May 04 2010
Obama Administration Suffers Another Near-Miss Disaster From Islamo Facists
Updates Below!
President Obama is now learning how the loosening surveillance laws put in place under President Bush has exposed Americans to greater threat from Islamo Fascist sleepers. These sleepers are terrorist who also are American citizens or citizens of countries not normally considered part of the front on the war on terror. First we had the American citizen turned radical cleric, Anwar  al Aulaqi. His communications with American citizen Major Nidal Hasan eventually led to the Ft Hood massacre were 14 human beings had their lives snuffed out in the name of Allah.
Since al Aulaqi is American, it has become evident from news reports since the Ft Hood massacre that the liberals inside the Obama justice department had decided to terminate all investigations into al Aulaqi, leaving Hasan free to commit his heinous acts of mass murder (see here, here and here for details on the evidence against the Obama administration – more here on Ft Hood from RCP). al Aulaqi was also in contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day underwear bomber who nearly killed 300 people in the skies above Detroit, MI. There is a case to be made that, if team Obama had not taken their eyes off al Aulaqi, the Christmas Day bomber would have been detected and possibly stopped.
At least we would have known enough to not read the attacker his rights and allow is fellow sleepers the chance to go underground and continue to their targets here in America.
So it is no surprise that the suspect behind the NY Times Square bombing attempt is also an American:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced early Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the failed Times Square car bombing, saying that Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old American, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he tried to fly to Dubai on Monday night.
Authorities said Shahzad, who is of Pakistani origin and lived in Connecticut, had paid cash for a Nissan Pathfinder that was found packed with explosives Saturday night on a tourist-crowded block in midtown Manhattan. The vehicle was set ablaze but failed to detonate.
Officials located Shahzad after a sweeping two-day investigation that yielded what senior Obama administration officials described as a flood of international and domestic clues suggesting a plot involving more than one person.
“It was clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans,” Holder said at a rare middle-of-the-night news conference at the Justice Department, nearly three hours after the suspect was pulled from an international flight that had already left the departure gate.
This is the basic fault with the liberal view that the threat of government listening in on citizens in communication with known or highly suspect terrorists is not as great as the threat of political misuse of such surveillance. The checks and balances for the surveillance powers put in place by President Bush and ratified at least 3 times by votes in Congress provide plenty of protection from misuse, if the 4th Amendment hypochondriacs on the far left cared to pay attention.
Al Qaeda is not stupid, and in fact are extremely opportunistic. It has been no secret that the Obama administration planned to be less vigilant, dialing down the reactions to potential threats. It has also been well known the liberals wanted to reinstate the barriers of investigating terrorism around US citizens.
So al Qaeda took the natural path and changed its strategy to one of recruiting basically clean individuals who can move about the US with ease – especially true of US citizens. In this way they have less chance of success on an individual basis, but greater overall chance of success as their human weapons increase in number and agility.
It will not take long for al Qaeda to adjust their approach to improve the detonation procedures for their bombs – the only thing which saved 300 people from dying in the skies over Detroit on Christmas Day, and the only thing which saved those people in harms way in Times Square this weekend. Team Obama needs to reject the liberal madness and denial about being at war and get back to protecting the people. Else he will be a one term President who failed miserably.
Update: One thing I cannot understand is the idiocy of the Obama administration to tell HOW they tracked down the terrorist, thus providing our enemies clear directions on how to escape capture in the future:
A U.S. official said tracing the origin of the Pathfinder was a crucial part of the investigation. Shahzad bought the vehicle through an Internet listing. He gave the seller a fake name, but an e-mail from the transaction included a phone number that was from a disposable cellphone. Extrapolating from telephone records, authorities found Shahzad and confirmed his identity with the seller, the official said.
I am sure al Qaeda is very grateful to the US government for directing them on how to better avoid detection and capture.
Update: You only get so many chances to do the right thing before the American people will begin to take actions themselves (all legal, all valid). One mistake team Obama better not make again (this would be their 3rd strike) is to allow the latest enemy combatant to shut up behind the Miranda wall of silence. Marc Thiessen makes the case succinctly and accurately:
The only reason to read Shahzad his Miranda rights would be to preserve what he says as evidence in his criminal trial. But our first priority should not be preserving evidence for his trial—it should be getting intelligence from him. According to ABC News, Shahzad “recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan and the city of Peshawar, a known jumping off point for al Qaeda and Taliban recruits.†Just a coincidence? Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the Times Square attack. While it is unclear whether the Pakistani Taliban group, which is linked to al Qaeda, was behind the plot, it may very well have been involved. The one person who can tell us is Shahzad. We need to know who sent him, who trained him, and whether other attacks are planned.
I would wager that Faisal Shahzad could easily be one of the many trained killers who will be connected to Abdulmutallab (the Christmas Day Bomber). If this turns out to be true, then the Obama administration willfully and with criminal intent turned a blind eye to the safety of Americans, and therefore would be exposed to all options for those same Americans to remove the stupidity in DC which continues to leave us vulnerable to death and mutilation inside our own borders.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by AJ Strata. AJ Strata said: new: Obama Administration Suffers Another Near-Miss Disaster From Islamo Facists http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/13282 […]
Notice how the terrorists have bypassed attacking our Congress or political leaders—its like they know what a waste of time that would be and may actually work against them.
Meanwhile, Bobo continues undermining the rule of law by speaking out against the will of the people in Arizona/America and ginning up the ready mobs to keep honest Americans at bay. This clown is fomenting class warfare in the country while the stooges in the media continue throwing good money after bad by echoing his nonsense.
And in spite of a huge police presence and requests for millions more in funding, New York owes a debt to a street vendor and Vietnam Vet.
Here’s how seriously the current ruling elite takes terrorism:
“If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something.” – Michael Bloomberg, yesterday
What a shock it was a naturalized Pakistani – wasn’t a Tea Partier your first guess, just like it was Bloomberg’s?
I forgot to point out that the police in this case we’re displaying a shocking level of Racism in asking this naturalized alien for his identification. They might as well have waved the Nazi flag right there.
“The police acted Stupidly”, Obama will soon say.
“I am sure al Qaeda is very grateful to the US government for directing them on how to better avoid detection and capture”
AJ, I have been thinking this for several months. What can we conclude from this but exactly what you are saying…
Since Nov. ’08, I have feared for all our secrets being put into hands that do.not.like.America.
[…] We are getting reports now on how the DOJ, local police and FBI tracked down the would-be terrorist. Why? Why are we so eager to give the terrorists pointers of what not to do for their next attempt? It is almost seems like the DOJ is hellbent in aiding the terrorists. Naw, that can’t be can it? […]
During the Clinton admin, we had inadvertent releases of classified info, now we have progressed to intentional releases of classified info. I wonder if the lack of a decent response will continue when successful car bombs are exploding in the streets of America.
[…] A.J. says: President Obama is now learning how the loosening surveillance laws put in place under President Bush has exposed Americans to greater threat from Islamo Fascist sleepers. These sleepers are terrorist who also are American citizens or citizens of countries not normally considered part of the front on the war on terror. First we had the American citizen turned radical cleric, Anwar al Aulaqi. His communications with American citizen Major Nidal Hasan eventually led to the Ft Hood massacre were 14 human beings had their lives snuffed out in the name of Allah. […]
AJ,
To quote the movie ANIMAL HOUSE:
“Remain Calm”
[…] The Strata-Sphere – Obama Administration Suffers Another Near-Miss Disaster From Islamo Facists […]
AJ,
The Pakistanis have arrested folks at the other end of Faisal Shahzad’s over seas phone call.
See:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/04/pakistani-american-arrested-times-square-plot/
And this report on Faisal Shahzad is going to make immigration reform much more difficult this year:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/92762719.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ
WASHINGTON – Law enforcement officials say the man accused of driving a bomb-laden SUV into Times Square became a U.S. citizen in April 2009 and passed all the criminal and national security background checks required for citizenship.
The officials familiar with the inquiry say investigators plan to go through his citizenship application line by line to see if he lied about anything. He became a citizen in Hartford, Conn.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
AJ,
The Pakistani embassy is floating the latest back up story for the American Left:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/05/reuters-times-sq-car-bomb-suspect-tells-authorities-he-acted-alone-/1
Update at 1:19 p.m. ET: The AP says two intelligence officials said the man who was detained, identified as Tauseef, was a friend of Shahzad. Pakistan’s embassy in Washington, meanwhile, says it will work with U.S. intelligence to unravel the failed bombing but said at the moment it appears the would-be bomber was a lone “disturbed individual.”
Well, this is the second time these people have managed to screw up an attack. One of these days they will get it right. And then what will Obama do? Blame Bush?
>>And then what will Obama do? Blame Bush?
It beats facing reality until another targeted political figure comes along.
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declined to say how Shahzad was able to board the flight if he was on the “no-fly” list.”
This was from an AP article—–I guess they imply she knows something but isn’t saying. But then I guess we all rise to our own level of incompetence. I’ll keep my faith in the street vendors.
Looks like we only caught him because he was stupid enough to keep on using his own cell phone, even at the airport!!!
And even though he paid cash for his ticket (hey, ain’t that supposed to be some kind of red flag when we’re looking for a terrorist?) he still got within a minute or two of hightailin’ it out of the country.
Yeah us – we have the ability to track down the most incompetent brain dead terrorists on earth, as long as they keep on using their own email addresses and cellphones that are still personally registered to them.
AJ,
The Obama Administration does not know the meaning of the words “Sources & Means of Intelligence.”
We just blew an intelligence capability.
See below:
http://wcbstv.com/local/times.square.car.2.1674692.html
Shahzad, 30, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, has been in custody since shortly after midnight. He was hauled off a plane in the nick of time as it was about to fly to the Middle East. CBS 2 obtained air traffic control recording intended to stop the pilots from taking off. The controller alerts pilots to “immediately” return to the gate.
In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The charges he’ll faces for allegedly planting the explosive-laden SUV in Times Square include an act of terrorism transcending national borders; attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction; use of a destructive device during the commission of another crime; and assorted explosive charges.
Now all anyone has to do is get a flight plan from the FAA for that date and figure out exactly which US Army plane was flying to match capability to tail number.
ARGH!
I think it’s time for another Obama Apology Tour of the Middle East. The first hundred or so don’t seem to be doing the job.
2010-05-04 Home Front: WoT
Bill Roggio: Shahzad Faisal spent 3 1/2 months in al Qaeda camp
Wonder what this was about?
“George LaMonica, a 35-year-old computer consultant, said he bought his two-bedroom condominium in Norwalk, Conn., from Mr. Shahzad for $261,000 in May 2004. A few weeks after he moved in, Mr. LaMonica said, investigators from the national Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed him, asking for details of the transaction and for information about Mr. Shahzad. It struck Mr. LaMonica as unusual, but he said detectives told him they were simply “checking everything out.â€
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05profile.html?hp