POLITICAL INCOMPETENCE ON NATIONAL SECURITY
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5442/pub_detail.asp
Exclusive: Political Incompetence on National Security
Tim Wilson
The case of the Panty Bomber has come back into the spotlight with the White House trumpeting details of his recent cooperation thanks to the FBI bringing family members over from Nigeria. The spotlight shows up the incompetence, ignorance and/or stupidity of those concerned in the upper decision making processes and of those supporting this administration over the systemic “failures†following the detention of Umar Abdulmutallab.
With politics once again interfering in a National Security issue, there has been a great deal of comment from a range of officials and politicians. Some of it has been on point but most of it has been confusing and misleading, designed to obfuscate the plain, simple facts in order to hide the simple truths of the c**k-up made by Attorney General Holder in a blatant case of political one-upmanship (in ignoring the lessons and policies of the Bush administration).
The plain, simple facts are these: when Richard Reid made his failed attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft with all its passengers and crew using his “shoe†bomb, our government did not know how best to handle the situation and made numerous mistakes. But in the light of his case, a system was set up to deal with any repetitions. Reid had valuable intelligence on those he met, trained with, was indoctrinated by and who supplied him with his bomb, his tickets, his cover story and his plan. That information was not acquired in a timely manner, as a result of which opportunities to damage the enemy were lost.
With no system in place, Reid was dealt with through the civil court system. On review of his case and the way it was handled, policies were put in place to better protect this country by use of a military system. Those policies and that system was not used for Abdulmutallab because Attorney General Holder thinks he knows better than anyone who worked under the Bush administration and believes that the civilian system is capable of defending this country, even against terrorists.
Any attempt to hijack and/or destroy a commercial aircraft should be viewed as an attempted terrorist attack until proven differently. Should the attacker be captured, as Abdulmutallab was, they should be rapidly and rigorously interrogated for as long as necessary to find out every detail of all knowledge they might have of those involved in their own attack and of any potential future attacks. In such cases, timeliness is one of the vital issues. Imagine if, in a replay of 9/11, there had been more than one attack in progress over these last Christmas holidays but they were not detected until too late because the captured terrorist was Mirandized.
There is no way that any responsible security specialist or intelligence expert would agree that 50 minutes was adequate for a full interrogation. That was not even time to get the details of his travel, never mind all of his contacts, his training and related knowledge of interest. It certainly gave no opportunity to check what details he might have given by revisiting them with him at a later time, so it removed one of the basic fact check techniques of any interrogation.
It was also obvious that, at best interpretation, we now have a system which does not treat such attacks as terrorism until proven to be so, in other words much after the event. This alone is a massive systemic failing making us all more vulnerable, especially to those of our enemies who studied the White House and security agency reactions immediately post-Christmas. This was, we now know, an al Qaeda-linked terror attack, but for three days the President continued with his holiday. Instead of assuming the worst, he hoped for the best, and was undoubtedly deeply disappointed when his judgment was shown to be wrong. Let us all hope he reacts with greater urgency and accuracy when the next attack occurs! Where National Security is concerned over-reaction is best (send the Marines, mobilize the Army, send up the Air Force, etc), under-reaction is okay (assess the situation, get details from the experts, consider the options, etc) but non-reaction is unacceptable, even if it is during the Christmas holiday with the family!
Having failed to ensure the rapid acquisition of actionable intelligence, allowing over a month for the enemy to move, hide and regroup, political and public pressure began to mount on Attorney General Holder, thanks to the two edged sword of Washington politics where nothing stays secret, especially when all the indicators are that a mistake has been made. Similar pressure was also put on the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, to show that the FBI could produce results when handling a terrorist. It is noteworthy that the government agencies, including the FBI, now refer to Abdulmutallab as the “alleged†terrorist – as if there is any doubt that he set off a bomb in his underpants? Lawyers can really mess up common sense – part of the Washington problem, and part of the administration’s problem!
As a result of that pressure, FBI Director Mueller told a Congressional panel last week, in public, that the FBI is now getting more information from Abdulmutallab. But this garnered little attention (Congressional hearings are usually tedious and not often regarded as newsworthy by the MSM) so, in order to raise support for Attorney General Holder, the White House jumped to give out more details of how the FBI has cleverly brought over the Panty Bomber’s family to persuade him to cooperate. Once again, politics interferes with National Security.
So now President Obama’s team has managed to announce publicly to al Qaeda that the guy they thought had refused to talk is now cooperating thanks to family pressure. All the initiative is with the enemy at this point. They can check to make sure their immediate precautions were adequate. They can check that any trails they might have left over the last five weeks have been covered. They can even make moves to threaten Abdulmutallab’s family to ensure his further silence. This administration has managed to reinforce failure. President Obama’s team may believe in giving a guy a second chance but when dealing with terrorists, especially those in any way connected to al Qaeda, there must be no second chances, just swift and effective retribution.
For those making excuses for the administration, the Attorney General or for anyone involved in our National Security who thinks this is all just “one of those things†and a “fuss about nothing†– especially those in Congress – WAKE UP! The buck rests firmly with our elected representatives, led by the White House appointed officials. Stop paying lip-service to our safety and commit fully to your primary mission: uphold your oaths of office, as stated in the opening sentence of the Constitution, and provide for the common defense. If ever there was a matter which bears no relation to party politics, this is it. Stop trying to politicize national security, admit your mistakes and provide a working system which will protect us all.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Tim Wilson is a retired British Army officer who now works as an independent consultant.
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