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14 Sep 2011 20:34

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World: Underwear bomber shouts “Osama’s Alive!” in courtroom

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 24, made the outburst while potential jurors were filling out questionnaires. Guess the trial on this one’s gonna be fairly painless. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 10:13

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Politics: TSA validates feeling up American citizens to stop evil terrorism

  • If we have an individual who opts out of the advanced imaging technology, let’s say Abdulmutallab … had opted out, thinking [he’s] not going to receive a thorough pat-down so [he could] get on that flight, and if that had been successful on Christmas Day, I think we might be having a different dialogue this afternoon and in the public.
  • Transportation Security Administration chief (a.k.a. busywork creator) John Pistole • Explaining the rationale for doing the thorough security checks. Now, mind you, underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was coming to the country from FREAKING NIGERIA AND AMSTERDAM and would not have been under the jurisdiction of the TSA until he got over American soil. So, again, why are TSA agents having to feel up regular people going on domestic flights? And how come the significant intelligence against Abdulmutallab didn’t stop him from getting on that plane? Intelligence almost nailed the guy. The TSA did nothing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:18

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World: Cargo plane bomb plot: Lots of packages under scrutiny

  • 24 more suspect packages currently getting analyzed in Yemen source
  • » About the suspects: Two Yemeni women, 22-year old Hanan al-Samawi and her 45-year-old mother, have reportedly been arrested for the incident. Also, bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, whose handiwork first came to everyone’s attention thanks to the Underwear Bomber, is also considered a suspect in the latest incident. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, planes from Yemen can’t directly enter the U.S. in the wake of the Underwear Bomber incident. Which is why the suspicious device was caught in London instead of Chicago.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2010 22:20

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U.S.: Pilot to TSA: I’m not getting in a full body scanner – and you suck

  • I just kind of had to ask myself ‘Where do I stand?’ I’m just not comfortable being physically manhandled by a federal security agent every time I go to work.
  • Expressjet Airlines pilot Michael Roberts • Explaining why he chose not to get in the full-body-scan machine on his way into work one day last week. This is kind of a bold stand to take, and it plays into the whole spiel that Gizmodo pushed around the time of the Underwear Bomber, which is that the Transportation Safety Administration offers the wrong kind of resources in the wrong place, and that stronger intelligence is better than forcing everyone to take off their shoes. Glad to see a pilot agrees. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2010 11:43

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U.S.: Why did the U.S. change its airline security standards, anyway?

  • Simple: Some of the countries being targeted complained. After December’s near-miss terror incident involving the underwear bomber, the U.S. put people fourteen nations on a heightened security checklist. Some of the countries, including Nigeria (where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came from) complained about the treatment because they were allies of the U.S. So the U.S. decided to switch to more general terrorist profiling techniques. Good idea, or too soft on terror? We’ll find out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2010 09:07

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U.S., World: The Underwear Bomber aided by his complicated name

  • The State Department had it misspelled. Oops. There were a lot of unconnected dots in the Detroit terror bombing, but one of the most egregious – in our opinion – was the fact that the State Department didn’t know Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab had a visa after doing a background check on the guy because his name was misspelled. We’re not geniuses here, but Islamic names tend to be somewhat hard to spell, so it would make sense that one plans for that. Instead, he almost blew up a plane. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jan 2010 10:50

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Politics: Top Obama adviser: Expect “a certain shock” from security report

  • We know what happened, we know what didn’t happen, and we know how to fix it. That should be an encouraging aspect. We don’t have to reinvent anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
  • National security adviser James Jones • Regarding the soon-to-be-released security report. The report, out today, will note that a lot of things were missed. And they need to fix them. “That’s two strikes,” said Jones, regarding the Fort Hood shooting and the Underwear Bomber. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

07 Jan 2010 08:47

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U.S.: Bad timing: Underwear bomber was to be questioned after flight

  • wha? In a classic case of timing gone bad, U.S. border officials planned to question the underwear bomber AFTER he landed in Detroit.
  • why? While Umar Abdulmutallab was up in the air, the officials caught his ties to Yemen. They missed the explosives in his undies. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jan 2010 20:21

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U.S.: Mwah mwah mwah: Obama admits his staff blew the terror attack

  • We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking with his staff today in the White House just before he made a speech on the Christmas terror attack – the one where he got the Underwear Bomber in his stocking. Obama pulled no punches and totally admitted it was a screw-up by his staff, one that they’re working on. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

02 Jan 2010 21:08

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Politics: Caving in to the TSA: Should bloggers fight to protect sources?

  • Anyone working with Frischling now knows that he’ll respect your confidentiality, just so long as it’s not inconvenient to his liberty. And that’s not respect at all. He let all bloggers down the other day when he willingly handed over his computer to the government.
  • TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington • Regarding travel blogger Steven Frischling, who caved to TSA investigators regarding documents that he released in the wake of the underwear bomber last week. Arrington feels that Frischling let down a lot of bloggers by not fighting the subpoena and instead caving in. The situation has been resolved, with the TSA dropping the subpoenas (fellow travel blogger Chris Elliot didn’t cave), but Arrington feels that bloggers need to fight to protect their sources in cases like this – and as a tech blog on the front line of situations like this (although not as life-or-death), he has some experience with this. We’re with him, but would like to point out that there’s not a lot of institutional support for many bloggers in the same way as traditional journalists. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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