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This article probably belongs in Rand and Rave, but I did not know how to post it there. Anyhow, I thought this article was a perfect example of the times we live in when we spend trillions on banks, foreign wars, and social obligations that are bankrupting our country, we can't seem to stop a lone attacker who was on a terrorist watch list and whose OWN FATHER had notified U.S. authorities concerning his son's actions.
From Reuters:
The lone comment at the bottom of the page pretty much sums it up:
Original story here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BQ0WB20091227
From Reuters:
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.
The London-educated Nigerian, son of a respected former banker, started his journey to Detroit in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before going through transit at Schiphol airport.
"The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day," Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital Lagos.
"The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab who is a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit had earlier reported his concern about his son's activities to relevant American authorities," Akunyili said.
The U.S. government created a record of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community's central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative data to put him on a "no-fly" list, a U.S. official has said.
Akunyili said Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who met with Nigerian intelligence officials on Saturday, had expressed "deep shock and regret" over his son's actions. He also met with U.S. security officials in Abuja on their invitation on Sunday, a family friend told Reuters.
The United States asked airports and airlines around the world to tighten security after the foiled attack, which raised questions about how Abdulmutallab had been able to get explosive materials onto the plane despite higher security worldwide since the September 11, 2001 hijacked airline attacks.
Abdulmutallab went through normal security checks when he began his journey in Lagos and had a multiple-entry U.S. visa issued in London, a senior Nigerian aviation official said.
"The passenger did not check in any baggage but was spotted with a shoulder bag. He went through a normal screening and check-in process," the head of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, told reporters on Saturday.
U.S. VISA ISSUED IN LONDON
Demuren said Abdulmutallab's U.S. visa had been issued in London on June 16, 2008 and was due to expire in June 2010. He said it was scanned without the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) returning any objection.
"Thereafter, he passed through aviation security comprising a walk-through metal detector and baggage X-ray screening machine. He proceeded to the boarding gate where he went through secondary screening as confirmed by KLM officials," he said.
He was refused a visa to enter Britain in May 2009 when he tried to apply for a course at a bogus college, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said. University College London earlier said it had a record of a student of that name attending from 2005-2008.
The incident has raised questions about security at Nigerian airports but Akunyili said Nigeria recently passed an audit by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and another America Transportation Security Audit (ATSA) just last month.
"We want to assure everybody that our airports are very safe ... However, in the light of the new developments, we have reinforced our security systems in all our airports," she said.
Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up the plane by setting alight an explosive device attached to his body.
An initial FBI analysis found the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, one of the explosives carried by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in his failed attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger jet just before Christmas in 2001, months after the September 11 attacks.
The device consisted of a six-inch (15-cm) packet of powder and a syringe containing a liquid, which were sewn into the suspect's underwear, according to media reports.
Demuren said Abdulmutallab had purchased his $2,831 Lagos-Amsterdam Detroit return ticket at the KLM office in Accra, Ghana, on December 16 with a January 8, 2010 return date.
I think that the story is relevant for a number of reasons, mostly because of the public's reaction. Now while the average reader might ask what this has to do with itulip or the economy, I say it has plenty. For many years I did survey research. One of the interesting things I noticed in the many studies that I managed was when we would interview a customer who was particularly upset about a particular experience or issue. They tended to rate everything negatively, even those factors not directly linked to the particular negative experience. For instance, if you eat at a restaurant with bad food, you are much less likely to rave about the service you received no matter how good it is. It's the same way with this story. With the steady drip, drip, drip of bad news whether it be the health care debate, Climategate, Wall Street bailouts, oversized executive bonuses, endless foreign wars, or an inability to secure our own borders, people no longer distinguish between the failings of Wall Street, Homeland Security, American foreign policy, or whatever. All they see is a system that no longer works for them. All stories like this do is to add to the growing polarization in American politics between the have's and the have not's (i.e. those with political access and those without it)."The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day," Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital Lagos.
"The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab who is a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit had earlier reported his concern about his son's activities to relevant American authorities," Akunyili said.
The U.S. government created a record of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community's central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative data to put him on a "no-fly" list, a U.S. official has said.
Akunyili said Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who met with Nigerian intelligence officials on Saturday, had expressed "deep shock and regret" over his son's actions. He also met with U.S. security officials in Abuja on their invitation on Sunday, a family friend told Reuters.
The United States asked airports and airlines around the world to tighten security after the foiled attack, which raised questions about how Abdulmutallab had been able to get explosive materials onto the plane despite higher security worldwide since the September 11, 2001 hijacked airline attacks.
Abdulmutallab went through normal security checks when he began his journey in Lagos and had a multiple-entry U.S. visa issued in London, a senior Nigerian aviation official said.
"The passenger did not check in any baggage but was spotted with a shoulder bag. He went through a normal screening and check-in process," the head of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren, told reporters on Saturday.
U.S. VISA ISSUED IN LONDON
Demuren said Abdulmutallab's U.S. visa had been issued in London on June 16, 2008 and was due to expire in June 2010. He said it was scanned without the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) returning any objection.
"Thereafter, he passed through aviation security comprising a walk-through metal detector and baggage X-ray screening machine. He proceeded to the boarding gate where he went through secondary screening as confirmed by KLM officials," he said.
He was refused a visa to enter Britain in May 2009 when he tried to apply for a course at a bogus college, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said. University College London earlier said it had a record of a student of that name attending from 2005-2008.
The incident has raised questions about security at Nigerian airports but Akunyili said Nigeria recently passed an audit by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and another America Transportation Security Audit (ATSA) just last month.
"We want to assure everybody that our airports are very safe ... However, in the light of the new developments, we have reinforced our security systems in all our airports," she said.
Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up the plane by setting alight an explosive device attached to his body.
An initial FBI analysis found the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, one of the explosives carried by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in his failed attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger jet just before Christmas in 2001, months after the September 11 attacks.
The device consisted of a six-inch (15-cm) packet of powder and a syringe containing a liquid, which were sewn into the suspect's underwear, according to media reports.
Demuren said Abdulmutallab had purchased his $2,831 Lagos-Amsterdam Detroit return ticket at the KLM office in Accra, Ghana, on December 16 with a January 8, 2010 return date.
The lone comment at the bottom of the page pretty much sums it up:
You’ve got to be kidding me. We have how many tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Average every day Americans who haven’t done anything whatsoever on this list, or at least, flagged a various color to indicate ‘risk’ of terrorism. Yet, we have this guy who has been on a watch list, followed by the FBI or whatever, and who even has his dad (prominent Nigerian banker) calling Americans to warn us of him? What is even the point of the no-fly list when we let these people fly? If anything, this attack is a reason we should fire all TSA workers, and remove all the draconian measures we took. Why? Because the wrong people are on the list, and the right people are OFF it. All the people go through screenings, pat downs, strip searches whether physical or by the new ultrasound or whatever machine. All of it, doesn’t do crap for us. We still get a guy on a plane trying to blow it up.
But hey, that’s what we get for valuing security over freedom. Neither.
But then again we are making that same bet with Climategate, Deathcare, and the Ponzi Scheme known as Derivatives.
One pissed off Democrat who voted for change. Still hasn’t got it. (and won’t vote republican because they’re even MORE clueless)
I think this is just one more nail in the coffin of the existing political and economic order. It also ;ooks like some of the shine of our fearless leader, OMGObama, has worn off.:rolleyes:But hey, that’s what we get for valuing security over freedom. Neither.
But then again we are making that same bet with Climategate, Deathcare, and the Ponzi Scheme known as Derivatives.
One pissed off Democrat who voted for change. Still hasn’t got it. (and won’t vote republican because they’re even MORE clueless)
Original story here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BQ0WB20091227
Kudos to James Cameron. . .
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