Another Obama scandal--mirandizing Abdulmutallab

"We have since learned that the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).

The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama's own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration's new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Perhaps you hadn't heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council." Read Krauthammer's column

A career with a future--terrorism studies

There was Russian Language and Area Studies, Black Studies, Women's Studies, and now, a Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Studies

"The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, tasked by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate with using state-of-the-art theories, methods, and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics, and social and psychological impacts of terrorism. START, based at the University of Maryland, College Park, aims to provide timely guidance on how to disrupt terrorist networks, reduce the incidence of terrorism, and enhance the resilience of U.S. society in the face of the terrorist threat."

Isn't it odd that when an American born Muslim, member of the military with an elite education shoots up a military base and kills and wounds many Americans, the administration doesn't get too worked up about it. But when a foreign Muslim doesn't bring down a plane and doesn't kill anyone, the administration eventually goes into high gear. Perhaps it's because both these guys had the same mentor in Yemen, so their age, ethnicity, nationality and careers weren't the defining similarity. I wonder if this certificate program teaches profiling? Nah.

Obama finally gets on board

Maybe it's the time change; or the rainbows. Maybe the TOTUS of the POTUS finally arrived in Hawaii. But today Obama changed his lackadaisical, let-me-get-to-the-golf course attitude. From CNN.

Detroit Attack

The CounterTerrorism blog, Dec. 27, by Roderick Jones asks:

"What has caused this [new round of inconveniences for the passengers]? At this point, it is the reaction of United States Department of Homeland Security to any terrorist event involving aviation [which then spreads throughout the global aviation system], which heightens the operational success of militant Islamist terrorists against aviation targets. The noted, counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen expertly puts this into focus [in his book Accidental Guerrilla] by highlighting the detrimental effects of US counter-terrorism policy. In short al-Qaeda does not represent an existential threat to the US, it has no path to victory looking at any reasonable scenario including the use of WMD-- but the US can defeat itself by unnecessary over-reaction and a fundamental misunderstanding of basic risk management and terrorist theory. Once again this is being demonstrated by the events in Detroit and the DHS reaction, which creates more disruption than the attack itself, destroys DHS and US credibility by mandating absurd responses, which focus on securing events after they have happened (for example, turning off in-flight entertainment because passengers can see a map - passengers can still look out the window or use their watches).

If the US and other states are to contain terrorism they needs to adopt the more thoughtful responses, which have been developed within and outside of government. The work of inside/outside experts such as Killcullen largely moves in one direction conclusive direction -- less is more and multi-agency approach is paramount. The central thesis of Kilcullen's book is that the west creates 'accidental guerrilla's' by using military force and thus creating 'guerrilla anti-bodies'."

Apparently, even when we change presidents, it's still our fault. Call me crazy but I think profiling for militant islamists (act smartly and speak softly) might be called for instead of pulling my husband over and asking him to practically disrobe when we were already late for our connecting flight. But maybe that's what he was implying and wants to keep his day job.

Napolitano claims the system works?

If you include a sharp eyed, very brave Dutch vacationer as part of your "system." Nothing worked, lady, including the terrorist's parents alerting authorities that their son had disappeared and been radicalized, his name, Umar farouk Abdulmutallab, being in a watch database, the Netherlands not agreeing to use our information (wasn't our president going to use his charm on the European nations, not clout?), his side trips to Yemen, his paying cash for his ticket, and his smuggling explosives aboard when the rest of us can't even get a water bottle or shampoo smuggled in. Now she wants to inconvenience the rest of us with a final one hour proscription against bathroom use (no one will want to sit next to me since I've had vomiting and diarrhea on my last two international flights). I hope she's retracted this ridiculous statement that no one, not even her boss, believes.
Link. Now he'll get a pro-bono lawyer and sue the airlines for his burns, I'm guessing.

Update from all sides of the political spectrum: Hell No, it didn't work! And she has now admitted it didn't, but her words on CNN Sunday were "taken out of context."

Update 2: This administration's backpeddling is just amazing. A day after his fourth day wimp-out that sounded like a weather report followed by a game of golf, Obama comes out with "new information" trying to pretend a little fire in his belly, but he's hopeless. Either he was hopelessly uninformed yesterday for that speech, or he doesn't care, never has, never will. Obama's second speech link. Never mind, couldn't find one except Tadjikistan.