Free Republic

It was the worst terrorist attack in Britain's history, the deadliest assault on U.S. civilians until 9/11 and a political powder keg that roiled governments around the world. On Dec. 21, 1988, a bomb exploded in the forward cargo hold of Pan Am Flight 103, a jetliner flying from London to New York. Within less than a minute, the Boeing 747 splintered into thousands of pieces and fell 31,000 feet, smashing down in the village of Lockerbie, Scotland. The impact killed 11 villagers and destroyed 21 homes. None of the 259 people on board the aircraft survived. On August 21,...

This White House national security adviser James Jones said said this morning that the review would "shock" Americans with the fresh details it provides as to how U.S. security and intelligence systems failed to "connect the dots" leading up to the foiled Christmas Day attack on Northwest Flight 253. I have read the report, and quite frankly I am not shocked, the White House released nothing new, I was also underwhelmed by his comments. I will write about it more later, in the mean time, a transcript of the President's speech is below, along with embedded versions of the Security...

THERE IS, it seems evident, more than enough blame to go around in the botched handling of the botched Christmas bombing. Not for some Republicans. With former vice president Richard B. Cheney in the lead, they have embarked on an ugly course to use the incident to inflict maximum political damage on President Obama. That's bad enough, but their scurrilous line of attack is even worse. The claim that the incident shows the president's fecklessness in the war on terror is unfounded -- no matter how often it is repeated. These critics have set up a straw Obama, a weak...

Yesterday Newsweek revealed that on December 22nd, three days before the attempted underwear bombing, the President was warned that an attack might be imminent. In a background briefing for reporters on December 29, also attributed in an official White House transcript to a "senior administration official", that official asserted that in the wake of the attempted underpants attack, it had become clear to the President and top advisers that before Christmas, the US government was in possession of "bits and pieces" of information, which, if they had been properly knitted together, "could have...allowed us to disrupt the attack or certainly...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top counterterrorism official is warning that al-Qaida and other extremists are working to test U.S. defenses and launch an attack on American soil.</p> <p>National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter says the failed Christmas Day attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner is the starkest reminder of that threat.</p>

US President Barack Obama took a respite from the pile of grim news clouding his vacation, taking a group of friends and their kids for a chill Hawaii delicacy -- shave ice. At a shave-ice store near his vacation rental, Obama on Friday picked one of the concotions, made of ice and fruit syrup and known as the "Snowbama" in his honor -- flavored with lemon-lime, cherry, and passion guava. "That is the Snowbama," the president said, when reporters questioned his choice of treat, after he ordered the group 19 shave ice cones of various flavors. Onlookers cheered Obama, who...

(snippet) In the December 21 video posted on extremist websites affiliated with al Qaida, a bearded man in head-dress, identified as Mohammed al-Kalwi, says: "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God. O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America."