White House Adviser Briefed in October on Underwear Bomb Technique

[IndianaGreen]

Source: Newsweek

White House Adviser Briefed in October on Underwear Bomb Technique

Newsweek

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was briefed in October on an assassination attempt by Al Qaeda that investigators now believe used the same underwear bombing technique as the Nigerian suspect who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence and administration officials tell NEWSWEEK.

The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. In late August, Nayef had survived an assassination attempt by an operative dispatched by the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda who was pretending to turn himself in. The operative had tried to kill the Saudi prince by detonating a bomb on his body, but stumbled on his way into the prince's palace and blew himself up.

Saudi officials initially thought the bomb had been secreted in the operative's anal cavity. But after investigating the matter more thoroughly, they concluded it had likely been sewn into his underwear, thereby allowing the operative to bypass security checks before his meeting with the prince. A main purpose of Nayef's briefing for Brennan was to alert U.S. officials to the use of the underwear technique.

U.S. officials now suspect that Nayef's attempted assassin and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect aboard the Northwest flight, had the same bomb maker in Yemen, intelligence experts tell NEWSWEEK. At the briefing for Brennan, Nayef was concerned because “he didn’t think were paying enough attention” to the growing threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen, said a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the briefing. (A senior Saudi official told NEWSWEEK Saturday that “we don't have any concerns that the U.S. government isn't sufficiently concerned about Yemen. In the latter part of the Bush administration and in this administration, the U.S. has been very focused on the dangers emanating from Yemen.”)


Read more: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/02/white-house-advisor-briefed-in-october-on-underwear-bomb-technique.aspx

[AnneD]

1. The White House briefed on Under ware bomber...

was it boxers or just briefs. Am I the only one that thinks this is funny. Another twist in Security Theater.

[AnneD]

2. The White House brief on Under ware bomber...

was it boxers or briefs. Am I the only one that thinks this is funny. Another twist in Security Theater.

[panader0]

3. Bombs in the ass!?

[RamboLiberal]

4. K&R - I see the unrecommeders have been out

Cause the article may dare to criticize the Obama Administration. You can be sure if this was the Bush admin that article referenced it would probably already be on Greatest Page.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Yes, bomb in the ass!

You know what that means for the flying public, don't ya?

BOHICA

[MilesColtrane]

10. Buy stock now, before the rush, and make a fortune.

Top Glove, the largest manufacturer of rubber and latex gloves in the world:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TGLVY.PK

Johnson & Johnson, makers of KY jelly:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=JNJ

[azurnoir]

14. Ya really think they'll bother with the KY? n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. When it gets to the point where people are carrying internal

explosive devices... and don't have a clue that they are... well, this has already been made into a movie.. pretty good one at that.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160399/
this is a terrific,well acted movie.it has plenty of action,a very good storyline and is also realistic.it asks many questions and leaves the viewer to answer most of them.i was drawn into this movie right from the beginning until the very end.there are some great,and unexpected (for me,anyway)plot twists.the ending i thought was brilliant.i felt the writers really captured the look and feel of a futuristic earth at war with the enemy.i also liked the fact that you never really know who the enemy is,until the very end.even then,i wasn't sure.if you are looking to be entertained,you should give this movie a try.if you like compelling and thought provoking action and drama,you should also give this movie a try.this movie has some intelligence behind it,which many movies today are sorely lacking.this is one of the best movies of the Sci/Fi genre i have seen to date. i wouldn't call it a masterpiece,but it is a very solid,well done film.My vote for "Imposter" is 9/10

[tomhayes]

6. Let me get this straight

Bush not having his Counter Terrorism group meet is the same as:

The Obama Administration failing to have full body scanners and complete genital pat downs implemented in foreign countries??

[IndianaGreen]

7. The blame lies squarely on the National Counterterrorism Center

Much of the blame for the breakdown is being aimed at the National Counterterrorism Center, a unit of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created as part of a host of 9/11 reforms aimed at promoting better information sharing within the U.S. intelligence community. Frances Fragos Townsend, President Bush’s chief homeland-security adviser, says that analysts at the NCTC should have been pushing, or pinging, the system for more information on Abdulmutallab. “It was NCTC’s responsibility to connect the dots, and ask for additional dots if they don’t have enough,” she said. Instead, the original report about the visit of Abdulmutallab’s father appears to have been dropped in a “dead-letter file.” NCTC officials have declined to comment.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/02/white-house-advisor-briefed-in-october-on-underwear-bomb-technique.aspx

These assholes are the ones that dropped the ball big time. The gods only know in what other cases have they dropped the ball.

[zbdent]

9. strange ... I don't remember the Republican/"Liberal media" outcry

when Obama fired every last member of the Conterterrorism center who was appointed by Bush, and replaced them with people who were too corrupt to work for ACORN ...

(oh, wait ... that's because it never happened ...)

But, of course, all the failings of 9/11/2001 were because the system was rife with Clinton appointees, right?

[totodeinhere]

13. It's not the same. Bush's lapses were worse.

But that doesn't excuse any lapses that have happened during the Obama Administration.

[tomhayes]

17. The lapse was Bush (and his policies until 9/11)

This is a case of: Can the U.S. actually stop anyone who anyone has reported being "radicalized" anywhere in the world, including as in this case someone who transferred several times before getting on a plane for the U.S.? Is that an Obama lapse??

Bush's lapse was not taking *any* focus on counter-terrorism pre 9/11.

This guy found a small hole and was able get through. I don't think we can possibly expect to find and stop every terrorist plot - if that's the only thing we can measure success/failure by then we will fail.

I am all for security and stopping terrorists but it's not going to be 100% possible. It's a laudable goal - but not very realistic - unless you listen to Bush/Cheney/Lieberman's methods of continual preemptive and massive attacks. And those have proven themselves not to work. And let's not forget Ireland and how many attacks happened in the past 15 years inside of the : the attack on CIA employees in 1993 in Virgina, the WTC attack in 93, Oklahoma City attack, Olympic Bombing, the ANTHRAX Attacks, the attack in LAX by that Egyptian guy, the Beltway Sniper, the Iranian who dove into the crown at Chapel Hill, the Shoe Bomber.)

Are we going to be able to implement the security measures to stop this kind of attack in the future:
1)Full body scan
2)Spectroscopy to sniff chemicals.
3)Removal of all clothes and undergarments (or at a minimum complete genital pat downs.).

[totodeinhere]

19. Obama himself admits that there was an unacceptable breakdown in the system.

The would be bomber's father warned the CIA about his son, yet nothing was done about it. Yes, we can't expect to prevent every attack, but we did have enough information to stop this one and we failed.

[tomhayes]

21. We'll see

i wonder how many other "threats" are out there and how we can stop everyone of them.

But Obama's "We need to fix it" is way different than Bush's "Who could have foreseen such an attack? It was unimaginable."

[wordpix]

24. let's face it - some people in both admins did not do/are not doing their jobs

Heads should roll where people need to be held accountable.

[jasmeel]

26. Apparently to the US media..yes.

[boston bean]

11. Don't get your panties in a bunch....

[Algorem]

12. setup

[Andronex]

15. "Underwear Bomb Technique"

Yes the old Underwear Bomb Technique, brought to you by "Al Ciada", the ruling class must think we are complete idiots, and they are probably right.

[L0oniX]

16. "Briefed" ..."underware" ...irony ...a dirty bomb? n/t

[Grassy Knoll]

18. If the bomb really went off.....

everybody on the plain would have been shit faced : )

[jmowreader]

22. Oh my...

:rimshot:

[inna]

20. jeez, OT - but what a way to die.

[TexasObserver]

23. He really was carrying a load in his pants.

[wordpix]

25. Michael Leiter, head of NCTC, is a BUSH appointee as of June 2008

That doesn't excuse THIS admin for keeping him on, but Freeptards, stick it!


http://www.nctc.gov/about_us/director_bio.html

Michael E. Leiter
Director
National Counterterrorism Center

Michael E. Leiter was sworn in as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) on June 12, 2008, upon his confirmation by the U.S. Senate and after serving as the Acting Director since November 2007.

The NCTC has two core missions. The first is to serve as the primary organization in the U.S. government for analysis and integration of all terrorism intelligence. In this role Mr. Leiter reports to Dennis C. Blair, the Director of National Intelligence. The second mission is to conduct strategic operational planning for counterterrorism activities integrating all elements of U.S. national power. In this role he reports to President Obama.

From February 2007 to November 2007 Mr. Leiter served as NCTC�s Principal Deputy Director. Before joining NCTC, Mr. Leiter served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In this role Mr. Leiter assisted in the establishment of the ODNI and coordinated all internal and external operations for the ODNI, to include relationships with the White House, the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, and Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Congress. He was also involved in the development of national intelligence centers, including NCTC and the National Counterproliferation Center, and their integration into the larger Intelligence Community. In addition he served as an intelligence and policy advisor to the DNI and PDDNI.

Prior to his service with the ODNI, Mr. Leiter served as the Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Director of the President�s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (the �Robb-Silberman Commission�). While with the Robb-Silberman Commission, Mr. Leiter focused on reforms of the U.S. Intelligence Community, in particular the development of what is now the National Security Branch of the FBI. From 2002 until 2005 he served with the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. At the Justice Department Mr. Leiter prosecuted a variety of federal crimes, including narcotics offenses, organized crime and racketeering, capital murder, and money laundering.

Immediately prior to his Justice Department service, Mr. Leiter served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. From 1991 until 1997 he served as a Naval Flight Officer flying EA-6B Prowlers in the U.S. Navy, participating in U.S., NATO, and UN operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. Mr. Leiter also served as a Harvard Law School human rights fellow with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Mr. Leiter received his J.D. from Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude and was President of the Harvard Law Review; his B.A. from Columbia University.