Posted on 02/02/2010 5:47:08 PM PST by kristinn
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 and has provided fresh 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 official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
FBI officials continue to question Abdulmutallab, working in collaboration with CIA and other intelligence authorities, the official said. Obama has received regular updates on the interrogation, according to the official.
While the interrogation continued, White House and intelligence officials quietly seethed as political rivals accused them of putting lives at risk. That criticism peaked last weekend when Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, in the weekly Republican address, accused the administration of having "a blind spot when it comes to the war on terrorism."
Collins said the administration "undoubtedly prevented the collection of valuable intelligence about future terrorist threats to our country."
Authorities had hoped to keep Abdulmutallab's cooperation secret while they continued to investigate his leads, but details began to trickle out during testimony on Capitol Hill, where FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair confirmed authorities continued to get intelligence in Abdulmutallab's case.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Sure am glad to see that everybody was wrong about the Zero and he really is an American patriot that has are safety in mind at all times...I feel ill after typing that sentence.
A "senior administration official" blabbed and whined to ABC News:
SNIP
One of the principal reasons why his family came back is because they had complete trust in the US system of justice and believed that Umar Farouq would be treated fairly and appropriately," the senior official said. "And that they would be as well.
SNIP
There is a reason why these things are done the way they are done and believe me it frustrated the hell out of me to listen to a lot of the comments being made that were criticizing this process," the official said. "But the premium that this White House that this president puts on these operations is to make sure that we do everything possible to protect the American people.
The official said "people with no experience and apparently less knowledge about the case and the issues involved have made it a cause célèbre . As though there were some type of strange practice or action that took place here. When its consistent with all the practices of the previous administration.
Those who had access to Abdulmuttalab concluded that "putting him in front of somebody with a military uniform would have made him even more opposed to any type of cooperation," the official said. "The way to get to him is to use family members who are going to be supportive of what were trying to do
The FBI agents involved in making the decisions "did it exactly the way they were trained to do, the way past practice has occurred without exception," the official said. "There were a lot of politicians who were speaking out who had not one lick of counterterrorism experience who were second-guessing the professionals who have engaged in these issues, very successfully and in a very dedicated fashion over the years. And to have a how-many-mile screwdriver from here to Detroit try to micromanage the process, I find it quite frankly appalling.
The senior administration official expressed frustration that news of Abdulmuttalab's cooperation was revealed to the public today.
I think nobama and his anti-American minions are just making this up to cover their arses because of their refusal to do anything intelligent about terrorists. Does anyone really trust this administration about anything. If they said it was raining outside, I’d have to look first before I’d believe them.
The FBI didn’t crack him at all. We knew all this stuff right aftere he was taken down (only because he or his handlers were incompetent and the - er, package - didn’t explode quite enough).
This is just to cover Bambi’s rosy backside.
Not so after procedures were put in place post "shoe bomber".
PING!
Mueller (who was in previous Admin too) answered the question. WHY would Congress have hearings BEFORE a trial? Hard to know who is NOT to blame for these screw-ups.
ping
Politicizing national security.
IMO, there is absolutely nothing the slimes in this Administration can do to calm the rage boiling in the American people; absolutely nothing. They’ve destroyed our economy and 1 in 7 Americans is unemployed. We The People are going to be subjected to taxes out the rear when most of us are already broke. I repeat, Zero and his Gestapo can do nothing to mollify or stop the tsunami that’s rolling to November.
Well put.
In other news, Murtha’s condition reported as “grave” by Marc Ambinder.
Thanks for the ping!
http://www.modernghana.com/news/257271/1/nigerian-muslim-jihadist-and-al-qaida-ties-started.html
Excerpt, translated article:
...Most of the extremism Ulama in Northern Muslim Nigeria are benefactors of Alhaji Mutallab, Dr. Mutallab groomed extreme Muslim businesses in Saudi Arabia, He has extreme business in Dubai and he has extreme religious business in Yemen and he has business and property in Yemen. Alhaji Mutallab is the owner of the only Islamic Bank in Nigeria, Alhaji Mutallab has ties and interest in almost all the extremist muslim religious groups in Nigeria. He is a top leader of the Sharia movement COUNCIL in Nigeria. This guy is dangerous and he has gotten it hot and thats why he is running from pillar to post because he destroyed Nigeria with his corrupt ways and his muslim jihadist ideas for long time...
AND HE’S HELPING THE FBI?
/s
Officials: FBI Cracked Bomb Suspect Through Family (Obama Betrays Abdulmutallabs With Leaks)
The senior administration official expressed frustration that news of Abdulmuttalab's cooperation was revealed to the public today.
Article and #1, then #7 by Cicero, also #34 by Fred Nerks.
“Those who had access to Abdulmuttalab concluded that “putting him in front of somebody with a military uniform would have made him even more opposed to any type of cooperation,” the official said.”
This is a ridiculous assumption—that the CIA or even military intelligence types questioning this bird would be wearing uniforms! Typical wet-behind-the-ears Obama official!
EXCERPT:
...Since Christmas Day when fate foiled 23-year old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallabs attempt to bring down a jetliner over Detroit one has watched in dismay as his father, Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru AbdulMutallab and the rest of his family embarked on a subtle PR ploy to cast themselves as unfortunate victims of their sons indiscretion. Some, particularly in the popular press seem to have bought into their ploy: In a side bar, The New York Times proclaimed: Parents of Suspect Offer Help. From his London base, one Eddie Iroh in comments made in Nigerias Next newspaper was quick to praise Mutallab, the father for alerting Nigerian authorities and the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son had gone AWOL.
My reading and assessment of Alhaji (Dr.) Mutallabs alert is that he simply dialed 911 to for help that could bring his son back to him. The family statement confirmed as much: We were hopeful that they would find and return him home, it reads in part. The US Embassy cared less and rightly so, to use their system to help a man who pays neither tax nor tight to sustain it to look for his son and bring him home. That US authorities simply inserted the lads name into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, the extensive collection of data on more than 500,000 people, instead of the far smaller no-fly list, which has only 4,000 names, or the so-called selectee list of 14,000 names of people who are subjected to more thorough searches at checkpoints underscores the validity of my assessment even further. As for the Nigerian authorities, its premature at this point to even bother to infer why they wouldnt bate an eyelid in response to Mutallabs distress call. That fact will unfold clearly a little later in this piece....
COMMENTS ARE INTERESTING:
Thank you for this article. The father himself is a an Islamic fundamentalist but of different persuasions, the type you find in the northern Nigeria - the Feudo-Caliphal establishment in northern Nigeria whose only investment in the Nigerian project is a lazy and parasitic dependency on other peoples oil in the Niger Delta’. Of course he was conscious of implication of his estranged terrorist son to his shady business interests and romance with the global terrorists, funding his numerous business empire - the Islamic bank which he has been trying to float for a while now and his ownership of First Bank, among others. So the only option he had was to self report the lost son (talk of sacrificial lamb!) so as to shift attention from his own crime in case the boy got caught. I hope the CIA will beyond this ‘acting’ and unravel the father’s link with the world terrorist groups.
Axelrod and Plouffe spread this propaganda. And I wonder what will happen to this guy after his plea bargaining. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.
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