Fox News is confirming reports that the CIA have been tracking The Crotch Bomber since August. August! Included in the below video is Charles Krauthammer on the Obama reaction, specifically today’s second attempt by Obama to appear “concerned”: (h/t MsUnderestimated)
WALLACE: …How did he do this time?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, this was an exercize in image repair. The President pretended that the reason he came out the day after his first address was because it was new information aside of the fact that the Nigerian attackers father had informed the embassy, of course that was known earlier in the week, and secondly he said whereas the information had left the US Embassy in Nigeria, arrived in Washington, it hadn’t been properly shared. But everyone knew that as well.
WALLACE: So why did he come out?
KRAUTHAMMER: Because there is outrage here, the incompetence of this administration, the fact that the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is clearly over her head, had gone out on Sunday and pretended that the system had succeeded and then had to walk it back and when the President had come out himself after waiting three days he appeared detached and cool and he spoke about this as a criminal act, speaking about the suspect, speaking about an alleged attempt, speaking about it as a isolated extremist, in fact we already knew about the connection in Yemen.
This is an attempt by the administration, by the President himself, over and over again, to disconnect these kinds of attacks.
From the war on terror, which he of course declared over at his inauguration, which unfortunately al-Qaeda has not, and as a result of that people ought to ask him do you still believe he is a isolated extremist, people ought to ask him…and today he repeated the word extremist over and over again…what kind of extremist is he? Is he a jihadist? And lastly people ought to ask him are you still intent on releasing the 80 Yemenis in Guantanamo?
Lieberman said Iraq is the war of yesterday, Afghanistan the war of today, and Yemen the war of tomorrow. It would be a lot easier to handle these 80 Yemenis in Guantanamo then in the wilds of Yemen which is where they are going to end up if released and plan more attacks on the United States.
And the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration:
“This (State Dept.) employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover “we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer.
~~~“…the State Department source says at that time Abdulmutallab was not on a watch list and traveled to Houston on that visa without incident. A year later, in May 2009, his application for a student visa to return to Britain was rejected because the college Abdulmutallab claimed he would attend was “bogus,” and that red flag was shared with U.S. State Department, Homeland Security Department, U.S. Justice Department, and almost certainly U.S. intelligence agencies.
“The State source says that several schools, particularly those with ties to the British Muslim community, have come under tighter scrutiny over the past five years, and when foreign nationals with Muslim backgrounds apply to those schools, it is red flag for British security offices.
“I’m not saying that this kind of screw up might not have happened in the Bush Administration,” the State source says, referring to the Christmas Day snafu. “I’m just saying that a number of us were encouraged to have a different mindset about such intel and such individuals, and today, we are encouraged not to have that same mindset.”
UPDATE
Some more information from CBS News:
CBS News has learned that as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed “The Nigerian,” suspected of meeting with “terrorist elements” in Yemen.
Sources tell CBS News “The Nigerian” has now turned out to be Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But that connection was not made when Abudulmutallab’s father went to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria three months later, on November 19, 2009. It was then he expressed deep concerns to a CIA officer about his son’s ties to extremists in Yemen, a hotbed of al Qaeda activity.
In fact, CBS News has learned this information was not connected until after the attempted Christmas Day bombing.
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