U.S.-born cleric linked to airline bombing plot

FBI and intelligence officials say Anwar al Awlaki, a cleric in Yemen with a popular jihadist website and ties to Sept. 11 hijackers, may have had a role in the attempted bombing.

by Josh Meyer

December 31, 2009

Reporting from Washington

U.S. counter-terrorism agencies are investigating whether an American-born Islamic cleric who has risen to become a key figure in the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen played a role in the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing over Detroit, intelligence and law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Intercepts and other information point to connections between terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Anwar al Awlaki -- who also communicated with the accused U.S. Army gunman in last month's attack on Ft. Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead.

Some of the information about Awlaki comes from Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian charged with attempting to detonate a hidden packet of PETN explosive aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, the officials said.

Under questioning by the FBI, Abdulmutallab has said that he met with Awlaki and senior Al Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that the cleric was involved in some elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it, officials said.

Other intelligence linking Awlaki to Abdulmutallab became apparent after the attempted bombing, including communications intercepted by the National Security Agency indicating that the cleric was meeting with "a Nigerian" in preparation for some kind of operation, according to a U.S. intelligence official.

Intelligence analysts did not realize the importance of that piece of information at the time because the name of the Nigerian was not included and the information was vague and lost in a flood of threat information coming in, the intelligence official said.

Awlaki, 38, emerged as a subject of intense interest and concern to the U.S. government after the Sept. 11 attacks, when authorities discovered he had been a spiritual leader of several of the hijackers while preaching at mosques in San Diego and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

Born in New Mexico, Awlaki spent much of his life in the United States before moving to London to escape intense FBI scrutiny. He has been living in Yemen for at least five years, spending at least a year of it in custody.

Since his release, he has used Yemen as a safe haven from which to build his Internet site into a popular global forum to spread jihadist rhetoric and encourage attacks on Western interests.

The FBI has been investigating possible criminal charges against Awlaki stemming from his suspected attempts to spur extremists on to violence, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, an FBI official confirmed Wednesday.

But counter-terrorism officials say it was only recently that Awlaki forged close ties with the Yemen-based regional affiliate of Osama bin Laden's terrorism network, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

And he has done so at a time when the group has stepped up its terrorist operations against U.S. targets in the region and far outside it. On Monday the group claimed credit for training and equipping Abdulmutallab with military-grade explosives for his suicide bombing mission. U.S. officials quickly corroborated the claim.

The two officials and others spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation or the classified intelligence-gathering effort against Awlaki.

Evan Kohlmann, a government counter-terrorism consultant, said Awlaki had been providing fatwas , or Islamic decrees, endorsing attacks by Al Qaeda in Yemen and playing a central role in its recruitment efforts, logistics, strategy and communications.

More recently, he said, Awlaki has been instrumental in negotiating alliances between the Al Qaeda affiliate and powerful Yemeni tribes that protect it from government crackdowns.

U.S. authorities are alarmed by Awlaki's new role within the Al Qaeda affiliate not only because of those alliances and his influence on the Internet, but because of his familiarity with the United States, its customs and security measures, said the U.S. intelligence official.

"The concern is that now that they are more of a global threat, that he will use his knowledge of the United States to help them," the intelligence official said. "Everybody is looking at that, certainly everyone in the intelligence community."

The FBI official agreed, saying that while there is no reason to doubt them, Abdulmutallab's claims are now being investigated intensively by counter-terrorism authorities on three continents as part of their probes into the Christmas Day attack and the escalating threat of the Al Qaeda affiliate to U.S. interests worldwide.

"He's saying all this but we haven't determined all of it is true; whether [Awlaki] blessed it or gave the green light or was the impetus behind it," the FBI official said. "It's very possible and it's being investigated. But it's also possible he's saying it to give himself credibility" among militants who look up to Awlaki.

"What is certain," the FBI official added, "is that we share the concern about Awlaki's familiarity with the United States and the customs process, and that that could be something he's sharing with others. He is the main subject in a major counter-terrorism investigation, so obviously the FBI considers him to be a serious threat."

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), chair of the House intelligence subcommittee, said Awlaki's role in the Ft. Hood and Detroit cases raised serious concerns, as did his potential role in the regional Al Qaeda cell, which authorities say has direct links to Al Qaeda headquarters in Pakistan.

Harman said an airstrike last week against suspected Al Qaeda targets in Yemen may have killed Awlaki, but U.S. intelligence officials tell her they have not been able to confirm that. Some extremist websites have claimed that Awlaki is alive.

"Even if we were able to take him out last week, that doesn't solve our problem," Harman said. "There are others in Yemen who can do us great harm."

The disclosures about Awlaki came as Harman and other lawmakers intensified their demands for more information about whether U.S. agencies had enough intelligence to thwart Abdulmutallab before he boarded the aircraft. The plane and its nearly 300 passengers were saved only because his attempt to detonate the explosives failed and he was subdued by passengers and crew, President Obama said Tuesday.

Obama said "there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together," which would have allowed authorities to flag Abdulmutallab as he flew from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then Detroit.

Two ranking House Republicans sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano with a list of 12 questions that they said needed to be answered. Many focused on suspected lapses in information-sharing.

The lawmakers also want a report on what actions were taken by the CIA and other intelligence agencies after Abdulmutallab's father went to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria in mid-November with concerns about his son's radical extremism and ties to militants in Yemen.

In the Senate, a senior congressional official briefed on the U.S. intelligence community's handling of the case said that the CIA did take appropriate steps to disseminate the information provided by Abdulmutallab's father, but that there were growing concerns about how aggressively the information was investigated.

"I don't see this as an information-sharing problem as much as not acting on information with enough urgency," the official said. "Information can be available but it may not be acted on unless it meets certain thresholds. What does it take, how much information is needed, until action is taken?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-intel31-2009dec31,0,2459458,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Afghanistan suicide bombing kills 8 CIA officers

The Taliban takes responsibility for the explosion at a U.S. base in Khowst province where the agency has a major presence. No U.S. or NATO military personnel are hurt.

by Greg Miller and Laura King

December 31, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Rochester, N.Y. -- A bomber slipped into a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday and detonated a suicide vest, killing eight CIA officers in one of the deadliest days in the agency's history, current and former U.S. officials said.

The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan that is a hotbed of insurgent activity. An undisclosed number of civilians were wounded, the officials said. No military personnel with the U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured, they said.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA had a major presence at the base, in part because of its strategic location.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted early today on its Pashto-language website. The statement, attributed to spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, said the attacker was a member of the Afghan army who entered the base clad in his military uniform. It identified him only as Samiullah.

The casualties highlight the CIA's increasingly important role in Afghanistan, and come as the United States is embarking on a major buildup of its civilian workforce that parallels an increase in troop strength.

President Obama announced early this month that he planned to send 30,000 more troops in an effort to break the momentum Taliban fighters have gained in many parts of the country. The deployment will bring the total U.S. military force there to nearly 100,000.

A former U.S. intelligence official knowledgeable about the bombing said it killed more CIA personnel than any attack since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Before Wednesday's attack, four CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan, the former official said.

The eight dead were CIA officers, the former official said. "They were all career CIA officials."

The U.S. official said the bomber detonated his explosives vest in an area that was used as a fitness center.

CIA veterans were stunned by the news and at a loss to explain how a bomber was able to penetrate the security.

"It's a forward operating base in a dicey area, but to get a suicide bomber inside the wires -- it's hard to understand how that could happen," the former official said.

Officials said this fall that the agency was deploying spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives in a buildup that would make its station there among the largest in CIA history.

Though the CIA station is based at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the bulk of its workforce is scattered among secret bases and military outposts dotting the country. Most CIA personnel in Afghanistan are involved in support functions such as providing security or managing computer systems, rather than in gathering and analyzing intelligence.

But some of the work civilians perform, particularly that involving law enforcement and intelligence gathering, is considered as dangerous as military duty. Three civilian Drug Enforcement Administration agents were killed in a helicopter crash in October in western Afghanistan. They were accompanying troops on a counternarcotics mission.

Khowst province has been a prime target of militants operating in eastern Afghanistan and just across the border in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The Chapman base is part of NATO's Regional Command East, which is supervised by the U.S. military. It also houses Western civilians working on reconstruction projects.

The main U.S. base in the province, known as Camp Salerno, has been the target of numerous attacks. Bombers have blown themselves up just outside its gates while trying to penetrate the fortified installation. Afghan civilians usually bear the brunt of such attacks.

Last week, Taliban militants with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests entered a building near a police station in the nearby city of Gardez, setting off a battle with U.S. and Afghan security forces that lasted through the morning.

Meanwhile Wednesday, military officials said four Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist were killed in an explosion in Kandahar province in Afghanistan's south.

The Canadian Press quoted journalists in Afghanistan as saying the journalist was reporter Michelle Lang, 34, of the Calgary Herald.

The death toll among U.S. military forces this year has been the highest since the war in Afghanistan began in October 2001. This year, 311 American troops have been killed, according to the independent website icasualties.org , bringing the death toll for U.S. forces during the war to 941.

A total of 138 Canadian troops have been killed, 32 of them this year, Canadian Press said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-attack31-2009dec31,0,5369446,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

L.A. County took 5,337 weapons off the streets in Gifts for Guns program

L.A. County's gun exchange program collected 5,337 weapons in 2009, including 144 assault-style rifles.

The Sheriff's Department, along with supporters of the Gifts for Guns program, handed out more than $428,100 in gift cards throughout the year at supermarket parking lots around the county in exchange for the guns.

“I tell the deputies if it is a gun that could harm one of our deputies, then it is a gun we want off the street,” said Lt. Anthony Lucia, who oversaw the collection of 281 weapons at a Ralphs in Compton this week.

One man there turned in 58 weapons, mostly small-caliber firearms. Handguns, rifles and shotguns were exchanged with no questions asked for $50, $100 and $200 gift cards from Ralphs, Food 4 Less or Target. 

Sheriff's officials have collected weapons in the Antelope Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Santa Clarita and southeast L.A. County. Gun buyback programs have attracted attention in cities across the country, but studies of their effectiveness in St. Louis in 1991 and 1994 found no demonstrable impact on firearm-related homicide and assault rates.

Nonetheless, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department has made the exchanges a staple, and officials believe the program is making a difference. Almost ever month, one of the sheriff's stations has gun donors lining up in their cars and deputies loading the weapons into shopping carts to be eventually destroyed at a steel works and turned into building materials.

“We use the rebar to build schools and other places to help the communities,” Sheriff Lee Baca said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/la-county-took-5334-weapons-off-the-streets-as-part-of-giftcardforguns-program-.html#more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. Embassy warns of possible New Year's Eve terrorist attack on Bali

The Associated Press

December 31, 2009

JAKARTA, Indonesia

The U.S. Embassy warned today of a possible New Year's Eve terrorist attack on Indonesia's Bali island.

The embassy sent e-mails to U.S. citizens quoting Bali's governor as saying "There is an indication of an attack to Bali tonight."

The warning comes six months after twin suicide blasts killed seven people at luxury hotels in the capital, Jakarta.

The resort island of Bali has been hit hard by Islamic militants, with more than 220 people killed in suicide bombings in 2002 and 2005 targeting Westerners.

The governor called on people to be alert, but gave no details about a specific threat.

Indonesia's counterterrorism unit says it received the warning but could not independently verify its accuracy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/fgw-bali-warning1-2010jan1,0,7781847,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Daily News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

L.A. district attorney proposes new body armor law

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has drafted wording for an emergency bill that would reinstate the state's ban on body armor use by felons.

An appeals court overturned the ban earlier this month, saying it was unconstitutional because the definition of body armor was too vague.

The state attorney general's office is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court. But District Attorney Steve Cooley says the state shouldn't be without a law in the meantime.

Cooley says body armor should be defined as "a bulletproof vest, meaning any bulletproof material intended to provide ballistic and trauma protection for the wearer."

Several groups have voiced support for the proposal and now it needs a legislative sponsor.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14094039

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Body armor ruling must be reversed

The justices ruled it was unconstitutional because the definition of body armor was too vague. Only one judge, Justice Richard Aldrich, dissented from this poorly thought-out decision, which kept the vote from becoming unanimous.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals has the unenviable title of being the most overturned appeals court in the nation, a title hardly worth bragging about.

To fully understand the ramifications of this decision (if it stands), you only have to recall the notorious 1997 North Hollywood shootout. During a prolonged exchange of gunfire with two bank robbery thugs who were armed head to toe in body armor, 11 Los Angeles police officers and six civilians were wounded.

This shootout was covered worldwide by the news media and should have served as a lesson for the Aldrich's cohorts on the bench.

The 1994 killing of San Francisco Police Officer James Guelff by a cowardly robber wearing body armor was another reason this law was passed in 1998.

There is absolutely no justifiable logic behind the recent action taken by this judicial body. Anyone with a sound mind has to wonder exactly who these justices are trying to protect and whose rights or wrongs are being trampled on.

We certainly know they do not have the safety of the general public or our law enforcement officers in mind. These are the same law enforcement officers who place their lives on the line to protect us every day.

The course of action that we, the general public, must take is quite simple. We need to lobby all of our elected officials in California and demand that they support Attorney General Jerry Brown's effort to overturn this insidious ruling.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_14089795

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Wall Street Journal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Measures After 9/11 Draw New Scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- The 9/11 attacks spawned far-reaching changes in the government's handling of terrorism tips and related intelligence, but early investigations into the attempted Christmas Day bombing suggest the new system is still having trouble putting the dots together.

After Sept. 11, 2001, it became clear that U.S. authorities had failed to share information that could have helped them discover the plot to hijack airliners. The Bush administration's initial attempt to address that shortcoming was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. That was quickly eclipsed by the decision to create an intelligence integration center at the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2004, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission concluded that the government's intelligence sharing remained inadequate. It called for a new director of national intelligence who would oversee all the government's spy agencies and programs to ensure that data on terrorists were shared.

The Bush administration followed that advice, and today the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, oversees intelligence sharing. He also has responsibility for the intelligence integration body, which is now called the National Counterterrorism Center. The first head of the counterterrorism center was John Brennan, who is now President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser.

Tom Kean, the former co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, said in an interview that the attempted attack shows the commission's recommendations haven't been fully implemented. "Our whole idea in creating the director of national intelligence and the [counterterrorism center] was to force the sharing of information, and obviously it's not working well enough yet," said Mr. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey.

Mr. Kean said Wednesday that Congress weakened the new intelligence structure before the final legislation was approved. He said he knew at the time that it would ultimately take strong action from a president to give the new directorate enough authority to overcome barriers to sharing intelligence. "I think that's where President Obama will have to look -- at the [director of national intelligence]," he said. "Is it strong enough, in combination with the [National Counterterrorism Center], to actually force the sharing of information?"

The counterterrorism center is charged with consolidating information from various government terrorism watch lists. Its database, known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment or TIDE, is the basis for the master list of terrorism suspects kept by Terrorism Screening Center at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as narrower lists of people who should be subjected to additional searches before flying or aren't allowed to fly into the U.S. at all.

The counterterrorism center collects reports from U.S. agencies around the world, vets it, and enters it into the TIDE database. New information could merit the creation of a new TIDE record, such as the report from the father of the alleged Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, that the young man had developed extremist ties. Or information could augment an existing database entry.

People in TIDE aren't automatically on a watch list. "If there's reasonable suspicion that someone will engage in a terrorist act, that extract of TIDE is provided" to the FBI's screening center, a U.S. intelligence official said. In the case of Mr. Abdulmutallab, analysts didn't believe the report met the "reasonable suspicion" threshold.

On Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who is chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said that standard was "too restrictive and should be changed."

As U.S. intelligence agencies have reviewed their records, the National Security Agency discovered multiple communications intercepts that collectively would have suggested al Qaeda's Yemen branch was planning an attack with a Nigerian. Other intercepts connecting Mr. Abdulmutallab and a radical cleric in Yemen have also emerged.

But that information wasn't flagged at the time because it was fragmentary and didn't immediately appear relevant, U.S. officials said. It wasn't combined with the report from Mr. Abdulmutallab's father provided by the CIA.

Government officials have praised the National Counterterrorism Center as a place where agencies set aside turf battles and work for the national interest. The near-disaster on Christmas Day, however, shows that the multi-billion-dollar system created in the past eight years can't discover every possible terrorism tip. Some intelligence officials warn that it is unrealistic to expect the spy agencies to catch and analyze every fragment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126221976499811067.html#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suspect Puts U.K. Schools in Focus

Accused airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's affiliation with University College London is reviving concerns in Britain that its universities and colleges—even the elite—can breed Islamic radicalism.

In several of the terrorist plots linked to London since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., the suspects have been university students or graduates. In many cases, the schools involved are among Britain's most prestigious, including UCL, King's College London and the London School of Economics, all of which receive taxpayer funding.

Despite questions raised by government officials in the U.K. about whether Mr. Abdulmutallab, the son of a prominent banker in Nigeria, was radicalized in London, testimonials from students and other acquaintances there have failed to confirm that he became a terrorist while in the country.

According to Shiraz Maher, a former member of the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir who now campaigns against Islamic extremism, some attackers with links to London were active in their schools' Islamic societies. Mr. Maher was a student at Cambridge University and was friends with two men who later carried out an attack at Glasgow Airport. He testified at trial against one of the men.

Following the foiled plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners using liquid explosives in 2006—a plan hatched by a group that included at least two men who studied at the U.K.'s University of Portsmouth—the government published guidelines on battling Islamic extremism on college campuses.

Then in January 2008, the government launched a program to provide guidance to higher-education institutions called "Promoting Good Campus Relations, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism in Universities and Higher Education Colleges."

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the government continues to work with universities and colleges to help manage and identify the risks posed by violent extremism.

"Overall, our assessment is that there is a serious but not widespread risk of radicalization leading to violent extremism and there is no evidence of systematic radicalization in universities," the spokesman said.

According to the Centre for Social Cohesion, a London think tank that works to combat extremism, university campuses continue to be a hub for potential terrorists.

"A lot of people who commit terrorist acts here are university graduates," said Hannah Stuart, a researcher at the CSC who co-authored a widely circulated study in 2008 entitled "Islam on Campus." In a poll done as part of the study, 28% of Muslim students queried said it is justifiable to kill in the name of religion, but only if that religion is under attack. Only 1% of non-Muslim students had a similar response.

The concern about the colleges as a breeding ground for extremist views has persisted despite repeated government efforts to use outreach and intelligence operations to address the problem.

In a number of cases, including as recently as this year, Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic preacher linked to the shooter in the recent attack on the Ft. Hood military compound in Texas, spoke or was invited to speak to groups at London universities, according to the CSC. U.S. officials have said they believe Mr. Awlaki had contact with Mr. Abdulmutallab.

Radicalization on campus is in part blamed for a recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents at British universities. In 2008, the Community Security Trust, a British Jewish organization, recorded 67 anti-Semitic incidents, including three physical attacks, in which the victims were students, student bodies or academics. There is no record of how many such attacks are attributable to Islamic extremists.

Anti-extremists like Mr. Maher say the U.K. government has been too timid to stamp out radical activity, in part for fear of being branded Islamophobic.

In one of the first instances of a British suicide bomber, in 2003, two King's College London students attacked a bar in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, a former LSE student, was convicted in a Pakistani court of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126221066885110853.html#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obama's Security 'Breach'

Recent events have exposed the shortcomings of treating terror as a law enforcement problem and rushing to close Guantanamo Bay. A new wave of jihadists is coming of age, inspiring last month's deadly attack at Ft. Hood and nearly bringing down Northwest Flight 253, and next time we may not be so lucky.

Along with a dozen other al Qaeda members, he was allowed to escape from a Yemeni jail in 2006. His deputy, Said Ali al-Shihri, was a Saudi inmate at Gitmo who after his release "graduated" from that country's terrorist "rehabilitation" program before moving to Yemen last year. About a fifth of the so-called graduates have ended back on the Saudi terror most-wanted list, according to a GAO study this year.

U.S. investigators are looking into whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian would-be bomber, was in contact with al-Shihri and another Guantanamo alum who turned up at the AQAP, Muhammad al-Awfi. The week before Christmas, Yemen agreed, presumably under U.S. prodding, to take back six more Guantanamo detainees. Ninety-seven of the 210 left at Gitmo are from Yemen, and if this transfer goes smoothly, the Administration wants to repatriate many more. Most are such hard terror cases that this year even Saudi Arabia rejected U.S. entreaties to accept them.

A Pentagon analysis, released in May, showed that one in seven freed Gitmo detainees—61 in all—returned to terrorism. Al-Shihri and Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, the Taliban's operations leader in southern Afghanistan, are merely the best known. The Pentagon has since updated its findings, and we're told the numbers are even worse.

Yet the White House has resisted calls by Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to declassify this revised report—no doubt because that would make closing Gitmo harder. Congress should insist on its release.

This second generation of al Qaeda also makes good use of modern technology for recruitment. A student from a wealthy family, Abdulmutallab was exposed to radical Islam through the Internet, and according to some reports was a "big fan" of the imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, who ran a popular jihadi Web site and Facebook page. This 38-year-old cleric, who was born in the U.S., is the spiritual leader of AQAP.

Al-Awlaki was also in email contact with Major Nidal Hasan in the months before the Army doctor shot and killed 13 U.S. soldiers at Ft. Hood. U.S. intelligence intercepted emails between the imam and the Major, but the FBI decided that they didn't constitute a threat. We don't know if Abdulmuttab also communicated with al-Awlaki, but this too is something Congress should strive to find out.

One encouraging development is that the U.S. and Yemen governments are finally working together against jihadists. A series of recent raids supported by the U.S. have killed more than 50 suspected al Qaeda fighters, including suicide bombers. Al-Awlaki and the top two AQAP leaders were possibly killed in one of the strikes, though their fate is unclear.

Sending Gitmo's jihadists back to this maelstrom makes no security sense. Yemen has a weak government with mixed loyalties and its prisons are porous. Al-Awlaki himself was released in 2007, having been held at American request. Mr. Obama says we need to close Gitmo because it offends our values, but he's happy to send its detainees back to Yemen where we can target them with smart bombs when they rejoin the fight. Mr. Obama's desire to fulfill his campaign pledge to close Gitmo is an ideological fixation that risks letting killers loose to target Americans again.

More broadly, the Administration's law enforcement mentality is also part of the problem. Its instinct is to attribute every terror incident to a misguided individual—"an isolated extremist," as the President initially said of Abdulmuttalab—as if al Qaeda sympathies require a membership card and monthly meetings. Hasan and Abdulmuttalab are charged with being jihadists bent on murder who were encouraged or facilitated by other jihadists. This is the way the terror threat is evolving, with virtual recruitment over the Web of radicalized individuals from sanctuaries that change as opportunities arise.

Stopping future attacks is going to require interrogation—and before criminal charges are filed. We need to learn who gave Abdulmuttalab the PETN explosive and whether there is some al Qaeda terrormaster coordinating similar attacks the way KSM coordinated the 9/11 hijackings. Yet the White House impulse is to indict any terrorist we capture under criminal charges and let him lawyer-up. We may be lucky this time if Abdulmuttalab is singing, but that won't always be the case.

Whatever their mistakes, the Bush-Cheney policies properly identified the enemy and kept the U.S. homeland safe after 9/11. The Obama Administration needs to shed some of its campaign illusions to meet this evolving threat, and not returning Gitmo's detainees to Yemen is an essential first step.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624503147162222.html#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Questions for Abdulmutallab

The would-be airplane bomber needs to be interrogated.

On the third day after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, President Barack Obama finally interrupted his Hawaiian vacation to announce that our government "will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable." But how are we going to do that now that the terrorist is lawyered up and is even challenging what should be a legal gimme: giving the government a DNA sample?

It was not wise to try enemy combatants such as Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, in our regular criminal courts. And it is unwise that Mr. Obama has decided to try some Guantanamo detainees in New York City. Never in our country's history prior to 2001 have we done so, for good reason.

The constitutional protections designed to ensure a person is not wrongfully convicted have no relevance to wartime military needs. The argument that our system is strong enough to try a terrorist is a non sequitur. It equates to the argument that if a person is in excellent health, she can withstand being set ablaze.

Moussaoui tied the Virginia federal court in knots for over three years, principally by insisting on the Brady rule, which requires that the defendant be given access to any evidence that could be exculpatory. (Moussaoui was convicted because he pleaded guilty, not because there was a trial and jury decision.)

The Brady rule is a needed constitutional protection for the accused bank robber, where the government wants to produce only the one witness who identifies the defendant as the perpetrator but not the other six witnesses who cannot identify him. It does not work where a terrorist demands access to all the servicemen and women who witnessed his capture on the battlefield.

Yet even the legal issues of a trial are of little importance compared to the threat to our security putting this terrorist into the regular criminal justice system presents. Abdulmutallab is in effect in possession of a ticking bomb, but we cannot interrogate him. His right to remain silent, as required by the Miranda rule, thwarts Mr. Obama's hollow attempt on Tuesday to "assure" us he is "doing everything in [his] power" to keep us safe.

Questions need to be answered. Where was Abdulmutallab trained? Who trained him? Where is the training facility located? Where is the stash of PETN, the explosive used in the bomb? What are the techniques he was told to use for getting through airport security? Was there a well-dressed man who helped him board the plane without a passport as claimed by another passenger? And, most important, are future attacks planned?

Yes, we could try him first and then interrogate him. But by then the information is stale, especially if he utilizes the same legal challenges Moussaoui did to drag out the process for years.

As the president told us, there were indeed "human and systemic failures" that "contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security." By placing this terrorist into the regular criminal process, he continues and magnifies those failures, which could leave to an actual catastrophe.

Abdulmutallab is not a United States citizen. By detonating a bomb on an airplane filled with 269 civilians, he committed an illegal act of war. A military commission, which has been used for such conduct since Gen. George Washington, will give him due process. But first, he must be interrogated.

Ms. Toensing was deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, where she supervised all terrorist cases.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574627913707775486.html#printMode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Washington Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

White House watch-list review chief gets ethics waiver

by Eli Lake

The White House official leading the interagency review into the U.S. terrorist watch list system that contributed to a near-catastrophe on Christmas Day used to head a company that provides critical analysis to those who create the watch list.

John Brennan, President Obama's special assistant for counterterrorism and homeland security, is expected to report to the president Thursday on how the national system for detecting and preventing terrorist attacks failed to prevent a Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a Northwest Airlines plane in Amsterdam with a military-grade explosive sewed into the crotch of his underwear. Passengers subdued the would-be terrorist after he failed to set off his bomb.

Mr. Brennan served between November 2005 and January 2009 as the chief executive officer of what was then known as the Analysis Corp., a contractor that provides intelligence analysis used in developing the watch-list system.

A spokeswoman for the company, which has since been acquired by Global Defense Technology & Systems Inc., confirmed Wednesday that the contractor helps develop the watch lists for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), an interagency hub that Mr. Brennan, a CIA veteran, helped create.

"Since 2004, the Analysis Corporation [GLOBAL TAC] has been a member of the large team that supports the U.S. government's terrorist watch-listing efforts," said Lauren Peduzzi, a communications manager for GLOBAL. "As part of the team, GLOBAL TAC personnel review intelligence data and provide analysis to aid U.S. government decision-makers in their ongoing efforts to align the national security policy with today's counterterrorism challenges." She said she could not go into further detail because the work is highly classified.

White House attorneys reviewed whether Mr. Brennan would be violating ethics rules by conducting the review of watch lists in light of his previous position and determined that the benefit to the public interest of having Mr. Brennan conduct the review far outweighed any potential conflict of interest.

Denis McDonough, the chief of staff for the National Security Council, said, "By virtue of his experience, John brings a unique mixture of know-how and understanding to this assignment. The applicable ethics rules recognize that when the public interest outweighs other issues, an official should be authorized to proceed with an assignment, particularly in the national security arena. Our counsel have determined that to be the case here and have authorized John to proceed - with the understanding that others will review specific issues relating to TAC should any arise."

Ms. Peduzzi said of Mr. Brennan that "all professional and financial ties between the company and Mr. Brennan ceased when he left to serve the Obama administration as homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism."

Ms. Peduzzi also said that her company intended to comply with any recommendations resulting from Mr. Obama's review of the Dec. 25 incident and the U.S. watch-listing policies. "Once the review is completed, the appropriate U.S. government representatives will address the issues and determine any necessary actions. GLOBAL TAC will comply with any actions outlined by our customer," she said.

The U.S. intelligence community had some warnings that al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen was preparing a Nigerian for such an attack during the holidays. Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent Nigerian banker, had told the CIA in November that he was worried about his son's involvement in al Qaeda. The would-be bomber was denied a visa by Britain. He purchased his ticket from Nigeria to Amsterdam with cash and had no checked luggage.

Sespite these red flags, the databases and watch lists created to keep potential terrorists out of the skies and American cities failed to stop Mr. Abdulmutallab.

The potential role of contractors could be a hot topic for members of Congress when they return from the winter recess. The House Select Committee on Intelligence already has scheduled a formal briefing from the leadership of the intelligence community for Jan. 13. One U.S. intelligence official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the press said that the role of contractors in the watch-list process should be examined by Congress.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence "relies so much on contractors in the community. Someone should be looking at this anyway," the official said.

An investigation could implicate a number of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is supposed to coordinate intelligence sharing.

Frances Townsend, who served as homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, said, "I think what you will find in the end, there is plenty of blame to go around here. I am more interested in where were the gaps and how do we fix them as opposed to the usual Washington blood sport of the blame game."

Ms. Townsend added, "I am concerned about reports that CIA passed some information on to other agencies, but not all information. But I am also concerned that the NCTC, which is part of the DNI and was created post 9/11 to connect the dots, apparently failed to do that."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/review-chief-has-ties-to-watch-list-firm//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unholy war in cyberspace

by Arnaud de Borchgrave

For America's 16 intelligence agencies, employing some 100,000 spies and analysts, with a budget of $50 billion, it is almost mission impossible to figure out what terrorists and would-be terrorists are up to in cyberspace.

The Internet is an electronic jungle, but also a global environment where al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers can function with impunity. The Net also serves as radio-cum-TV station for would-be terrorists who can watch suicide bomb attacks as videoed by insurgents, beheadings in gory color, and download a two-volume Sabotage Handbook online.

Google, like the National Security Agency, can sift through a gazillion documents in less than a second, but that doesn't begin to tell you how a radical imam in a rundown Muslim suburb of Paris, or another imam in northern Nigeria, has recruited an impressionable teenager for the higher cause of jihad (which should be renamed unholy war).

Nor does it tell you how and when this youngster left for Yemen, where al Qaeda operatives taught him how to bring down an airliner with a hard-to-detect, easily concealable, lethal chemical cocktail.

The equivalent of hundreds of LOC's (Library of Congress with its 40 million volumes, 130 million documents, 10,000 new items arriving daily and 525 miles of shelf space) move on millions of ether infobahns in less than a day.

Born in this humongous mix, long before Sept. 11, 2001, was a virtual electronic caliphate, or a global radical Muslim community whose main enemy is the United States and its Israeli ally, whose principal objective is to push back the frontiers of Islam by crushing Muslim governments and denying the Palestinians the right of statehood.

The caliphate is a unique global entity that would unite all Muslims under the rule of the caliph. Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims presumably would spend decades fighting over an appropriate caliph who would then rule over a global dictatorship with an advisory Shura, or the Muslim equivalent of a college of cardinals.

Pie in the Muslim sky, but all too real on the Internet, and pretty heady stuff and certainly more exciting than the drab existence of looking for jobs that are not available.

The electronic caliphate's Web sites, chat rooms, blogs, message boards, instant messaging, with seemingly innocuous coded messages, coupled with state-of-the-art encryption devices and techniques, all reflect a sizable number of computer engineers and scientists at the service of al Qaeda and transnational terrorism.

Al Qaeda's breeding grounds stretch from the madrassas - Koranic schools for the poor - of Mindanao in the Philippines to identical madrassas in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Somalia and suburban slums all over Western Europe.

But the exciting vision of fighting for Islam against Christian and Jewish heathens also ensnares middle- and upper-class misfits who are either bored or in rebellion against their parents' capitalist values.

That's clearly how the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, who almost caused a major disaster on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, got radicalized and joined al Qaeda in Yemen as a suicide volunteer.

One of Europe's best intelligence services - the Dutch AIVD - concluded years ago that radical Islam in the Netherlands encompasses a multitude of movements, organizations and groups that sympathize with militant Islam. AIVD has identified 20 different Islamist groups. And their lingua franca is the Internet.

British authorities have verified that as many as 3,000 veterans of al Qaeda training camps over the years, in Afghanistan prior to Sept. 11, in Pakistan's tribal areas after Sept. 11, were born and raised in the United Kingdom.

British polls also showed about 100,000 British Muslims, mostly from Pakistani families, were in favor of the July 7, 2005, subway and bus attacks in London. Some 200 embryonic plots investigated by Britain's internal intelligence service MI5 tracked back to Pakistani Brits, mostly well-educated youth from middle-class families.

Following Sept. 11, in the early 2000s, France's internal intelligence services - the DST and the RG - estimated that 40 percent of the imams in France's 1,000 principal mosques (out of a total of more than 1,500) had no religious training and simply picked up the content of their Friday sermons from pro-al Qaeda Web sites.

Evidently imbibing from the same electronic fountain of hate was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist accused in the killing of 13, including 11 U.S. soldiers, and wounded 30, at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 5.

Maj. Hasan was proselytized on the Internet by a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric who had left the United States and moved to Yemen - now far more important, along with Somalia, across the Gulf of Aden, than Afghanistan.

President Obama was against the Iraq war from Day One . But he couldn't also be against Afghanistan and expect to be elected. He would have been denounced as a pacifist afraid to fight America's self-avowed enemies.

Nor could he expect to be re-elected if he lost what is now his war. First he ordered 17,000 additional troops for Afghanistan in February 2009, and now 30,000, at a cost of $1 million per soldier per year. Why? Because that's where al Qaeda is located, we are told.

Al Qaeda left Afghanistan years ago, and it is now scattered in Pakistan's tribal areas, in Karachi, a port city of 18 million, in Yemen and Somalia - and all over the Internet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban insurgency has created a shadow "government in waiting" with Cabinet ministers and provincial and district governors in 33 out of 34 provinces, waiting for NATO and U.S. forces to fall victim to the Vietnam syndrome. CENTCOM commander Gen. David H. Petraeus says we should be prepared to fight as long as it takes to defeat Taliban's guerrilla insurgency.

The history of insurgencies since World War II is of little comfort to those who say "as long as it takes." Moderate Arab leaders from Morocco in North Africa to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, interviewed by this reporter, invariably come up with the same wet-finger-to-the-wind stats: No more than 1 percent of their populations are religious extremists, and 10 percent fundamentalist, essentially in sympathy with the extremists' agenda.

Extrapolating these figures on the global scale of 1.3 billion Muslims, we get 13 million extremists and 130 million sympathizers. That should provide intelligence and security services and Special Operations decades of derring-do. And that by Green Berets, Rangers, SEALs - not infantrymen lugging 120 pounds up and down Afghan mountains where eyes are only for where you put your combat boot next.

Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/unholy-war-in-cyberspace//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Department of Homeland Security

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the New Year approaches, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Ready Campaign is once again reminding people to Resolve to be Ready in 2010. While nearly 50 percent of Americans make New Year's Eve resolutions, very few manage to keep them. The Ready Campaign would like to make an emergency preparedness resolution easy to keep by providing the tools and resources needed to take the three important steps: get a kit, make a plan and be informed about the different types of emergencies that can happen in your area and their appropriate responses. We hope you will join the Ready Campaign this Holiday Season in promoting Resolve to be Ready .

On this page you will find a toolkit to help your organization develop internal and external messages to encourage your members, employees, constituents, customers and community to make a New Year's resolution to prepare for emergencies. You will also find Web banners for your organization's Web site, a sample E-mail and a Newsletter you can share with your key constituents.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Ready at Ready@dhs.gov .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now's the Time. Resolve to be Ready in 2010.

Resolve to be Ready Toolkit

http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/resolve10/resolve2010_tool_kit.pdf
  Adobe Acrobat PDF, 538 Kb

Resolve to be Ready Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation

http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/resolve10/ready_508comp.ppt
  MS PPT, 5.5 Mb

All Resolve to be Ready Collateral

http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/resolve10/resolve2010_archive.zip
  Zip Archve, 7.3 Mb

http://www.ready.gov/america/about/resolve2010.html

.