It only took a public thrashing to get Obama and pals to figure out that hey, maybe we want to get this Christmas Day Bomber to cooperate after all:
The Nigerian man accused of trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day has been cooperating with investigators since last week, discussing his contacts in Yemen and providing intelligence in multiple terrorism investigations, officials said Tuesday.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s cooperation could prove to be a national security victory and a political vindication for President Barack Obama, who has been under fire from lawmakers who contend the administration botched the case by giving Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, rather than interrogating him as a military prisoner.
In the days following the failed bombing, a pair of FBI agents flew to Nigeria and persuaded Abdulmutallab’s family to help them. When the agents returned to the U.S., Abdulmutallab’s family came, too, according to a senior administration official briefed on the case. The family persuaded Abdulmutallab to work with the FBI, believing he would be treated fairly in U.S. courts, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Gotta agree with York on this one….a little too smooth:
The Washington Post, citing “Obama administration sources,” reports Abdulmutallab “has been providing FBI interrogators with useful intelligence about his training and contacts since last week.” The Politico quotes a “law enforcement source” saying Abdulmutallab has provided “useful, current intelligence.” And ABC News, citing a “senior administration official,” reports that the intelligence “has been disseminated throughout the intelligence community.”
The reports represent a striking turnaround in the administration’s position. Ever since the public learned that authorities had just 50 minutes to question Abdulmutallab before he was read his Miranda rights and refused to answer any further questions, the Obama administration has claimed that it had, during that brief interrogation, gotten all the information that was possible to be gained from Abdulmutallab. On Fox News Sunday January 24, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that “FBI interrogators believe they got valuable intelligence and were able to get all that they could out of him.” When host Chris Wallace asked, “All they could?” Gibbs answered, “Yeah.”
On January 31, top White House adviser David Axelrod told Meet the Press that Abdulmutallab “has given very valuable information to the government about activities in Yemen and some of his experiences there.” To emphasize the point, Axelrod said, “We have not lost anything as a result of how his case has been handled.”
So just a few days ago the Obama administration claimed that Abdulmutallab had given up everything he knows. Now, they claim he is giving them fresh, useful intelligence.
Recall that the father of Abdulmutallab tried to warn our country about his sons nefarious intentions, to no avail.
What are the odds we will see this kind of stuff often from the families of other terrorists? Do we not often see the families laud their child’s “heroic” actions? But hey, I’m sure we will be able to get those families to come to our rescue.
Not likely.
You know what else is not likely? That we get a incompetent terrorist in our hands again. Do you think KSM or the other smart, dedicated, terrorists will fold because mom and pop ask him to? No….the Christmas Day Bomber is obviously nothing but a foot soldier and the brains behind him are the one’s we need to capture and interrogate. Actionable intel has an expiration date. The kind of intelligence we needed from this guy, ie. locations of his bosses and handlers, locations of his training, and so on, should of been extracted within hours of his capture. Now, his handlers, his recruiters, his training facilities are all gone because they know he is in our hands.
This is all cya for an Administration that is so inept it is dangerous.

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Seems like a very convenient story. Typical of this administration.
Covenient …. and it is probably going to cost us a fortune. I wonder how rich the feds made his family?
Lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie. So, Simon & Garfunkel work for the White House, now?
Not to mention that now this information is two months old. I am pretty sure the terrorist cell he was part of is not still waiting around for people to stop by for a visit.
So let me get this straight. After he was read his Maranda rights and layered up, he and his lawyer decided that it was in his best interest to tell all. Yep as Jannet would say “the system worked”. Ya gotta love Gibbsey.
Note this: “The family persuaded Abdulmutallab to work with the FBI, believing he would be treated fairly in U.S. courts.”
U.S. courts? An obvious dig at the designation of his loon as an enemy combatant.
There is a further question as to what kind of plea deal they might be offering him to talk.
But the bottom line is that we get the intelligence right?
Well, most of what he says now, A MONTH AFTER THE ATTACK, is now worthless. The plotters who sent this nut to do his job never expected him to live. And had we been able to question him more thoroughly immediately after the fact what he told us might have led us directly to the plotters who have now had plenty of time to cover their tracks.
This news is nothing more than an Obama damage control operation. What a shame they don’t spend as much time working on national security than they do spinning their failures.
The administration must have another definition for useless.
There is a reason for the term “actionable” intelligence. It simply means that intelligence provides swift, and immediate, action. Once this clown was in custody, his handlers moved their locations at the speed of light.
Now this brings other questions; who thought of bringing his “family” (meaning more than one member) here? When were they brought here? How long are they staying? “In the days following the failed bombing, a pair of FBI agents flew to Nigeria”? How many “days”? Two, ten, twenty-one?
This was a botched mess on the part of Obama/Holder since day one. Why was it deemed not important enough that Obama was not notified of the bomber for three hours and then, still chose to remain on the golf course? Some guy tries to blow up 300 people on a plane over Detroit and the 14th hole is more important?
This sounds like a spin to me. Was Janet Napolitano notified of bringing the family here? Leon Panetta? Or was that a club secret between Holder, Obama and a couple of FBI agents?
Here is the problem as I see it: our national security is now being handled by an Attorney General whose sole purpose is to prosecute terrorists, not mandate policy. And it doesn’t help that Holder has loaded the DoJ with fellow terrorist sympathizers who thinks that the previous administrations policy on terrorist attacks was wrong, or that Holder’s own law firm, Burling and Covington, represented many, MANY of the Gitmo detainees WHILE HOLDER WAS AT THE LAW FIRM.
Here is the new campaign question for any Republican that opposes Obama in ’12 “Do you feel safer now than you did four years ago?”
One major problem with this turn around is that critical moments in intelligence gathering were lost when Abdulmutallab clammed up after only 50 minutes of interrogation. Once his al Qaeda cohorts realized he was captured alive and not martyred, they are racing against the clock to cover up email traces, purging phone numbers, and alerting operatives/associates who might have been in danger of being apprehended.
One of the last high-value detainees we had been interrogating (back when enhanced interrogation was allowed) was held for 3 months before al Qaeda finally learned of his capture and interrogation. Because they were unaware, during this period, they continued on with operational plans they deemed secure. And the information we were able to get from the 3-month luxury did foil plots.
In August of 2009, the Obama administration shut down our ability to detain high-value captures in secrecy, forcing us to report within 2 weeks to the International Red Cross the identity of who we capture. Before, our CIA and military could file one-week extensions to the Secretary of Defense that the detainee’s identity not yet be revealed, so long as the detainee was still ripe with intell information.
On a related note:
So the White House feeds this nonsense to the MSM, which obligingly broadcasts it as fact. I wonder how Hussein and MSNBC will convince the American people that the upcoming 9/11 II will be Bushs’ fault?
@OLDPUPPYMAX — ‘They’ will find a way. . .NoBama should just start abbreviating Blame It On Bush — BIOB.
I think I even saw John McCain uttering this acronym to a colleague at the recent SOTUS. . after NoBama spewed yet another BIOB declaration.
Sorry for all the C&P, this is a good article from amazingly, CBS. Now we are witnessing “damge control.”
The Holder/Obama decision to mirandize the terrorist was wrong and in his five pages of single spaced letter, he’s basically attempting to profess, IMHO, ignorance of the law regarding combatant terrorists. Man up, or should I say “Cheney-up?” There are animals out there trying to kill us.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/03/crossroads/entry6170994.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines
Reid was arrested three months after 911, prior to all the years of court rulings, he also pled guilty sparing us the spectacle of trying him in Federal Court, nothing like the current case. Obama and Holder blew it and now they are trying to redirect attention hoping the “American people” will swallow the “he’s talking” story instead of the wasting 6 weeks letting actionable intelligence rot on the vine story.
Vice President Cheney undersood the first few days after capture of a terrorist… get information quickly, keep the terrorist isolated and alone, make it clear the terrorist is in no position to negotiate.
“Team Obama’s policy in dealing with terrorists is to read them their Miranda Rights, give them a lawyer and when they cry for their Mommy rush off and negotiate with and bring their family over.
What could go wrong ?
When Richard Reed was arrested, there was NO Guantanamo. This makes this issue ‘moot’.
Just like the second post today, no lobbyists in this administration. Right….
These guys lie and lie and lie and wonder why Scott Brown was elected. Keep talking
bitch………..
Now if we can get Bin Ladens Mom and Dad to smack him around a little bit and get him straightened out, all our problems will be solved.
Thomas Joscelyn included a portion of Holder’s letter in a post he did at Weekly Standard. It’s odd that Holder includes this statement because those on the Senate committee investigating this have been told by Dennis Blair, Janet Napalitano and Brennen, in their testimony, that they were not informed of Holder’s decision to mirandize the terrorist. Either the heads of our Homeland Security and intel departments are irrelevant or someone is lying?
This quote/admission is from the letter written by Eric Holder:
Joscelyn writes:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/holder-admits-he-made-decision-charge-abdulmutallab-criminal-defendent
@Missy: Thanks for that link to the Weekly Standard which also had a link to Holder’s letter in PDF. At least Holder finally responded to Sen. Mitch McConnell even though the response was filled with the typical excuses and phony justifications.
Holder also admits using plea bargaining (with a terrorist who willingly would have sacrificed his won life in the attack) as a “lever” to get him to cooperate. How stupid is that?
He totally ducks the issue of lost opportunity to gain time sensitive actionable intelligence.
Holder closed with this:
“The criminal justice system has proven to be one of the most effective weapons available to our government for both incapacitating terrorists and collecting intelligence from them.”
Is there a better example of how the Obama Administration treats this war as a criminal matter? It’s such a glaring September 10th mindset!
P.S. I love your “C&P” additions to these threads. Don’t ever stop!
@Missy and @Mike’s America: here’s the link to Holder’s five page letter/response to Mitch McConnell and other GOP Congress members, demanding an explanation of the choice to Mirandize and prosecute the underwear bomber in US federal courts.
Holder specifically notes that discussions with Obama, face to face, were held:
Interesting that Napoplitano, Blair and Brennen claim ignorance. Are they not considered “…other senior members of his national security team”?
Obama, himself, cannot escape his culpability… condemned by Holder’s own documentation of discussions on a specific date.
The intra-departmental communication deficiencies led to the fiasco of the underwear bomber… redeemed and rendered impotent by both inept terrorist bomb making skills and an alert citizenry. What is also obvious is that the WH national security appointees do not retain their lessons well, since their communications did not improve in the weeks following (INRE who knew what about interrogation, mirandizing and prosecution via law of war).
It’s truly a fine line for the venue for justice since those arrested on US soil traditionally are afforded trials in our courts. Our current laws are not set up to accommodate for dealing with non-State affiliated enemy combatants who have declared war on the US. This was the reason for the DTA/MCA combo. However SCOTUS has rendered portions of that legislation vague. Instead of clarification, it becomes even more difficult to determine what can, and cannot be done.
It may be that particular crimes of war, involving jihad or any other upstart that decides to declare war on the US in the future, should be exempted from automatic federal trials. The nature of acts of war differs so completely from normal criminal activity (i.e. murders, financial crimes, etc). This, however, proves difficult for an administration that tends to view the attempt by a jihad activist to blow an airliner out of the sky as attempted mass murder, and not an act of war.
This makes motivation the prime reason for choosing a venue for justice. ala differentiating between some wacko nutjob who just wants 15 minutes of infamy for heinous acts (VA Tech shooter, i.e.), and one who is committing the act in the name of jihad. (Ft. Hood shooter, i.e.) Both committed mass murders, but with very different motivation. One was a crime, and the other an act of war, aiding quasi-organized enemy combatant groups outside the country.
Therefore establishing the motivation prior to choosing a venue seems appropriate. This would involve interrogations prior to mirandizing. However then the problem arises that, if the motivation were not deemed an act of war, there is danger of inadmissible evidence during the trial, obtained pre’Miranda.
does anyone know about that man who jump on the terrorist and by his action prevented all the people to explode with the plane?if i would be in the plane i realy would like to know that hero and i would demand that the company gives him free pass in his future travel ,thank you