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Obama Orders Travel Security Review
President Barack Obama
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President Obama has ordered a review into travel security measures following the failed terrorist attack on Flight 253.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on ABC's "This Week," that Obama has asked for two reviews - into the watch-listing procedures and detection capabilities.
"What the president has asked for as a result of this incident are two look-back reviews," Gibbs said. "First, on our watch-listing procedures, did the government do everything that it could have with the information that they had? Understanding these procedures are several years old. Did we do what we needed to with that information, and how can we revise watch listing procedures going forward to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information that might be gathered somewhere going to the very highest levels of security in our government."
Gibbs said Obama has asked the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration to "answer the very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam."
The aim is to determine steps that can be taken to enhance the ability of airport screeners to detect such materials going forward, administration officials said.
Officials said Obama wants an accounting of all decisions related to the inclusion or not of suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name in government databases related to known or suspected terrorists.
Administration officials said the reviews should be taken in wake of any similar incidents and don't imply anyone made any mistakes. The White House wants the reviews to be seen as an ongoing effort to improve security.
"The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take -- to take our fight to those that seek to do us harm," Gibbs said.
Obama, on his family vacation, received his latest update on the failed terrorist attack at 6 a.m. Hawaii time.
White House spokesman Bill Burton told members of the press covering the president's vacation that Obama was briefed by Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan and National Security Staff chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Burton said Obama received "the latest information regarding the investigation into the incident on Flight 253, the security measures being taken to keep the traveling public safe, the most recent intelligence regarding that incident as well as on the reviews the president ordered into watch lists and detection capabilities."
"The president will continue to receive intelligence updates and monitor the situation closely throughout the day," Burton said.
Also appearing on ABC's "This Week," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the government's systems worked "very, very smoothly" over the last few days.
"I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have. The passengers reacted correctly, the crew reacted correctly, within an hour to 90 minutes, all 128 flights in the air had been notified. And those flights already had taken mitigation measures on the off-chance that there was somebody else also flying with some sort of destructive intent," she said.
Gibbs appeared on several Sunday political shows to make the review announcement, and also pointedly noted that Obama is withdrawing troops from Iraq and increasing them in Afghanistan and Pakistan to pressure al Qaeda across the globe.
Late Update: More details on the reviews here.
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Michael A
December 27, 2009 12:53 PM
What's PETN?
I do not see how you could possibly prevent someone bent on suicide from committing a terrorist attack. It's impossible and it will happen again. Look at what has happened in Isreal for the last 20 years or so. They really should admit that we got lucky on this one.
Darth vader and the repukes are gambling that some lunatic will be successful, like that army major, in the future for crass political purposes. Unfortunately, odds are it will happen again, so dems should be up front about the threat as opposed to making it sound like it is preventable. If they don't, the next attack will usher in repukes to "keep us safe." It really is frightening how the repukes play on fear to keep the masses in check and to vote for them.
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Acewrap
December 27, 2009 7:38 PM in reply to Michael A
Americans need to stop being so cowardly. Repeal the PATRIOT Act, get rid of that money pit TSA, put an umbrella stand near the jetway. Fill it with baseball bats. Take one when you get on, put it back when you get off.
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Michael A
December 27, 2009 9:01 PM in reply to Acewrap
I like that proposal. Baseball bats. That works for me.
Also, the patriot act is just to monitor law abiding citizens. It has and had zero impact on the 10 ft tall terrorists that are massing at our borders to take away our freedoms and way of life. Repeal the act and hand out baseball bats.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 1:06 PM
It's obvious that the procedures were largely followed and they don't work:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/mare_nostrum/
The procedures are a joke, to a comitragic degree. Michael, above, is very right that we got very lucky. Lucky in having procedures almost bound to fail and still getting off, and our "luck" in this case involved heroism of passengers, which you sure can't count on!!!
The other luck, the luck of this guy having a father willing to come into the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to rat out his boy -- that luck we basically spit on.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 1:09 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
"spat on," sorry.
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Steve LaBonne
December 27, 2009 2:10 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
Our "security" fascists don't even know how to make the trains run on time. 9/11 also couldn't have happened without an almost inconceivable series of bungles.
As Pogo said, we have met the enemy, and he is us.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 3:07 PM in reply to Steve LaBonne
It's mighty frustrating! Remember that the 9/11 hijacker's visa came through a year after his "arrival"?
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Michael A
December 27, 2009 3:22 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
Very frustrating, but I just don't see what could be done, short of strip searching, plus body cavity searches, of every international traveler or sealing the borders. Even that wouldn't prevent the major hasan's of the world.
I hate to be fatalistic, but I just don't see how a mass murder of civilians by a deranged suicide bomber can be prevented. It is only a matter of time when it will happen again, no matter what we do as far as I can tell. I don't see civilians being sheep anymore in the face of a highjacking, which is probably the only thing that will prevent another attack using a plane as a missle. Other than that we have to live with the possibility of another attack with mass civilian casualties.
It is the new way of life in the 21st Century, unfortunately.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 6:10 PM in reply to Michael A
Honestly, as we try to sift between magnitude of the task here and incompetence, I think they evidence points big time to incompetence...that doesn't really undercut your argument...but there's more we could be doing and more competently...
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Michael A
December 27, 2009 9:07 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
I agree with your conclusion. More could be done and there is alot of incompetence and wasted money. Nonetheless, there will still be lone crazy actors that will be able to cause death and destruction regardless of what we do. We just need to be prepared for that.
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Acewrap
December 27, 2009 7:40 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
It's security theater. It's meant to make people feel safe. It's a money drain and it needs to stop. Can't get up during the last hour of the flight? wtf?
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mjtrac2
December 27, 2009 4:30 PM
PETN is, among other things, a heart medicine. It looks like anyone with a few Chemistry courses and a low survival instinct would be able to synthesize it or buy it in the hamburger-patty-sized quantities needed to bring down an airliner.
That so few airliners have been brought down is an indication of how few insane suicide bombers are floating around, not how well America's security theater has worked.
A half million names on a list is as good as useless, but nobody in any law enforcement organization is going to be tagged as the guy/gal who didn't add somebody to the list if that somebody turns out to do anything bad in the future.
If you want to know why the country can't manage a sensible list of high priority targets, look at the state of political discourse today. Officials are rightfully terrified of the bashing they'd get if they tried to narrow the list to a manageable size. Blame the media, starting with the insane right wing shouters and working outwards from there. Just be glad that the number of suicide bombers to worry about is so tiny.
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josebrwn
December 27, 2009 5:52 PM
Karl Rove made a joke out of the "No Fly List" when he started using it to punish people he didn't like. It's a wonder something more serious hasn't happened already.
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DrBB
December 27, 2009 5:56 PM
So the "watch list" is like, 1.5 million people at this point, IIRC. Maybe the problem isn't that we don't have enough people on it.
Just a guess.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 6:15 PM in reply to DrBB
There's the general "TIDE," also the selectee list which involves increased scrutiny (like checking the guy's underwear maybe befor he comes on the plane to bomb us), and the no-fly, which is higher standard of credible risk...
He *definitely* should have been on selectee at least, and this is something officials will be pursuing...
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rstephen
December 27, 2009 6:16 PM
Janet Napolitano is going around saying that "the system worked." No sane person in America is going to believe that. When the guy's own parents were warning American officials about their son, and yet he was still allowed on that plane, the system obviously DID NOT work. Unless "the system" is about having passengers rush known Muslim extremists before they set off bombs. Napolitano and everyone else responsible should be sacked tomorrow. If she isn't, and if Obama tries to sweep this under the carpet, expect Cheney & Co. to be making a lot of headway in painting the Obama administration as incompetent in the run-up to the next election.
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 6:31 PM in reply to rstephen
It's not that the system worked, not remotely! The crazy thing is that officials may have followed all of the procedures, which were as full of holes as Swiss Cheese.
What worked is that passengers pounced -- not their job, though.
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USgreentech
December 27, 2009 6:24 PM
He's moving towards an overhaul of the transportatoin system by ordering these inquiries. Taking the chance to get information about these incidents is helpful in obtaining information for high speed rail and furthering Obama's agenda.
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inokeah
December 27, 2009 7:14 PM
What is the difference in the Whitehouse Security and the Airport Security? The person in charge is 'lay back' he has to pretend to give a damn. He is in Hawaii kickin it. If Presidnt Bush was in Crawford there would be "all hell" coming out of the media, but with Pres. Osama Husine Obama he gets a pass. If this does not give the terrorist a OK to send more terrorist, I don't know what will.
I just wonder what it is going to take to get the attention of the network to see that all this guy can do is read real nice, he has no clue what time it is!
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Steve LaBonne
December 27, 2009 7:59 PM in reply to inokeah
There's nothing like phony terrorism hype to bring the mentally challenged bedwetter trolls out of the woodwork.
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lousgirl84
December 28, 2009 9:19 AM in reply to inokeah
Go get a life you idiot and your idiot remarks. Beyond ignorant and stupid is what you are
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Just me again
December 27, 2009 8:20 PM
Jesus, how many planes have to be blown up before someone admits they fucked up? Let's stop with the Democrats vs. Republican bullshit... this is importtant
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Overreach THIS!
December 27, 2009 10:36 PM in reply to Just me again
I sure agree with this...
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Just me again
December 27, 2009 8:20 PM
Jesus, how many planes have to be blown up before someone admits they fucked up? Let's stop with the Democrats vs. Republican bullshit... this is importtant
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inokeah
December 28, 2009 12:08 PM
I Absolutely agree, If I seem harsh it is not because of anything political. Some times when someone wants to kill you and your family, you cannot try to talk them out of it, you have to think in survival mode. Our president seem to think that terrorism is a 'man caused disaster' not a war of ideology.
If we bow to them they will not stop trying to kill us and our life style. If we take sucessful people and take there income this will not make the terrorist happy and like us.
When DHS head Napolitano said our security system was working and stoped the bomber?!? We the people stoped the bomber not the government system. This was a lie at the highest level.
She has to be fired and soon.
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June 8, 2010 4:57 AM
The procedures are a joke, to a comitragic degree. Michael, above, is very right that we got very lucky. Lucky in having procedures almost bound to fail and still getting off, and our "luck" in this case involved heroism of passengers, which you sure can't count on!!!
The other luck, the luck of this guy having a father willing to come into the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to rat out his boy -- that luck we basically spit on.
m65 kamagra
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