Attempted Terrorist Attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 (UPDATED)

The little fucker was given Miranda Rights after his arrest. The scatterbrains in the DHS, the State Department, and the FBI treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem instead of an act of war; which is exactly what it is. On top of that, the sloppy security checks on foreigners and unwillingness of the agencies to communicate and share information, means the next crop of plane-traveling terrorists still have a good shot at succeeding.

UPDATE:

According to a law enforcement source, the first failure came on Nov. 19, 2009, the very same day Abdulmutallab father’s, Dr. Umaru Mutallab, a prominent banking official in Nigeria, expressed deep concern to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abjua, Nigeria, that his 23-year-old son had fallen under the influence of “religious extremists” in Yemen.
The second failure to flag an active visa belonging to Abdulmuttalab occurred the very next day in Washington, after Mutallab’s concerns were forwarded to officials there. It was only after the Christmas Day terror attack in Detroit that U.S. officials learned that Abdulmuttalab had been issued a visa by the U.S. Embassy in London valid from June 16, 2008, through June 12, 2010.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/28/cbs-state-blew-two-chances-to-flag-abdulmutallabs-visa/

UPDATE:
Well that’s settled:

……The group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attempt to bring down the jet, saying the attack was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen.

……In a statement posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group, an alliance of militants based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaida operatives in the country this month. The second one was a day before Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.

The group said Abdulmutallab used explosives manufactured by al-Qaida members. “He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death,” the group said in the statement, “relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all what they spent on security technology.”

The group released what it said was a photo of Abdulmutallab, smiling in a white shirt and white Islamic skullcap, overlaid on a graphic showing a plane taking off. In a second version of the same photo, he is shown with the al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula banner in the background.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14079910

UPDATE:
Janet Napolitano proves how vapid she is….again:
Via NRO online:

The head of the Department of Homeland Security isn’t helping. I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the “system worked” because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was “foiled” by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTY0Y2E2NWQ3Nzc2MjYzMWMwOGJlNzE2NDVlMGUwZjM=

More here:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/12/27/napolitano_on_failed_terror_attempt_the_system_worked.html
This is the same head of the DHS who placed Iraq War veterans in her domestic terrorist assessment, as a “threat”. Oh yeah, the country’s in good hands.

UPDATE:
By the way Janet, this is what Abdulmutallab has to say:

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, “We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/12/28/abdulmutallab_more_like_me_coming_to_us.html

UPDATE:
Collecting evidence:

Cell phone-related materials, including SIM cards, were recovered during searches of “flats or apartments of interest” connected to Flight 253 bomber suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Fox News learned Monday.

SIM cards, which store cell phone numbers and incoming or outgoing calls, may be able to determine who was talking to whom in the months and days prior to Abdulmutallab’s flight from Nigeria to Detroit.

The cards are now being analyzed as investigators continue searching locations where Abdulmutallab may have stayed.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/28/investigators-recover-sim-cards-searches-homes-tied-mutallab/

UPDATE:
The common denominator: Islam.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s life until mid-2008 reflected his lofty status as the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, with a prestigious education and luxury apartment in London. After graduating from a prominent London university that June, however, Mr. Abdulmutallab soon began showing signs of trouble.
After a stopover in Dubai to continue his education, he defied his family’s wishes and went to Yemen, vowing to study Arabic and Shariah law. An attempt to re-enter the U.K. in May was denied by border officials who said the college at which he was applying to study was of questionable legitimacy. Authorities haven’t named the college.

When his father, Nigerian banker Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, threatened to cut his son off from funding, Mr. Abdulmutallab is said to have replied that he was “getting everything for free” regardless. Finally, Mr. Mutallab told American and Nigerian officials that he feared his son had been “radicalized” during trips outside the West African country.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126187511080506063.html

UPDATE:
No passport? No problem.

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.

While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab’s lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn’t see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger_says_at_l.html

UPDATE:
Failure to profile and detain:

How can a Muslim student, whose name appears on a US law enforcement database, be granted a visa to travel to America, allegedly acquire an explosive device from Yemen, a country awash with al-Qaeda terrorists, and avoid detection from the world’s most sophisticated spy agencies?

Every intelligence agency across the world is fully aware that the targets of choice for al-Qaeda and its numerous affiliates and sympathisers are airliners – preferably those flying to the US. Yet Abdulmutallab seems to have avoided detection in both Nigeria and Holland when he passed through the various security checks at Lagos and Schiphol airports respectively.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6891356/Analysis-Detroit-terror-attack-is-a-major-intelligence-and-security-failure.html

First Report:

U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.

One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9CQKQ5G0&show_article=1

Anti-Semite Jimmy Carter Offers Jews an ‘Apology’

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any actions that may have caused distress.

In a letter to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published Monday, Carter offered a holiday message wishing for an Arab-Israeli peace.

“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its  populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter’s message said. “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het (a plea for forgiveness) for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/22/Carter-takes-conciliatory-tone-with-Israel/UPI-74511261487146/

That putz has a lot of chutzpah trying to give a disingenuous “apology”.

Jimmy Carter: “Hey, now that my Grandson is running for Congress in a district with a large Jewish population, I want to say I’m sorry for all the anti-Simetic, pro-Islamic terrorist crap I’ve spewed for the last 60 years.”

Hey Jimmy: Go back to building crack houses for “humanity”.

The Communists Behind ObamaCare

Hat Tip to FrontPage Magazine.

More on the backgrounds of those who influence Obama’s Marxist agenda:

……(Obama’s) deeply held positions on healthcare were derived largely from the influence of a politically aggressive group of longtime Marxists whose worldviews were consistent with those Obama had already developed from other radical influences in his life. But before we examine who those particular Marxists were, let us establish, with certainty, what Obama’s long-term objectives for healthcare actually are.

As an Illinois state senator in 2003, Obama unambiguously told an AFL-CIO conference:

“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal healthcare [plan]…. That’s what I’d like to see.”

In a single-payer system, a government-run organization would manage the healthcare of every man, woman, and child in the United States—collecting all related fees and paying out all related costs.

At an SEIU Health Care Forum on March 24, 2007, Obama sang the same tune—though this time he conceded that the attainment of his ultimate vision might require a gradual, incremental approach:

“There’s going to be, potentially, some transition process. I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out, or 20 years out…”

In the summer of 2008, when a campaign audience member asked him to comment on single-payer healthcare, Obama candidly replied:

“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system.”

……The primary figure who delivered Obama to the single-payer camp was Quentin Young, an 86-year-old retired physician who was a longtime friend and neighbor of Obama in Chicago. Young joined the Young Communist League as a teenager in the late 1930s. From the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s, he was closely associated with the Communist Party. In October 1968 he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was probing the extent of his knowledge about the riots that had erupted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago two months earlier. The Committee accused Young of belonging to the Bethune Club, an organization for communist doctors; the group was named after Norman Bethune, a communist physician who devoted his services to the totalitarian regime of Mao Zedong.

Dr. Young was active in the radical movements of the Sixties and Seventies and led a small delegation to Communist North Vietnam in 1972. In the late 1970s, Young became associated with a Marxist organization known as the New American Movement, which was initially convened by Michael Lerner, an America-hating radical who counseled young people to explore the use of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs as portals to a greater comprehension of socialist principles.

In 1980 Young founded the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, a single-payer lobby group whose Board of Directors he chairs to this day. In 1982 Young helped establish the Democratic Socialists of America, which, as the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, asserts that “many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed.” In 1987 Young co-founded Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a single-payer advocacy organization where he currently serves as national coordinator. In PNHP’s view, government-run healthcare “should be financed by truly progressive taxation.”

In 1995 Young attended the now-famous meeting at the Hyde Park home of former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, where Barack Obama was first introduced to influential locals as the hand-picked successor to Alice Palmer, a pro-Soviet radical who planned to vacate her Illinois State Senate seat in pursuit of a higher elected office. Young quickly became a friend and political ally of Obama, teaching the latter about the merits of single-payer healthcare. In a 2009 interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Young reminisced about the germination of his ideological kinship with the young Obama:

“Barack Obama, in those early days [as a state senator]—influenced, I hope, by me and others—categorically said single payer was the best way, and he would inaugurate it if he could get the support, meaning [Democratic] majorities in both houses, which he’s got, and the presidency, which he’s got. And he said that on more than one occasion….”

Another noteworthy influence on Obama’s views vis à vis healthcare has been Dr. Peter Orris, who co-founded Physicians for a National Health Program with Quentin Young. The son of a Communist Party member, Orris in the 1960s was a leader of Harvard University’s campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the New Leftist organization that aspired to overthrow America’s democratic institutions and remake the nation’s government in a Marxist image. He later joined the Communist Party (CP) for more than two decades, before ultimately shifting his allegiance to the CP splinter group, Committees of Correspondence, where he remains a prominent figure to this day.

Other leading PNHP activists (and thus, key shapers of President Obama’s healthcare agendas) include the following:

■Joanne Landy, a high-ranking member of the Democratic Socialists of America
■Mark Almberg, a prominent member of the Illinois Communist Party since the 1970s
■Oliver Fein (PNHP President) and Steffi Woolhandler (PNHP Secretary), both of whom have spoken in favor of a single-payer healthcare system at the annual Socialist Scholars Conferences in New York City
The Communist influences on President Obama’s healthcare objectives do not end with the foregoing list of PNHP leaders. In 2004, PNHP collaborated with a number of likeminded, far-left organizations to form a wider coalition, Healthcare-NOW!, which likewise promotes single-payer reform (and, notably, enjoys the strong support of the Socialist Party USA). Obama’s friend and mentor, Quentin Young, is a central figure in Healthcare-NOW!, serving as the network’s national coordinator and co-chair. Other prominent members of Healthcare-NOW!’s Board of Directors—who, like their counterparts at PNHP, exert a major influence on President Obama—include:

■Medea Benjamin, the pro-Castro, America-hating co-founder of Global Exchange, Code Pink for Peace, and Iraq Occupation Watch
■Michael Lighty, a longtime member (and former chairman) of the Democratic Socialists of America
■Flavio Casoy, a San Francisco-based doctor and a prominent member of the Communist Party USA
■Rev. Lucius Walker, the pro-Castro executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, and a longtime supporter of Communist Party USA activities
Barack Obama did not conceive of socialized medicine on his own. His acceptance of such a system was cultivated and nurtured by the same types of Marxist revolutionaries with whom he has surrounded himself throughout his entire adult life – and who are now shaping the major policy agendas of his administration.
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/23/the-communists-behind-obama%e2%80%99s-health-care-goals-%e2%80%93-by-john-perazzo/

Obama was schooled in Marxism from an early age and was mentored by radicals like Frank Marshall Davis. His indoctrination was complete by the time groups like ACORN helped him get elected as Illinois Senator. He’s been groomed for this his whole life; to reach the most powerful position in the world and do the most damage to freedom and democracy as possible. Of course, thanks to leftwingnut voters and leftwingnut Dems in Congress and Senate, he’s doing just that.

Merry Christmas, Especially to the Troops

To all the troops still deployed:

I know what it’s like being overseas and deployed to a combat zone during the holidays away from family.
During my Army career, I spent more time outside the country, (in peace and war) than stateside.

In the last 8 years the United States Army has done an incredible job with less Soldiers and fewer casualties than any military in a major war.

You’re doing a great job, and it cannot be said enough.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year.

Take care,
SFC MAC
Duty, Honor, Country

ObamaCare Passes Senate, A Rundown of the Asshats Who Voted For it

The politics of hubris, tyranny, and bribery.

The Senate passed a health insurance overhaul on Thursday morning, 60-39, as both Democrats and Republicans held unified in their positions on the massive bill that mandates coverage for about 9 percent of the U.S. population.

All 58 Democrats and two independents supported the $871 billion, 10-year package that aims to cover about 30 million Americans. Thirty-nine of 40 Republicans rejected the bill. Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, did not vote.

Senate lawmakers moved quickly after the vote to one more bill — a hike in the debt ceiling needed to prevent a U.S. default on loans — passing it on a 60-39 vote before scattering across the nation ahead of their Christmas break.

……Now that both the House of Representatives and Senate have finished their votes — the House passed its version in November — the two chambers must reconcile their starkly different bills.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/24/senate-poised-pass-health-care-reform/

That debt ceiling, by the way, has been increased from $290 billion to $12.4 trillion.

How they voted: