Not Pleased With Obama

The Obama Files
President Obama will never be forthright about his agenda.  It will always be via stealth because Americans don’t want what he is pushing.

He has spent millions of dollars to hide the circumstances of his birth, which reflect on his eligibility for the presidency.  Obama remains in campaign mode, breaking his promises as he goes.  The first casualty was the promise of transparency.

His stimulus package was supposedly designed to improve the economy.  In truth, it was and is a slush fund designed to entrench his radical left political machine.

Obama blasts Wall Street, yet he is owned by Wall Street, lock, stock and barrel.  Obama will never stand up to the Wall Street banksters, who are virtually looting America through fraud and deceit.

Obama talks about cutting the budget deficit, yet the Obama budget deficits are the highest in history.

Instead of health-care reform, Obamacare is a complete fraud, which the vast majority of Americans do not want.

Obama says the Senate bill will strengthen Medicare, will curb waste and inefficiency, and will reduce the deficit. Of course, these are all patent lies.

Main street is understandably terrified at what this president and his Democratic congressional majorities will do.  I believe the overall Obama agenda is nothing less than replacing our constitutional republic with a totalitarian regime to control every aspect of our lives.

Americans should oppose this man in every legal way possible.

John Huckle

Santa Maria

Connecting the terror dots

Canada Free Press

By Doug Hagmann  Sunday, January 3, 2010

imageAs detailed by Dave Macy and published on Canada Free Press Friday, police in Houston responding to a domestic disturbance found something they did not expect: an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher that can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.

Channel 2 in Houston also reported that police found Islamic terrorist literature at the same location. According to news reports, the items belong to Nabilaye I. YANSANE, who was charged with criminal trespassing related only to the domestic incident. No charges were filed for possession of the launcher or the literature. (A video provided by KPRC Channel 2 in Houston can be viewed at this link).

The reasoning for lack of criminal charges, of course is that the “once used” AT-4 rocket launcher, in its present state, is essentially nothing more than an elaborate paper weight due to its single use application. It can be legally purchased on the open market, from gun shows to army surplus stores. With regard to the Islamic terrorist literature found at the same location, our own Bill of Rights allows us the ability to possess certain writings within the scope of the law, despite the increasingly unpopular fact under the Obama administration and the reign of Napolitano that we are fighting Islamic terrorists on our own soil.

Except for inquiring minds, this story could almost end here. But as the saying goes, “Houston, we have a problem.” Picking up where the media left off, this investigator looked deeper into this incident and the background of the suspect, finding some facts that should raise some important questions about events that have been taking place inside the U.S., and perhaps connect some dots in the asymmetrical war being waged against us by Islamic terrorists from within.

First, a cursory background investigation into Nabilaye I. YANSANE, 39, (DOB October 7, 1970), a resident of the Bellaire Wood Apartments, 5414 Elm Street, Houston, Texas, found recent unrelated brushes with the law, including a misdemeanor charge of possession of a prohibited weapon accompanied by a drug possession charge-both filed on October 5, 2009. The drug possession charge was dismissed, while the weapons charge was adjudicated.

The misdemeanor charges notwithstanding, further investigation conducted over the last several days with area residents familiar with YANSANE indicates a possible “connection” with the Al-Maghrib Institute in Houston, an Islamic center located less than 6 ¬Ω miles from his home. According to two area residents, YANSANE might have some level of involvement with the Institute, participating in classes or events at that location within the past year.

If the al Maghrib Institute sounds familiar, it should. As we previously reported, the Al Maghrib Institute is the Islamic center that terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab, the Muslim terrorist who attempted to bomb Delta-Northwest flight 253 out of the sky on Christmas Day, attended in 2008.
More…

Trading Terrorist Rights for American Lives

OBAMA’S TERROR FRIENDLY ADMINISTRATION IS A “SYSTEMATIC FAILURE”

The Post & E-Mail

News Summary & Analysis by JB Williams

(Jan. 2, 2010) — On Christmas Day, 2009, the first of many terror chickens to come, came home to roost when a Nigerian member of Al Qaeda climbed aboard a US commercial flight headed from Amsterdam to Detroit and attempted to set off a chemical bomb mid-flight.

Once again, civilians found themselves in the position of having to provide for their own safety and security as the folks whose primary purpose is to provide for the common defense of the people, came up sorely lacking.

Had it not been for a handful of brave patriots willing to take matters into their own hands, Flight 253 could have ended the futures of everyone on board.

This is what we should expect in a nation that puts its soldiers on trial for taking their oath seriously in the war on terror abroad, while the Obama administration offers known enemy combatants civil rights in criminal courts, by no means designed to handle the complexities of war.

In fact, when the administration sees patriotic American citizens and former military personnel as “potential domestic terrorists” – and known terrorists as mere “criminals,” this is the best outcome we can hope for…

Predictably, Obama was quick on the trigger when taking aim at the agencies responsible for securing commercial flights. As Jim Meyers reports at Newsmax, Obama told reporters: “A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.”

Referring to the early signals, he said: “Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.”

Obama is the “systemic failure.” He and his terror-friendly administration, including US Attorney General Eric Holder, who was engaged in the legal defense on known terrorists before being named the head of the US Justice system by Barack Obama, have great difficulty separating “acts of war” from “criminal behaviors” – and – terrorists from US soldiers or even average American citizens for that matter.

As Meyers points out in his Newsmax report based upon a story in the liberal New York Times, “two federal officials told the paper that U.S. intelligence was aware that a Nigerian Muslim was preparing an attack, yet officials did nothing to give warning of such an attack.”

The paper reported Wednesday: “Two officials said the government had intelligence from Yemen before Friday that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda were talking about ‘a Nigerian’ being prepared for a terrorist attack.”“But despite those signals, the administration never raised a terror alert, and would-be bomber Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a plane bound for the United States.”

Gee… I wonder why an administration that sees average citizens as “potential terrorists” and actual terrorists as “common criminals” would hesitate to warn the people of the impending danger that lurks within a nation not at all serious about an enemy just as committed to death and destruction today as they were on September 11, 2001.

We are talking about the same folks who still refuse to admit that our nation is at war with extreme Islam around the globe – that we have numerous terror training facilities right here on American soil – or that the Jihadist in Ft. Hood was in fact an Al Qaeda operative in regular contact with known Al Qaeda cells in Yemen, up until he shouted “Allah Akbar” before killing a dozen unarmed soldiers at Ft. Hood.

Despite the fact that Americans in part, elected Obama on the false belief that Bush and Cheney made America “less safe” by their semi-aggressive “war on terror,” the Washington Times now reports that 85% of Americans now expect terrorist attacks to be successful on American soil in 2010. That’s a cheerful thought full of “hope” for the New Year, huh…

For a “change,” I agree with 85% of Americans…

Still, one is compelled to ask why those responsible for making certain that someone like Abdulmutallab is unable to climb aboard a US commercial flight, chose not to do so?

This is the real point isn’t it? Someone “in-the-know” chose NOT to share that information with people who could have and allegedly would have stopped Abdulmutallab from climbing aboard Flight 253. It was NOT an “intelligence failure” like 9/11/01… The guy’s own father reported his son MIA after making direct threats against the west.

He reported it to the US Embassy in Yemen, and there was plenty of time to react, had that information been shared with the appropriate agencies. Why wasn’t it?

While we’re at it, why is our federal government treating American soldiers like “enemy combatants” in military courts while offering civilians criminal courts and US Civil Rights to known enemy combatants captured on the battle field?

And here’s the biggest question of all – Why aren’t American citizens demanding answers to these and many more obvious questions?

As Democrat John F. Kennedy said so well – “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”

In October of 2008, I wrote a column titled Terrorists, Terrorism and Obama and nobody listened. Voters had been convinced by the leftist lame stream press that even a nobody with life-long ties to terrorists, communists and third world thugs, would be “better than Bush.”

I even asked in a column, Who is باراك حسين أوباما ? – Copy and paste this into your Google translator software. If you still don’t know who and what we elected, there may be no hope for you or the future of this once free and prosperous nation.

It didn’t take a Harvard grad to see it coming, but still, few listened. Obama’s entire past remains in hiding almost a year into his unconstitutional presidency.

A year and countless unconstitutional anti-American administrative decisions later, most Americans still aren’t listening and as a result, their future looks grim so long as they fail to ask the right questions and demand truthful answers.

Forget about where Obama may or may not have been born. This is a side show aimed at misdirecting public attention and allowing the global left to pass off all dissenters as nothing more than crackpot conspiracy theorists, while the real conspiracy continues to unfold right under our noses.

Obama is unconstitutional by bloodline. The issue of natural born Citizen is a statement of bloodline, under natural law, not birth place under common law. Obama’s father was at no time a citizen of the United States. Obama inherited his name, his religion and his citizenship from his father.

So ask again – Why are Obama & Co. friendlier towards known terrorists than towards average American citizens simply upset by the current destruction of their free republic?

If you understand that you are asking this question of an Arab-Muslim, not an African-Christian, then you can probably figure out the correct answer all on your own. Obama was born and raised Muslim, not Christian. His so-called “Christian church” in Chicago is actually a “Black Nationalist Church,” which explains the racist rants of his life-long pastor, Rev. Wright.

But if you still think you are dealing with some new age Marxist Messiah planning to unite the world with American assets, then I challenge you to come up with a single acceptable answer to the obvious questions posed in this column.

Only one more reasonable question remains… How insane does it have to get before the American people wake up, take note and take action?

Since 85% of Americans expect successful terror attacks on USA soil in 2010, it’s clear that 85% of Americans understand that we are indeed, still at war with international Islamic terror. So, why did they elect leaders hell-bent upon helping those terrorists succeed?

Now most Americans are able to see the anti-American Marxist “change” Obama had in mind for America. So, at what point do the people awake and arise in defense of this great nation?

I worry that JFK was right about something else – “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Cut off from legislators, ignored by the White House, denied access to the courts and mocked by the leftist press, all peaceful solutions are quickly vanishing. When all peaceful means of redress are exhausted, only violent remedies will remain. Those who have denied the people a peaceful solution will be responsible for the violent solution that follows. I don’t call for it, but anyone who knows Americans well could predict it.

85% of the people are right. We will see successful terror strikes on US soil in 2010 and that’s because the current leadership in Washington DC is committed to that end. Their reaction to the events of 12-25-09 was also predictable.

“It’s becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.” – Obama

No… the system Bush had in place prevented a second, third and fourth wave of terror attacks on US soil and took the fight to the enemy abroad. That system did indeed stop any further attacks on US soil for the seven years that followed 9/11/01.

It’s the new system of terror appeasements and support, both here and abroad, put in place by Obama, Holder and Napolitano which has made terror attacks on US soil inevitable again.

The attempted bombing on Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit has touched off partisan squabbling in Washington. Republicans were sharply critical of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after she declared on Sunday that “the system worked,” even though the bombing was thwarted only when Abdulmutallab’s device failed to detonate. (from the Newsmax column)

The Napolitano system failed and citizens were left to defend themselves on Flight 253.

In the days following the Flight 253 event, Al Qaeda leaders warned of 300 more bombers coming and counter-terrorism experts around the globe have placed the risk of massive nuclear, biological or chemical attacks on US soil at a 100% certainty. Only the hour and level of devastation are unknown.

This is what the American people voted for in 2008. 52% were dead wrong in November 2008, but 85% are dead right now. It will get worse before it can get any better.

The policies that allowed Abdulmutallab to board Flight 253 will allow countless others to advance their attacks on the US. The Obama military “Rules of Engagement” will cost many more American soldiers their lives, senselessly. Eric Holder’s Civil Rights for Terrorists campaign will set many known enemies of our nation free to kill again… and Americans will die to learn this lesson the hard way.

At the end of the day, you can’t win a war by refusing to acknowledge its existence. You can’t defeat extreme Islam by aiding and abetting Jihadists, and you can’t end the war on terror by refusing to fight the war on terror. You can only get more innocent people killed with such policies.

This is what we can look forward to in 2010. 85% of Americans know it and thanks to the 15% who don’t, all Americans will pay a heavy price for the decision of the 52% who put these folks in unbridled power.

Is it all just an accident, or does it all serve a “greater good?” You decide how the evidence adds up, but decide soon. The clock is ticking…

Why the Health-Care Bills Are Unconstitutional

American Thinker

Rick Moran
Orrin Hatch, Ken Blackwell, and Ken Klukowski have penned an excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where they detail the unconstitutionality of health care reform:

Their reasoning with regard to the legality of the individual mandate is devastatingly clear and logical:

First, the Constitution does not give Congress the power to require that Americans purchase health insurance. Congress must be able to point to at least one of its powers listed in the Constitution as the basis of any legislation it passes. None of those powers justifies the individual insurance mandate. Congress’s powers to tax and spend do not apply because the mandate neither taxes nor spends. The only other option is Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.Congress has many times stretched this power to the breaking point, exceeding even the expanded version of the commerce power established by the Supreme Court since the Great Depression. It is one thing, however, for Congress to regulate economic activity in which individuals choose to engage; it is another to require that individuals engage in such activity. That is not a difference in degree, but instead a difference in kind. It is a line that Congress has never crossed and the courts have never sanctioned.

In fact, the Supreme Court in United States v. Lopez (1995) rejected a version of the commerce power so expansive that it would leave virtually no activities by individuals that Congress could not regulate. By requiring Americans to use their own money to purchase a particular good or service, Congress would be doing exactly what the court said it could not do.

Well, I’m convinced. Of course, my opinion doesn’t matter. It’s the 9 judges of the Supreme Court who count. And while the liberals may concur that the individual mandate is perfectly legal, as the court is constituted now I would anticipate a majority rejecting it.

It all depends on how fast such a challenge would move through the lower courts. If it took so long that Obama would be able to name one or more far lefties, then the chances are pretty good that any claim that the individual mandate is unconstitutional would probably be rejected.

Monroe County Tennessee Still in Treason Spotlight

Canada Free Press

By JB Williams  Saturday, January 2, 2010

Someone in the Monroe County Court House has been feeding false information to local news reporters in Monroe County Tennessee, leaving an interested public confused about the current status of the Treason Case filed by Ret. Lt. Commander Walter Fitzpatrick III, against President Barack Hussein Obama.

Here are the real facts as they currently exist –

  • Fitzpatrick appeared before a four person grand jury panel on December 1, 2009, not before the full grand jury, which is why there is no mention of the case in grand jury documents at this point.
  • Fitzpatrick was only permitted to present evidence of obstruction against former grand jury foremen Gary Petway and others. The evidence in the Treason Case against Obama has yet to be presented to the Monroe County grand jury.
  • The Monroe County grand jury ended its term shortly after Fitzpatrick’s appearance before the four person panel, leaving the cases in the hands of a newly convened grand jury for 2010.
  • Unlike the 2009 grand jury, which had a certain potential for conflicts of interest concerning charges against former foreman Petway, the newly convened jury should be free from such conflicts and freshly aware of their oath.
  • As of today, Fitzpatrick has received no updates on the status of his cases before the Monroe County grand jury.
  • All other related public reports offered by local Monroe County news reporters are false and misleading.

So, the charge of Treason against Obama still stands as filed before the Monroe County grand jury, which has yet to schedule any hearing of evidence on the matter. The charges of obstruction against Petway and other Monroe County officials also remain pending as of this writing.

The new 2010 Monroe County grand jury is due to convene in January and Fitzpatrick is unclear as to the intentions of the new grand jury concerning his pending charges. At present, it is assumed that the newly seated jury will take up all cases left pending from the previous jury.

But Fitzpatrick is prepared to re-file all charges with the new jury if need be.

Ongoing updates will be posted at Fitzpatrick’s blog, Jag Hunter.

Obama positioning for immigration reform

By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — With the health-care battle still unfinished, the Obama administration has been laying plans to take up an issue that could prove even more divisive — a major overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.

Senior White House aides privately have assured Latino activists that the president will back legislation next year to provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers now living in the United States.

In addition to the citizenship provision, the emerging plan will stress efforts to secure U.S. borders against those trying to cross illegally. But that two-track approach was rejected repeatedly in the past by Republicans and other critics who insist a border crackdown must demonstrate its effectiveness before any action on citizenship is considered.

Whatever proposal Obama puts forward will likely be complicated by the calendar: Midterm elections are in November, and polls show the public is more worried about joblessness and the fragile economy than anything else.

The White House already has a packed agenda for 2010: economic recovery, global-warming legislation and tougher regulation of financial institutions.

In an effort to enlist the kind of business support that helped drive its health-care initiative, for example, administration officials have reached out to the National Restaurant Association, which represents an industry that employs thousands of immigrants. Earlier this year, the new head of the association, Dawn Sweeney, met with Cecilia Munoz, a White House aide involved in the issue, and expressed interest in cooperating.

“It’s an extremely important issue for our members,” said Sweeney, whose group could exert grass-roots pressure on lawmakers.

As a candidate, Obama vowed to take up immigration during his first year in office. That deadline will come and go. Further delay could anger Latino voters, who came out in force for the president and congressional Democrats in 2008.

“The bulk of the people needing immigration reform are Latino,” said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz. “There’s a level of disenchantment about where we’re going. … And if you don’t give the Latino community a reason to participate (in the elections) you weaken your base even more.”

For an immigration bill to have a realistic shot of passing next year, political analysts said, the particulars would have to be agreed upon by the spring. Delay would increase the likelihood of the issue being derailed by the November elections.

An immigration bill was introduced in the House earlier in the month, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who chairs a subcommittee on immigration, is heading the effort to cobble together a bipartisan coalition in the Senate.

But Democrats may not have a lock on one prominent Republican who has worked in the past to revamp the immigration system: Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain backed George W. Bush’s failed attempt to overhaul immigration in his second term. But he has not committed to supporting the Obama bill, saying he worried the president would not endorse a temporary guest-worker program.

Organized labor, an important part of the Democratic base, has voiced opposition to a guest-worker program under which more immigrants could enter the country on a temporary basis. The White House would not reveal its position on guest-worker issue.

It’s Official… Obama Loses More Jobs In One Year Than Any President In Modern History

Gateway Pundit
Jan. 2, 2010
Jim Hoft

Worst. President. Ever. President Obama is the “Unemployment President.”

The unemployment rate was at 10.0% in December.

As we look back over 2009 we can now report that Barack Obama lost more jobs in his first year in office than any president in modern history. Barack Obama lost over 4 million jobs alone since his failed stimulus was passed in February.
USA Today reported:

Even before Barack Obama took the oath of office, his economic advisers projected that without hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending, the U.S. economy could lose another 3 million to 4 million jobs on top of the 3.1 million lost in 2008.

It turns out they were optimistic. Even with the $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed in February, more than 4 million jobs have been lost in 2009, the worst year for job losses since World War II. The jobless rate that advisers projected would peak at 8% has topped 10%.

And it took him until December to hold a jobs summit to address the problem.

And Doug Ross reports that things are likely to get much worse before they get better.

Report of 2nd man cuffed from Flight 253 confirmed

Posted: January 02, 2010

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

After several days of denying eyewitness reports of a second man from Northwest Flight 253 being arrested following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the plane by a Nigerian passenger linked to al-Qaida, the chief U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit area has admitted another passenger was taken into custody.

Ronald G. Smith sent an e-mail to the Detroit News, the paper reported, apologizing that the information provided to federal investigators by two attorneys aboard the plane had not been made available earlier.

As WND reported, Smith and other federal officials repeatedly denied accounts of the incident by Kurt and Lori Haskell of Taylor, Mich., who described authorities handcuffing and taking away a second passenger.

Following the foiled terrorist attack, Haskell said passengers were corralled into a small, evacuated luggage claim area of an airport terminal. Then, he says, bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in.

“See No Jihad, Hear No Jihad, Speak No Jihad: Why the government and media seem oblivious to America’s rapid infiltration by a violent totalitarian movement”

“During this time period, all of the passengers had their carry-on bags with them,” he wrote in a posting on MLive.com. “When the bomb sniffing dogs arrived, one dog found something in a carry-on bag of a 30-ish Indian man.” He said this man wore orange clothing.

“The man in orange, who stood some 20ft away from me the entire time until he was taken away, was immediately taken away to be searched and interrogated in a nearby room,” Haskell explained. “At this time, he was not handcuffed. When he emerged from the room, he was then handcuffed and taken away.”

Immediately after the questioning, Haskell said an FBI agent approached the remaining passengers and, referring to the man in orange, said, “You all are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. I am sure many of you saw what just happened and are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it out.”

(Story continues below)

// <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[//

In his interview with MLive.com, Haskell said the agent’s statement made him and other passengers believe an explosive may have been detected in the man’s luggage. A second passenger, Daniel Huisinga of Fairview, Tenn., who was returning from an internship in Kenya, confirmed the account.

Haskell said authorities marched the remaining passengers out of the baggage claim area and into a long hallway.

“This entire time period and until we left customs, no person that wasn’t a law enforcement personnel or a passenger on our flight was allowed anywhere on our floor of the terminal (or possibly the entire terminal),” he wrote. “The FBI was so concerned during this time that we were not allowed to use the bathroom unless we went alone with an FBI agent. We were not allowed to eat or drink, or text or call anyone.”

Haskell said ever since the landing the FBI had insisted only one man was arrested for the airliner attack.

“However, several of my fellow passengers have come over the past few days, backed up my claim, and put pressure on FBI/Customs to tell the truth,” he wrote.

Apparently, the pressure worked.

In Smith’s e-mail, which he also sent to the Haskells, he said he had just received information he did not have before and hoped “it will clear up the matter.”

As the couple reported, the second man was handcuffed and escorted to a room where he was interviewed and searched, confirmed Smith, but he was not arrested or detained because nothing was found.

“This information is consistent with eyewitness accounts,” Smith said.

Previously, Smith had said the Haskell’s account was not accurate and was a composite of two unrelated events that occurred with passengers from other flights at about the same time.

Smith had told the newspaper, “There was a second person taken into custody, but it had nothing to do with Flight 253. They did see dogs, but again, it was a totally different incident.”

But Haskell stood by his story, claiming officials were “playing the American public for a fool.” He said their explanation would require the public to believe the following:

  • FBI and Customs officials allowed passengers from a separate flight to co-mingle with the passengers of Flight 253 during a critical investigation. Haskell insists that no one – aside from law enforcement and Flight 253 passengers – was allowed in the area while they were being detained.
  • Despite prohibiting passengers from drinking, eating, making calls and using the restrooms, FBI and Customs officials allowed people from other flights to “trample through the area and possibly contaminate evidence.”
  • Haskell also added that no flights during that time allowed passengers to exit from the planes. The planes were held on the runway during the first hour of the detention period.
  • “You have to believe that the man that stood 20 feet from me since we entered customs came from a mysterious plane that never landed, let its passengers off the plane and let this man sneak into our passenger group despite having extremely tight security at this time,” he added.
  • He said the public would be required to believe FBI and Customs officials were “hauling mysterious passengers from other flights through the area we were being held to possibly contaminate evidence and allow discussions with suspects on Flight 253 or to possibly allow the exchange of bombs, weapons or other devices between the mysterious passengers from other flights and those on flight 253.”

“Seriously, Mr. Ron Smith, how stupid do you think the American public is?” he wrote.

Vindicated, Lori Haskell told the Detroit News Smith’s e-mail was a small victory for the couple, yet it angered them as well.

“I just want them to look into our claims,” Lori Haskell said. “Our story has been the same since Day One because we are telling the truth. This is the FBI’s fourth story.”

Yup! It’s Al-Qaeda

The Obama Files
It only took a week for the Obamamessiah to come to the conclusion most thinking Americans reached almost immediately.

Yesterday, between the movies and the shaved ice, Barack Obama said it appeared the man suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network, and ordered into air travel screening procedures and a “terrorist watch list system.”

He called for an immediate study of what he termed “human and systemic failures,” and repeated his warning that anyone involved in the Christmas Day attack would be held accountable — excepting only himself from repercussions.

Appearing on the defensive, Obama used much of his address to outline his administration’s actions to keep the country safe, including withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and strengthening ties with Yemen, where the suspect spent time before the attack.

“I’ve directed my counterterrorism and homeland security advisor at the White House, John Brennan, to lead these reviews going forward and to present the final results and recommendations to me in the days to come,” Obama said.

Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to ‘Homeland’

Newsweek

Mark Hosenball

President Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the U.S., NEWSWEEK has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by U.S. intelligence agencies, titled “Key Homeland Threats,” a senior U.S. official says.

The administration official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, says that nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen, whose affiliate of Al Qaeda is now believed to have been behind the Christmas Day attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a transatlantic airliner with a bomb hidden in his underpants. However, the official declined to disclose any other information about the substance of the briefing, including what kind of specific warnings, if any, the president was given about possible holiday attacks and whether Yemen came up during oral discussions.

According to the official, the holiday threat briefing—one in a series of regularly scheduled sessions with top counterterrorism officialswas held in the White House Situation Room on Dec. 22. Present were representatives of agencies involved in counterterrorism policy and operations, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The CIA and the national intelligence director’s office were represented by deputy agency heads: CIA deputy director Steven Kappes and David Gompert, the principal deputy to national intelligence czar Dennis Blair. Also present was Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a unit of the intelligence czar’s office that was created after 9/11 to ensure that intelligence reporting about possible terrorist plots was shared quickly among all U.S. agencies that might have some capability to do something about it.

The senior official says that beginning in early December, based on reports coming in from intelligence agencies, policymakers had begun tracking a stream of information that alluded to a possible holiday-period plot against the U.S. orchestrated from somewhere in Pakistan. However, the official says, this reporting later turned out to be “garbled,” and it was determined that the threat was probably a washout. The official denies that the White House received any report, representing the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies, warning that a holiday-period plot originating in Yemen and targeting the U.S. homeland could be in the works.

In a background briefing for reporters on Dec. 29, also attributed in an official White House transcript to a “senior administration official,” that official asserted that in the wake of the attempted underpants attack, it had become clear to the president and top advisers that before Christmas the U.S. government was in possession of “bits and pieces” of information, which, if they had been properly knitted together, “could have … allowed us to disrupt the attack or certainly to know much more about the alleged attacker in such a way as to ensure that he was on, as the president suggested in his statement, a no-fly list.” In the briefing, the official identified three rough categories of information that the government had which could have been relevant to foiling the attack: information about Abdulmutallab and his plans, about Al Qaeda and its plans, and about “potential attacks during the holiday period.”

Asked about what kind of intelligence reporting was circulated to senior officials about possible holiday-period attacks before the underpants incident, a U.S. intelligence official, who also asked for anonymity, explained: “As everybody knows, terrorists often speak in coded language, especially when they think their communications might be intercepted. There was no clear discussion of an attack, on Christmas or any other time, in the Middle East or anywhere else. But as veiled as the message was, it was spotted, processed, analyzed, and presented to senior policymakers as a warning sign—however vagueof a holiday attack. While this was handled properly, there were, to put it mildly, virtually no details at all. That happens.” When NEWSWEEK asked a senior administration official about this characterization of a warning that was passed to White House policymakers, and whether it tracked what was presented at the Dec. 22 presidential briefing, the official would not comment.

Presidential aides are concerned that Obama will somehow be unfairly accused of dropping the ball on the fight against terrorists in Yemena country where, in fact, the evidence suggests that Obama, as early as last summer, ordered a significant increase in U.S. intelligence activity. In the weeks before the Christmas incident, several U.S. officials have told NEWSWEEK, Obama authorized a major expansion in U.S. intelligence, military, and material support to Yemen’s governmentan escalation that some officials acknowledge could be characterized as a new covert war. But Obama’s public and private actions in expanding counterterrorism operations in Yemen may not help him avoid answering further questions about what intelligence agencies told himand didn’t tell himabout possible threats to the U.S. homeland in the days and weeks before the alleged underpants bomber boarded his Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.