I sympathize with Haskell. We have so much history of the government covering up and telling us it was a “lone nut” or not a terrorist incident at all (eg, Hussein Husseini, “the Iraqi”, accomplice to Timothy McVeigh; TWA flight 800). In this administration, we have so far overlooked the Alabama recruiting center shooting and Nidal Hassan is made out to be a lone nut, though he was in constant contact with Imam Awlaki in Yemen. I think Haskell smells yet another coverup and is doing his duty to stand up as an American.

If this Administration showed that it was serious about preventing terror, then you are right. But I, for one, am glad that the “flying Dutchman” on flight 253 didn’t choose to leave it to the professionals.

Thanks for looking into that DU thing – I had suspicion he protested a bit too much.

Some guy claiming to be Kurt Haskell has been posting on DU. Says he feels he’s on the same “wavelength” as some of the other posters. Not sure that helps his credibility.

The mistake was allowing him on the plane without clearly identifying who he was. Apparently someone “vouched” for the guy who was believed by the security people at the airport.

I don’t think we were looking for a Somali. We were looking for a Nigerian and I don’t believe we had a photograph of the guy, either so we didn’t know what the person we were looking for looked like.

If the government of Somalia, such as would exist at any given time, is not producing passports, one might not find this situation unusual.

This was a pretty typical example of someone social-engineering their way onto the plane. Even if we had the guy’s exact name it is doubtful we would have caught it because we were apparently looking for a Nigerian.

I usually agree with 90% of your points. I have to respectfully disagree on half of this one.

On Haskell, I agree: he should wait until the investigations are over to start leveling charges about what is a lie and what is merely “misdirection” to our nation’s enemies during a sensitive time. This seems to be his misguided 15 minutes, IMO.

On Chris Elliott and Steve Frischling, I have to completely disagree with you. The heavy-handed approach to these two bloggers is inane, IMO. They both wrote AFTER what was contained in the directives was public knowledge. In fact, it was being tweeted about multiple times before either wrote a word.

The directive, which was not classified–how could it be if the it was to be publicly implemented?–is about the leaker, not the bloggers. Where was this attitude when the NY Times published the 2005 information you referenced? It’s a case of picking on those least able to fight back.

More at http://deathby1000papercuts.com/headlines/2009/12/tsa-flexes-security-muscles-threatens-bloggers/. But, I’m not the only one.

All that being said, please keep up your good work.

The first thing I noticed about this man was that he managed to plug his law practice, including his areas of specialization, in the first reports.

Add that to the fact that the couple’s mlive posts have been propagated around the net with a curious plug for their “credibility” or how “solid” they appear, as remarked by a poster here.

There’s a certain segment of the population, largely comprised of conspiracy theorists from both sides of the political spectrum, that believes that anyone working intel is either corrupt or incompetent — which is nonsense, and an insult to those non-bureaucrats who’ve put their lives on the line to keep us safe for the past eight years.

I agree with AJ. Mr. Haskell, please shut up. Conspiracy theorists, go find some other drum to beat and let those who care, far from the political poison of DC, do their jobs.

excerpt:

The Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration has withdrawn subpoenas ordering two journalists to turn over all documents and e-mails related to how they obtained TSA security regulations that temporarily restricted passenger movement and activities on international flights.

Lucy Dalglish, the head of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the subpoenas “ridiculous” and said that the DHS’s actions demonstrated the need for a federal shield law to prevent journalists from being jailed for protecting their sources. Legislation establishing such a law is moving through Congress and has now been supported by the Obama administration.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/01/tsa-ends-journalist-subpoenas-leaked-memo/

ZERO!!!

If the TSA and FBI allowed 250+ passengers to languish in harm’s way then you should know that fact…pretending that the Haskells had some sort of moral obligation to shut-up is incoherent.

Attention-whore, or not, Haskell has a right to say, or type, whatever the f–k he wants…that is a constitutionally protected right as far as I can recall.

If the FBI and TSA believe Haskell is a kook they’ll ignore him…and so far they have engaged him.

Nag, nag, nag. I have a killer cold and no support staff. Please translate as best you can!

The security of the USA should come first in all of us. It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger, Law Firm or the NYT. Or the POTUS. Which brings me to my three part year of 2009 in review.

Part One: Fort Hood and Flight 253. They were TERROR attacks pure and simple. The POTUS wants to stick his head in the sand at our peril. Is he MAD. The inmates are running the insane asylum. Both men are in custody of the criminal justice system with defense lawyers. Although the Fort Hood TERRORIST will be subject to a court martial. They are enemy combatants are should be held, tried, and executed as such. The current administration is inviting more TERROR attacks with its security policies. You don’t smackdown the CIA and then expect them to stop the next attack. You don’t do the biding of far left liberal state department bureaucrats and expect that them to do their part in info sharing and profiling. You don’t gut the NCTC and expect them to connect the dots.

It all points to the man at the top. If he wants something to show him where the national security system failed? hand him a MIRROR. The 26th was the pivotal day in the Flight 253 story. After the isolated extremist line, Al Qaeda calls the POTUS out into the streets, and he goes back to the golf course. It was a time of testing and Obama failed.