On the other hand, we know they didn't allow him into the country simply so they could keep tabs on him, or uncover a larger operation. First of all, the manner in which he entered the country suggested he was planning an attack on that flight. It can't be repeated enough: be paid cash for a one way ticket, brought no luggage on board, and, during one of the worst cold spells in decades, boards an international flight to arctic Detroit wearing only a t-shirt. There's no reason to believe security couldn't make sure he wasn't boarding the plane with any explosives, and then allow him on the plane after. No, he bypassed the entire security process with the aid of a US government agent. Then he was videotaped the entire flight by an unknown person. If they didn't know he was going to attempt an attack on that flight, what was the purpose of videotaping?
Now, before you question why US agents would be on board a plane they knew would be subject to an attempted terrorist attack, keep in mind that the amount of explosives AbdulMatallab had was sufficient to blow his balls off, but not much else. Perhaps if the attack had succeeded you could have heard the cameraman laughing as AbdulMatallab screamed in falsetto.
This is criminal, blatant, out in the open black op warfare against YOU. The info is out there. It cannot be "debunked" by "scientists" shilling for the state telling the sheeple 110 story skyscrapers can collapse at the rate of free fall into the path of greatest resistance. The stories are mainstream news. They are bits and pieces of a larger picture. The plugged-in masses won't connect the dots. You must do it for them. Most of them won't want to listen, but many people know something is rotten in Denmark here; they just don't know exactly what. You must show them.
- CNS News -
The vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Wednesday that the United States needs to rethink its existing policy of sometimes deliberately allowing people on the Terrorist Watchlist to board airliners and enter the country so they can be covertly tracked for intelligence-gathering purposes.
“Unfortunately, nowadays, if you want to watch somebody, you may be taking a risk that it’s another Abdulmutallab,” Sen. Kit Bond (R.-Mo.) told CNSNews.com, referring to the Al Qaeda terrorist who unsuccessfully tried to detonate an underwear bomb on Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
“I think we got to be a lot more careful who we let in to watch,” said Bond. “I would prefer--and if you put them on the No Fly list it tips them off that you know something about them—but, I think, for the safety of the United States we have to err on the side of keeping them out.”
Bond, who answered CNSNews.com's question in a conference call with bloggers, said he believes recalibrating the policy of when people on the Terrorist Watchlist are allowed into the United States will require “a lot of thought and work,” but concluded: “I think we have to err on the side of keeping us safe from possible terrorist bombers or terrorist attackers.”
The federal government maintains an inverted pyramid of terrorist databases. At the top is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment—or TIDE—which contains all information gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies about known or suspected terrorists. The TIDE includes about 500,000 names and is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which operates under the Director of National Intelligence.
One step down from the TIDE, is the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB)—commonly known as the Terrorist Watchlist. This list contains about 400,000 names, almost all of whom are foreign terrorists “exported” from the TIDE, although it also includes the names of a few domestic terrorists identified by the FBI. The TSDB is maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which is overseen by the FBI.
The TSDB is an unclassified but sensitive list that was specifically created to allow agencies responsible for U.S. security to screen people for possible terrorism ties. It includes all people that the U.S. government knows or reasonably suspects are terrorists and has sufficient identifying information about to be able to successfully identify in processes like boarding an airplane.
The Selectee list and the No Fly list, which contain 14,000 and 4,000 names respectively, are subsets of the 400,000-name TSDB. Currently, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screens air passengers against the Selectee and No Fly lists, but not against the full TSDB. People on the No Fly list are not allowed to board planes, period. People on the Selectee list are pulled aside for additional screening, including pat-downs and searches of their belongings, but they are not barred from flying.
In compliance with a congressional mandate, TSA presented the House and Senate appropriations committees in December 2008 with a document certifying that TSA did not believe it would increase the risk to air travel to screen air passengers against only the No Fly and Selectee lists rather than the full TSDB. One explanation the TSA gave Congress for deciding not screening all air passengers against the full TSDB was that doing so might tip off some people who were under surveillance and thus compromise terrorist investigations.
“Another factor [in the decision not to screen all air passengers against the full Terrorist Watchlist],” the TSA said, “is that the TSDB includes records of persons who have been determined to not pose a threat to aviation or national security and are actively being monitored by law enforcement; overt scrutiny prior to boarding an aircraft could jeopardize the related terrorism investigation and would have a negative impact on overall security.”
In a January 20 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, NCTC Director Michael Leiter said he did not know exactly how many people on the Terrorist Watchlist entered the United States in 2009 but that it was probably a “very significant number.” He than added that “when people come to the country, if they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another.”
When asked by CNSNews.com about Leiter’s statement and the TSA’s explanation that one reason it did not screen air passengers against the full Terrorist Watchlist was because it did not want to alert people who were under surveillance, Bond said: “That’s the quandary they’re in. He put it straight. Unfortunately, nowadays, if you want to watch somebody, you may be taking a risk that it’s another Abdulmutallab. These people are—they are now targeting people they think can get into the United States with United States ties to bring them in. And I think we’ve got to be a lot more careful who we let in to watch. I would prefer--and if you put them on the No Fly list it tips them off that we know something about them—but, I think, for the safety of the United States we have to err on the side of keeping them out.”
CNSNews.com asked Bond if he supported the policy that sometimes allowed people on the Terrorist Watchlist to enter the country so they could be put under surveillance for intelligence-gathering purposes.
“I think you have to be very careful about who you let in,” said Bond. “And that is, that requires a lot of thought and work. I think we have to err on the side of keeping us safe from possible terrorist bombers or terrorist attackers. So that is a question. We are going to continue to work with the Intelligence Community and the other agencies … to try to get a reasonable solution. But letting everybody in to watch has been shown to be—I believe is no longer acceptable.”
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