Obama “Cleared the Decks” for the Preliminary Terror Reports

Mr. Obama is too much of a showman. I’d rather have a President who actually works than appears to be working hard.

This is the competent way to handle these things. Very refreshing after the Bush administration’s inability to accept failure (9/11, Richard Reid, etc.) The president is doing a remarkable job in the face of partisan attacks.
http://www.political-buzz.com/

Obama wants to be President but he doesn’t want to work at it.
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Nonsense.

Frankly, we ALL should take Obama’s example. Seriously. The so-called “threat” of Islamic radicals, while real, is really not that much of a threat. There is more danger in your home bathtub, stairs, or car for danger. That is not to say that we shouldn’t hunt down and eliminate these threats but not go crazy over it. That is the INTENTION of terrorism. To force people to change their ways, living, methods, etc. And, as a side note, it is better that socialist types vacation than make or enforce policy!

funny, how President Obama is supposedly guilty of a security breach by the Dutch, and Nigerian air security, and some low level embassy employee who grants/denies visa’s. Oh well, here is an idea, put body scanners in every airport and give the passengers a choice, hmm, wonder what they will pick. that will calm the neo-cons since it will give them their security concerns, and it will placate the left, as it will give consumers choice.

I’d just like to wish Happy New Year to everyone I used to read, converse with and sometimes argue with here.
Have a happy and healthy 2010!

The Intern-in-Chief? The Professor-in-Chief? He can continue to ask Socratic questions to his own heart’s content.
Unfortunately for all of us, neither the creators of “man-caused disasters” nor other world politicians are willing to play the game and, well, suck up for a B+ as did his law students.

The nation now knows, of course, that this poor man is not up to the job. What further harm will he do in 2010 by his ineptitude?
We all shudder to think of it. All, that is, except poor Tierra, whose entire life seems to be devoted to posting increasingly incomprehensible defenses of this indefensible admnistration. Let us all hope that in the New Year she gets an actual life.
Obama has doomed us all.

“In coming days we will review what information was available to whom, determine what mistakes were made in assessing or sharing that information . . . (and) close the gaps that these attacks exposed.”
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Exactly as it should be done.

(one more time to cover all the bases)
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During the campaign then Senator Obama was basically nonchalant about the depth of the difficulties in the War of Terror. I can’t remember anything he said per say, only his attitude was that once we had a decent (and, obviously Obama) foreign policy in place that the world would be a lot less angry and this included radical Muslims.
Even though McCain had a hard time communicating it to the Senator and the rest of us he kept trying to say to this young Senator that he needed to get his head out of the clouds, this is a dirty business and the guys at the other end of the barrel are dead serious.
Turns out that keeping America safe is a tough job, Mr. President. Just when you think you have convinced the world that there is a new Sheriff in town and that times have changed some lunatic infiltrates the system and darn near takes out 300 people.
Didn’t he get the memo?
Its a tough job and you are going to get your hands dirty. These people hate us because we offend them – not necessarily because we did anything even though we do things that offend them regularly but because we are infidels and non believers. They hate us categorically and unless you have plans of having the entire country convert to Islam they are always going to hate us.
So all your plans on delivering a new and improved US foreign relations translates into sugar coating more of the same. In fact, they view it as a chink in the armor to be seized and exploited. They view us as weak and undisciplined and the sooner we are wiped off the face of the earth the better. They are convinced this is the Will of God and are ready to sacrifice their own lives to do their part.
Turns out that kindness is weakness Mr. President.
It seems you are starting to get that this is real and they are serious and you just might have to get down and dirty to keep them from fulfilling their vision. The good news is that you finally appear to be showing up for the job; the bad news is that we are all nervous that you took your eye off the ball and that you may not be able to catch up.

This is taking so long because they have not quite figured out how to blame this on the Bush administration.

So, Barky is going to put on a little performance on Tuesday, huh?
Just let them do their jobs…and you can go back to pretending you’re doing yours, Barky.
Barky said he wasn’t going to rest until all those involved in the Flight 253 plot were held accountable…then he played 18 holes of golf. The next day he went to the beach..and later went to see a movie..
Uh, Barky?? People laughed at OJ when he made a similar promise. The reason we’re not laughing is that this might be just a tad more serious

The only 3 am phone calls he takes are for early tee times.

“The only 3 am phone calls he takes are for early tee times.”
LOL!
It’s interesting that Obama takes the high-ground position of closing Gitmo in order to “restore our moral values” yet has no problem with releasing prisoners to Yemen and targeting them with smart bombs.
Another day, more lies, more hypocrisy.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Hillary was critical of Candidate Obama for his lack of experience and that this was a job that didn’t have room for on the job training. The old 3 am call business was her campaign slogan
His own guys are telling us that he has been in a training session: “He’s continuing to learn new things … and is continuing to ask a lot of probing questions.”
Doesn’t this flagrant admission that the Boss doesn’t have the experience bother anyone in the MSM? It’s bugging me to no end. I hate to be picky here but shouldn’t he have learned all these new things before he ran for President in the first place (to Hillary’s point) or, at minimum, after he got on the job and started shaping policy.
I’m glad for him to expand his understanding as time goes on but having a clear understanding of the problems strikes me as Commander-In-Chief 101.

Another crisis not be wasted!
Obama is no doubt busy working with Rahm Emanuel to create another huge tax and spend bill to “deal” with this crisis by controlling the weather or something similar. It will have to passed “immediately” or the world will end. Too bad whatever he does won’t address the problem.
We’re all screwed when the President of the United States keeps referring to all these connected jihadists as “isolated extremists.”

“…and darn near takes out 300 people.”
Lone Star Rules, while I agree with most of your comment you really miss the boat with that phrase! If the terrorist’s plan had been for just the 289 on board the plan to die he would have tried to set off the bomb over the Atlantic. The real objective was to cause as much death and destruction to the city of Detroit.

If our safety is Obama’s first priority he should have immediately changed the Bush policies that were in place.
Not wait a year, and three terrorist attacks before deciding the policies needed to be updated. And of course conveniently blaming Bush.
Three attacks: Recruiter killed in Arkansas, Ft Hood, Detroit bomber.

Let’s look at the Republican record. Bush received warnings that al Qaeda was going to attack in August of 2001, but he was on vacation and couldn’t be disturbed. Before the shoe bomber attack on December 21, 2001, al Qaeda detainees in Gitmo had already chattered about Richard Reid’s shoe bomb attack, but nothing was done. Bush waited 6 days to make any kind of response. Furthermore, the Republicans let Osama bin Laden escape at Tora Bora because they were too busy trying to fight a war in Iraq – which had nothing to do with 9/11. The people who trained the underwear bomber were released from Gitmo in 2007, when Republicans were in charge.
Furthermore, the GOP has been blocking funds for Homeland security. (See Huffington post, December 31.) And during the 2008 campaign, I clearly remember GOP pundits talking about the way a terrorist attack would enhance McCain’s chances of winning the election.
By contrast, Obama started monitoring the terrorist situation right after it happened. He not only responded faster than Bush did, but he also got a preliminary report in much less time than the 6 days it took Bush to respond.
You might want to check out a report by Steve Benen in the Huffington Post, on December 31. You’d the find out that under the Obama administration, we got rid of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, ringleader of an al Qaeda cell in Kenya, “one of most wanted Islamic militants in Africa.” US forces, under Obama’s command killed Baitullah Mehsud, the terrorist leader of Taliban movement in Pakistan. The Obama administration arrested suspected terrorist Jaibulla Zazi, Talib Islam and Hosam Maher Husein Smadi before they could launch planned terrorist attacks. Unlike the GOP, Obama does not brag about his successes. Considering the number of times the GOP told us that al Qaeda was finished, Obama is a welcome relief.
Truth told the GOP finds nothing wrong with terrorist attacks if they can use these terrorist attacks to their political advantage. 9/11 became an excuse for invading Iraq – something that the GOP wanted to do long before 9/11 occurred. The Obama Administration is pursuing a more mature approach to fighting terrorism, and judging from all the hysterical blogs I’ve read before posting these comments, maturity is something we definitely need.

“Bush received warnings that al Qaeda was going to attack in August of 2001, but he was on vacation and couldn’t be disturbed.”
Have you read that Presidential Daily Briefing? Google it! There was no such warning!
Now as for presidential vacations, President Obama receives his daily briefings and is in constant contact with advisors and spends a good portion of his day in meetings while he is in Hawaii, JUST LIKE President Bush DID while in Crawford, TX.

You can also search using the title “Bin Laden determined to strike in US”
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It’s interesting that even after that alert – and within it the mention of the use of aircraft in such an attack – both the CIA and the FBI know an Islamic extremist has been taking ‘ad hoc’ lessons on how to fly a 746 – and yet it’s not reported to the President (or so they say).
Great care being taken with the security of AMericans?
What results? 9/11 is what results.

Fascist Hyena writes:
“The nation now knows, of course, that this poor man is not up to the job. What further harm will he do in 2010 by his ineptitude?
We all shudder to think of it. All, that is, except poor Tierra, whose entire life seems to be devoted to posting increasingly incomprehensible defenses of this indefensible admnistration. Let us all hope that in the New Year she gets an actual life.
Obama has doomed us all.”
Fascist Hyena,
Your statements are mere opinions, nothing more.
I’d also like to remind you that there is a great deal of dignity in treating all others here with common decency.
May you realize that within yourself some day.

Posted by: James Danley
there were plans to invade Iraq by the ‘neo-cons’ long before 9/11
re: Fascist Hyena writes:
“The nation now knows, of course, that this poor man is not up to the job. What further harm will he do in 2010 by his ineptitude?
without a Rassmussen Poll, our friend Hyena is a little lost, personal opinion from the ‘right’ qualifies as a declaration of ‘the nation’s feelings..

Posted by: James Danley
there were plans to invade Iraq by the ‘neo-cons’ long before 9/11
Posted by: XX | Jan 1, 2010 5:10:02 PM
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And in the same document where they plot to attack Iraq, they express there might have to be an event on the order of Pearl Harbor in order to turn public opinion to support such an attack. All this pre- 9/11.

“9/11 became an excuse for invading Iraq…”
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Saddam Huessain had violated 17 UN resolutions about inspections for WMDs. The was obligated to adhere to those resolutions because, as it turns out, he got his butt kicked in the first Gulf War. He was on a kind of probation for having taken over the country of Kuwait. He surrendered. He was on house arrest.
He wasn’t holding up to his end of the agreement.He didn’t hold up to his end of the agreement 17 times in a row.
So, if you are the President of the United States (gawd forbid) and after years of threatening and chatter about how these guys are going to make American pay they actually pull it off – so what would you do?
Here is this lunatic Saddam running around the middle east doing everything he can to tell the US and the UN to shove it. The UN issues another resolution and Saddam tells them to scre*w themselves – again. And he does this 17 times in a row. And he is acting like he has MWD at every turn in the road. The world wide intelligence community agrees that he is in pursuit of WMDs and might just have them. As importantly, there is absolutely no question he is inclined to use them (he has used them before on his own people). He may be secular and have all kinds of disagreements with other Arab nations but they all agree with one thing: they all hate Americans.
So if you want to tag 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq then it appears you may have missed a few things along the way. Was Bush trigger happy? Absolutely. Did he pull the trigger in Iraq too soon? Yeah, maybe he did. Did he have an end game? Maybe not. Did he find a cache of WMDs? Not anything like he thought he would. Does it matter? Not as far as I am concerned – he sat on the side of the desk that made him responsible for the lives of over 300 Million people. He had a lunatic that was running around acting like he was on the threshold of obtaining WMDs in a lot of varieties and every single intelligence source that had credibility said Saddam was ready to go. He may have screwed up the whole iraqi war – I don’t care. I care that we lost American lives and even Iraqi lives – it is a terrible thing and I wish it never happened – but, what Bush did, the sacrifices those soldiers made were for the safety of Americans.
It has been my experience that the difference between the left and the right comes down to whether Bush lied. The left ends their chatter with “no question, he is a liar pure and simple.” Guys like me don’t think he did. Did he sell it? That’s what President’s do. Did he push it? Probably. Did he flat out lie? Not a chance. Was 9-11 an excuse to invade Iraq (to pay homage to his father or some darn thing)? It laid the groundwork but it was a separate decision.
Bottom line: 9-11 was a game changer and I am glad we had a President that showed up and took care of business. I disagree with Mr. Bush on a lot of things but his decision to go to Iraq is not among them.

Exactly – James Danley.
I couldn’t have said it better myself (LOL – he smoked me).

Mr. Obama and his disciples have never believed in the War on Terror-his whole campaign was based on the perception that fighting terrorism was a legal affair;not the life-and-death struggle against a foe that has no reluctance to kill men,women and children to advance its feudal,fascistic goals.How soon we forget-I used to drive past the Pentagon and see the carnage that was followed by the recovery.Now you can’t see any evidence from Jefferson Davis Highway of the attack of 9/11.I fear that the policies of Barack Obama will lead to a repeat of that attack; even now he cannot do the most simple things to demonstrate some concern,such as firing Napolitano or withdrawing his TSA nominee who today was revealed to be seriously flawed and guilty of lying to Congress.

Do you feel safer now with Obama than you did with Bush? How many successful attacks on the homeland occured after 2003?How many have occured since January 20,2009?Why didn’t Obama even bother to nominate ANYBODY to head TSA until 8 months into his Presidency?How many mid-level positions in DHS and TSA are still unfilled?These are simple questions-why hasn’t Obama nominated people for those positions?

Fort Hood shootings happened by an officer who was promoted even though there were reports in his file that should have stopped those promotions during the Cheney Bush years.
Yep, the soldier became an officer during the Bush years even though there were warnings of his anti American, pro-islamic terrorist views.
Cheney and Bush blew that one.

It was also reported that One of the planners of the Failed Christmas attack back before 2007 was in a Rehab for terrorism, which Cheney and Bush had at the Guatanimo Prison before they released him in 2007.
But Cheney and Bush both stated on TV in 2007 that of the Detanees they were releasing at that time – That None of those Detanees were terrorists.
Now that statement that Bush and Cheney made was proven to be a lie.
And yes, they blew it with that one also.

It is now being reported that the suicide Afghan bomber who killed the CIA agents was a contractor informant who had worked with our military during the Bush and cheney years.
In other words, he had already gained the trust of our soldiers and others whom he worked with prior to this year.
Why didn’t the Bush and cheney Republican Administration have stricker requirements prior to that guys suicide attack?
Since he worked with our people already during the Bush years, it never dawned on them to suspect anything.
But then since it was easy for the Fort Hood soldier to be promoted during the Bush Years even though there were reports in his file for anti American and pro terrorism views, then just how much easier is it for someone like the Afghan suicide bomber to slip through.

“Had we not invaded Iraq, we would never have known that he no longer had WMDs. And we now know that he had 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium–”
That’s an extremely expensive method of intelligence gathering James. I don’t think Americans are going to stand for anymore ‘proactive’ efforts against terrorism like that. But I don’t get the part about the yellowcake: If 550 tons was all he had why did he ship it all to Canada as you posted earlier? How can he make weapons out of it if it’s all in Canada? Obviously you’re not suggesting Canada was going to help him build a bomb.

Posted by: James Danley
there were plans to invade Iraq by the ‘neo-cons’ long before 9/11
Posted by: XX | Jan 1, 2010 5:10:02 PM
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And in the same document where they plot to attack Iraq, they express there might have to be an event on the order of Pearl Harbor in order to turn public opinion to support such an attack. All this pre- 9/11.

All these comments regarding what Bush knew, etc. are interesting, but kind of beside the point. The failure that led to 9/11 was bipartisan. The lesson is that the fevered anti-communist imagination is more dangerous to US security. That, and don’t give money to religious fundamentalists just because they happen to be on your side at the moment.

As for the Downing Street Memo…
(1) This was written on July 23, 2002. You can read the memo on the Internet. It DOES NOT mention anything about a Pearl Harbor like event that might be needed for the public to support an attack of Iraq.
(2) The Bush Administration had been working for months to convince the UN Security Council to take a firmer stance towards Saddam Hussein and issue a final ultimatum. The Bush Administration knew that it could not threaten force if it wasn’t prepared to use force. So obviously they planned the attack before the ulimatum was to be issued. The hope was that Saddam Hussein would finally comply with the conditions of the 1991 cease fire and force would not be necessary.
(3) On Nov 8, 2002 the UN Security Council passed the UN Security Resolution 1441– Offering Iraq a “final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations.” Unfortunately over the course of the next few months it became obvious that the UN Security Council had no intentions of following through on this final ultimatum.
(4) So Bush issued his own threat–knowing that he was not bluffing. Unfortunately France, Germany and Russia convinced Saddam Hussein that the United States would not invade. So Saddam Hussein refused to comply and Bush followed through on his threat.
I would be surprised if the Pentagon didn’t already have detailed plans should war with Iran, North Korea or China ever breakout.

“That ‘yellow cake’ was known by the Americans since the FIRST gulf war.”
Tierra, thanks for the clarification. At least you recognize that Saddam Hussein wasn’t just stockpiling daisies!
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The yellow cake was secured by Americans in 1991, was being monitored and was in compliance with agreements put in place with the knowledge and consent of the American government.

Posted by: James Danley | Jan 1, 2010 10:41:32 PM
You can justify the Iraq war till the cows come home but Americans aren’t going to tolerate another, at least till the next generation comes along that fails to heed the lessons of history.

Posted by: Skip | Jan 1, 2010 11:04:58 PM
The thing I find really creepy is that (from what I have read) on the day the London subways were attacked by terrorists, there was a ‘training exercise’ going on about the London subways being attacked.
And on the day the 9/11 hijackers struck, there was a “trainging exercise” (OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN) going on about highjackers striking in the Northeastern U.S.

“…maybe you can find James a specific example of a warning the Bush administration received before 9/11…”
So you admit that you accused President Bush of not reacting to intelligence warnings prior to 9/11 yet you aren’t aware of any such intelligence warnings. Interesting!
Now then, yes there were thousands of generic warnings or tips from all over the world. Most had no, or little, specifics and as such never rose to the level of being passed on to the White House. The August 6, 2001 PDB indicated that the FBI was “conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughtout the U. S. that it (the FBI) considers bin Laden-related.” AND that the FBI and CIA were independently investigating a call to the U. S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates “saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U. S. planning attacks with explosives.” This was not ignored. And the Bush Administration didn’t just sit idly by. They were trying to determine the validity of that tip as well as trying to obtain more specific details. That is the purpose of the Presidential Daily Briefings.

Or how about….
May 16, 2002WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush’s daily intelligence briefings in the weeks leading up to the September 11 terror attacks included a warning of the possibility that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network would attempt to hijack a U.S.-based airliner, senior administration officials said Wednesday.

“President Bush’s daily intelligence briefings in the weeks leading up to the September 11 terror attacks included a warning of the possibility that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network would attempt to hijack a U.S.-based airliner, senior administration officials said Wednesday.”
THAT was mentioned in the August 6, 2001 PDB: “We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [redacted] service in 1998 saying that bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to secure the release of ‘Blind Sheikh’ Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists..”

I’m satisfied the statement that “There were never any specific credible warnings” is purely a matter of opinion and a biased one at that. It’s my opinion that if Al Gore had been declared the winner of the election he and his people would have taken these warnings seriously and 9/11 would have been thwarted.

If President Clinton had taken the 1993 World Trade Center bombing more seriously–as an act of war instead of a criminal act–9/11 might have been prevented. In fact, the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 might have also been averted!

He cleared the “decks”? Obama and congress should have cleared their calenders and gotten to work pronto. Does Obama believe that AQ will wait until after his vacation is over before they make another terrorist attempt on the US? Will AQ wait until after Jan 21st? No, they will not! Each day that our president and congress dilly dally around they are putting our lives in danger.

Instead Napolitano et al. are focusing on labeling terrorists as military veterans, pro-life supporters, and NRA members.
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Squawk! Squawk! The right wing parrots have their line.

Instead Napolitano et al. are focusing on labeling terrorists as military veterans, pro-life supporters, and NRA members.
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Squawk! Squawk! The right wing parrots have their line.
Squawk along . . . . Nephron.