WH official leading watchlist review had watchlist responsibilities, contracts

The White House is standing by Obama's pick to conduct his watchlist review, White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan, though he served as interim director of one intel agency under review, and more recently, served as president and CEO of a company on contract with the NCTC to do watchlisting, POLITICO's Carol E. Lee and I report in a story today:

President Barack Obama promised a “thorough review” of the government’s terrorist watch-list system after a Nigerian man reported to US government officials by his father to have radicalized and gone missing last month was allowed to board a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit that he later tried to blow up without any additional security screening.

  Yet the individual Obama has chosen to lead the review, White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan, served for 25 years in the CIA, helped design the current watch-list system and served as interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center, whose role is under review.

  In the three years before joining the Obama administration, Brennan was president and CEO of The Analysis Corporation, an intelligence contracting firm that worked closely with the National Counterterrorism Center and other US government intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security agencies on developing terrorism watch-lists.

  “Each and every day, TAC makes important contributions in the counterterrorism (CT) and national security realm by supporting national watchlisting activities as well as other CT requirements,” the company’s Web site states.

  According to financial disclosures forms released by the White House, Brennan served as president and CEO of TAC from November 2005 until January 2009, when Obama named him to the White House terrorism and homeland security job. The disclosures show that Brennan reported earning a $783,000 annual salary from the Analysis Corporation in 2008. ....

One former senior intelligence official told POLITICO it is “unsavory to see Obama put Brennan in charge of a review of this matter since it is possible that NCTC or TAC could have failed in their responsibilities.”

Not untypically, the Obama White House is treating this subject line as just another press annoyance dreamed up by rascally reporters looking for trouble rather than a potentially legitimate issue, that will impact how credible watchlist review and its conclusions are, and how deeply or superficially Obama is seen to be responding to this and other terrorist threats and systemic failures in US government counterterror response.

In a letter to Obama Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said she thought the NCTC's standard for when to add a person like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to the no-fly list was too restrictive. "It is clear that the U.S. Government was warned of Mr. Abdulmutallab’s radicalization more than a month before he flew from Nigeria to Amsterdam to Detroit," Feinstein wrote. "Yet apparently no action was taken other than to put Mr. Abdulmutallab in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE). .... I understand that no such action was taken because of a policy, established in 2008 and remaining in place today, that limits the circumstances under which the government adds an individual to the watchlist."

  "I believe the 2008 standard is too restrictive and should be changed," she wrote. "The U.S. Government should watchlist, and deny visas to, anyone who is reasonably believed to be affiliated with, part of, or acting on behalf of a terrorist organization."

And let's hope unlike Afghanistan where Obama White House concluded one review in March only to have crisis precipitate second review this summer-fall that this watchlist review is not so superficial and cosmetic it will all have to be revisited after another crisis in the future that reveals how superficial diagnosis and proposed fixes are.

More failures in this account, adding NCTC falling down on NSA info from August to the sorry mix:

  August 2009 NSA intercepts of Nigerian in Yemen/ Al Qaeda planning for Xmas attacks; NCTC seems to lose info in black hole.

November 19 2009 Abdulmutallab's father is walk-in to US embassy, talks to CIA station and  State there, worried, son radicalized, missing, may be in Yemen....

  November 19/20 2009 State sends visas viper on Abdulmutallab to NCTC, (but doesn't find that they have already issued him visa); gets no guidance back from NCTC to revoke his visa.

  CIA does not share its info from 11/19 meeting with father in Abuja with NCTC.

NCTC decides State info from Abdulmutallab dad's walk in warrants only opening a record on Abdulmutallab in TIDE database. But NCTC analyst decides info too thin to put Abdulmutallab on no fly or selectee list. Analyst apparently does not request further information and no one at NCTC seems to connect father walk in info with other reports some of which they have seen some not about Nigerian in Yemen and possible Christmas al Qaeda attacks planned.

  December 25, Abdulmutalab gets on plane in Amsterdam to Detroit with high explosives and lights himself on fire. Passengers save the day.

  Can't be too many intel cases where you get more clues, tips, leads than that and pretty much all except the State visas viper report and ordinary passengers totally failed -- NCTC, supposed to connect the dots but didn't and didn't put Abdulmutallab on watch list and didn't request more info and was not proactive and added seemingly minimal intelligence value except a record into a database that was of no apparent counterterror use until after he attempted to down a plane for doing their in-house google search about what they did and didn't do when; hard to see what value added NCTC has added to the system. CIA which withheld important info; etc. same complaint one heard again and again about CIA after 9/11. So has anything changed with all the intel "reform," except you have half dozen new bureaucracies involved which are seemingly (almost) as dysfunctional as before?

And worth noting that the person Obama chose to guide his thinking on how to fix it all is someone who stood up NCTC (and company on NCTC's payroll) which seems to have not distinguished itself much in this case, and seems to lack glimmer of intelligence or competence or talent for connecting the dots, the ones it has, the ones it has but doesn't seem to know it has, and the ones it may suspect are elsewhere in the system.

Let us know when you actually fire someone or somebody over this FAILURE, Barry, kkthx.

Typical government workers, no power on earth can remove them from their jobs, no matter how inadequate or incompetent they may be - protected by unions:

List and Description of unions in the Federal Government

LIST AND DESCRIPTION OF UNIONS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

• AFL-CIO: The AFL-CIO is a parent union to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and all but the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

• AFGE: AFGE is the largest federal union. It represents 600,000 federal workers and some 4,500 DC government workers and monitors issues that impact the federal workforce personal and professional lives such as funding, working conditions, and health care benefits. Agencies with the highest concentration include the Defense, Social Security Administration, and Justice. Workplace inspectors, border patrols, VA medical staffs, and certain Environmental Protection Agency staff also make the membership list.

• NTEU: The NTEU is the largest independent non-postal federal employee union representing some 155,000 workers in 24 government agencies. The NTEU represents the Customs Service and Border Patrol workers, employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The NTEU was first established in 1938 as the National Association of Employees of Collectors of Internal Revenue (NAECIR). The organization sought to improve working conditions, secure fair wages, and ensure job security for federal revenue officers. Over the years, the union has undergone name changes and expansion efforts. It took on its current name in 1975 and now includes members in Treasury, the FCC, ATF, and EPA. NTEU tries to ensure and expand federal worker protections, rights, and benefits.

• NALC, NRLCA, and APWU: Postal employees are very familiar with and belong to unions. To them, the initials National Association of Letter Carriers (NACL) and American Postal Workers Union (APWU) are household names. The National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) also represents U.S. postal employees.

• AFSCME: The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the fastest growing and largest union for public employees, reporting a whopping 1.3 million members. AFSCME represents a cadre of state and local workers and a small percentage of federal agencies and private and not-for-profit organizations. Public health, law enforcement, education, and public works employees comprise the bulk of its membership. Women account for a majority of the membership.

• NAGE: The National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) was formed in 1961. The organization assists government workers in collective bargaining and by lobbying for workplace safety, fair pay, and workers' benefits. Its President, Kenneth Lyons, has been at the helm since the union organized. NAGE represents 150,000 federal, state, and local government workers nationwide including emergency medical technicians, nurses, custodians, police officers, and scientists. NAGE is affiliated with a diverse set of smaller unions including the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO), the National Association of Nurses (NAON) and the Army/Air Technicians Union (AATU). It is also affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Services Employee International Union (SEIU).

• NFFE: The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) represents federal and DC municipal employees. It was first organized in 1917 and is the oldest independent union for federal and DC government workers.

• AFT and NEA: The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association also represent public employees.

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