisors who did not heed their own warnings about an officer who proved to be ill-suited to serve as an Army psychiatrist. It found that the doctors overseeing Major Nidal Hasan's medical training continued to move him through the ranks, despite their repeated concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior.
 
Hasan is accused of murdering 13 people at the Fort Hood rampage, along with an unborn baby. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) finds it clear that Fort Hood authorities did not grasp the seriousness of Hasan's behavior.
 
Bob Maginnis"The Army's report validates not only the fact that this was ignored, but it was certainly well-observed," Maginnis notes. "Hopefully in the future, especially the medical community will recognize that when they see something as pathological [as the] behavior that was before them, that they'll take immediate action to circumvent something like this from happening again."
 
The review is scheduled to be delivered to Gates by January 15. A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the assessment because it is not yet complete.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Default.aspx?id=850272
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« Reply #1099 on: January 13, 2010, 06:36:09 PM »

Fort Hood fire chief says effects of shootings still reverberating

12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
vwigglesworth@dallasnews.com

Billy Rhoads didn't think twice as he grabbed his flak jacket and radio and rushed to the scene at Fort Hood.

But the fire chief for the nation's largest military base said his 26 years on the job couldn't prepare him for what he saw.

"You can train all day long to handle mass casualty incidents," he said Tuesday. "What you can't do is be prepared for what you're going to see when you pull up on something like this."

Rhoads' staff at the Fort Hood Fire Department and colleagues from neighboring Killeen and Copperas Cove are still dealing with the effects more than two months after the Nov. 5 shooting rampage that left 13 dead and nearly three dozen wounded. Counseling is available as needed.

"The aftermath will go on for a long time," Copperas Cove Fire Chief Mike Baker said.

Rhoads and Baker, along with Killeen Fire Chief J.D. Gardner, spoke to hundreds of firefighters and emergency medical service personnel gathered in Frisco this week for a leadership conference put on by the Texas Engineering Extension Service.

They told the attentive crowd that they couldn't talk about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who's been charged in the case, because the investigation is ongoing.

But they did talk about what went right that day.

Emergency crews transported 32 patients in 43 minutes, an astounding feat that Rhoads said was made possible by the soldiers on the base.

"There was not ... a person on the ground who was wounded that was not already receiving medical care, and that was by another U.S. Army soldier," Rhoads said. "They were in a combat situation, and they knew it."

Tables with their legs kicked off were used as backboards. Airways were cleared. Tourniquets were applied.

And as false reports of a second shooter spread, these soldiers didn't leave their victims but lay on top of them to protect them "because that's what soldiers do," Baker said.

The three fire chiefs said they had been meeting monthly with other chiefs from Central Texas to share information and talk about "what ifs." That coordination and relationship building became invaluable when the crisis hit.

Another mass casualty incident may never happen at Fort Hood, Baker said.

"It may not happen in your town," he told attendees. "But it's going to happen again. We all have a duty to be ready."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-hoodchief_13met.ART.State.Edition1.4bd3bcd.html
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