Posted on 01/05/2010 12:15:16 PM PST by libh8er
The White House has accused Downing Street of making a mistake over allegations that Britain told American intelligence agents more than a year ago that the Detroit bomber had links to extremists.
The Prime Minister's spokesman had indicated that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was named in a file of people based in Britain who had made contact with radical Muslim preachers. The file was said to have been sent to the US authorities in 2008.
However, White House sources disputed the Downing Street account, stating that it was a mistake and no such intelligence information was passed by Britain before the attempted Christmas Day attacks. The White House declined to respond officially.
The news comes as Barack Obama prepares to unveil plans aimed at thwarting future attacks as he seeks to limit political fallout from the incident.
He will outline an initial series of changes, including enhancements to the much-criticised "watchlists" of terrorism suspects, after he meets with intelligence chiefs and other top security advisers on Tuesday, first full day back from his Hawaii vacation, an administration official said.
The implication that the US failed to act could embarrass President Barack Obama, who is already under pressure after failures by US intelligence to identify the bomber.
A British official also backed claims that there appeared to have been a misunderstanding about what Downing Street had said: “There is nothing to stand up the suggestion that the UK provided information to the US that it could or should have acted upon.”
Diplomatic sources said that the Prime Minister’s spokesman had intended to refer to information gleaned by MI5 after the Christmas Day incident following an exhaustive examination of records going back through Abdulmutallab’s time in Britain up to October 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Not to mention a foreign press.
But the “Downing Street Memo” was treated as a smoking gun by the Left.
Someone buy this bunch a clue !!
I bet he wishes he wouldn’t have insulted Brown with the return of the Churchill bust now. Funny how acting like a militant smart-ass college sophomore blows up right in you face sometime, huh Obamy?
LOL,, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
The purple lipped Son OBama is still using his fingers to insult anyone who crosses him. He is like some DN on some corner in Detroit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc8Wc1CN7sY&NR=1
The list, ping
Heh, I don’t think Obama should work so hard at making enemies of the British Secret Service. They could decline to pass along information at a critical juncture, just because they might assume they won’t be believed, anyway.
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