Terrible on terror: Airline bombing revealed total dysfunction of U.S. intelligence

[Erik Mesoy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/01/08/2010-01-08_terrible_on_terror.html

In advance of yesterday's report on the failed Christmas Day terror attack, the White House national security chief warned that the revelations would generate "a certain shock" among Americans.

That was an understatement of epic and outrageous proportions.

The administration's summary of how Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula slipped its operative through America's vast intelligence network revealed screwups and incompetence of the most fundamental nature.

To wit, and quoting from the heart of the matter as outlined on the very last page of the document:

"There was not a comprehensive or functioning process for tracking terrorist threat reporting and actions taken such that departments and agencies are held accountable for running down all leads associated with high visibility and high priority plotting efforts undertaken by Al Qaeda and its allies, in particular against the Homeland."

Let's parse that more particularly. More than eight years after 9/11, the U.S. did not have a counterterrorism desk that was:

a) comprehensive or

b) functioning

c) in dealing with high visibility and

d) high priority

e) Al Qaeda plots

f) particularly against Homeland.

That damning, wholesale admission of gross and inexcusable incompetence is accompanied by failures regarding would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that are astonishing for being all the more mundane.

To wit, and again quoting from the last page:

• "NCTC and CIA personnel who are responsible for watchlisting did not search all available databases to uncover additional derogatory information that could have been correlated with Mr. Abdulmutallab."
• "A series of human errors occurred - delayed dissemination of a finished intelligence report and what appears to be incomplete/faulty database searches on Mr. Abdulmutallab's name and identifying information."
• "Information technology within the [counterterrorism] community did not sufficiently enable the correlation of data that would have enabled analysts to highlight the relevant threat information."

Again parsing more particularly, the staffs of the National Counterterrorism Center and CIA did not thoroughly and competently search U.S. computer files - and their computers stank.

At this level of buffoonery, it was almost foreordained that Islamist radicals would manage to get explosives onto a jetliner.

Even though, as Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan conceded, the NCTC was well aware Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was seeking foot soldiers to attack the U.S.

Even though the NCTC had gotten screamingly clear warnings that Abdulmutallab was likely one of those recruits.

President Obama announced remedial action, including ordering his intel crew to accountably pursue terror tips. How basic is that?

Obama's performance was his strongest to date in struggling to get command of an administration that was clueless as to the seriousness of the attack and its own bumbling. So clueless, NCTC boss Michael Leiter took to the ski slopes after the bombing attempt. So clueless, Brennan fessed up to having given Leiter the okay to go.

While accepting responsibility and promising accountability, Obama blamed the system and took no action against anyone, not even Leiter, who after three years at the top of NCTC produced an operation that was neither "comprehensive or functioning." That doesn't come close to accountability. That's bunker-mode insanity.

Lots of links in original article.

I like the turn phrase "damning, wholesale admission of gross and inexcusable incompetence". I also like the transparency of the Obama administration.

 

[Annex]

Dont hate the player, hate the game.

 

[Ayatollah So]

I, on the other hand, wonder how many false positives we would have to suffer through if some of the recommendations of the security-mongers were followed. Alternatively, how many more lives could be saved if some of the $Billions were diverted to, say, better aircraft maintenance and air traffic control?

 

[emzie]

Clearly Obama has made a mess of the system he inherited.

 

[GenMarshall]

I have an idea, let's blame Bush!

 

[innonimatu]

Bah, I wouldn't be surprised if a few decades into the future it is revealed that the whole plane bombing thing was just an excuse for the 2009 nobel peace prize winner to start yet another. It's certainly very convenient.

 

[choxorn]

The chance of the US Government acting competently is roughly equal to the chance of hell freezing over, pigs flying, and Disney Pop Stars spontaneously gaining talent- all at the same time.

So no, this doesn't surprise me all that much. Yes, they are all idiots and should have seen this coming. And a lot of other things coming.

 

[hossam]

where option indicating how awful we feel the thread title is? "terrible on terror"? seriously?

 

[MobBoss]

This far in to the Obama administration, I dont see how you can blame Bush....

But Obama is going to get blamed simply because its on his watch so I said Obama....

Thats just how these things go down anyways.

 

[JollyRoger]

I blame Bill Clinton as Bush did not have enough time to clean up the mess he had made of things.

 

[GenMarshall]

This far in to the Obama administration, I dont see how you can blame Bush....

Simple, Bush is the classic blame-bad-things-on-whipping boy. The Messiah does not need any blame.

But Obama is going to get blamed simply because its on his watch so I said Obama....

That's rasist and blasphemous to the Great Obama.

 

[BasketCase]

Option number three, except that I'm not acting--I really AM nonpartisan and enlightened.

Did I mention I'm also modest?

Neither Bush nor Obama are at fault for this. It's plain old basic human error. Some security guard somewhere just plain made a mistake.

 

[amadeus]

Everyone will be held responsible so nobody will be held responsible until such time as a second catastrophic attack occurs and people get their heads out of their oshiris.

 

[Flying Pig]

Option number three, except that I'm not acting--I really AM nonpartisan and enlightened.

Did I mention I'm also modest?

Neither Bush nor Obama are at fault for this. It's plain old basic human error. Some security guard somewhere just plain made a mistake.

Indeed. That's why the whole incident reasurres me - if everybody had done everything perfectly, then there would be cause for concern, but the system worked. It was just really unlucky that nobody was looking at the time

 

[Zkribbler]

The Messiah does not need any blame.

I'm still trying to figure out why the folks who call Obama a "messiah" are all anti-Obama. Fell the hatred; feel the distain; feel the lack of any policy.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

where option indicating how awful we feel the thread title is? "terrible on terror"? seriously?

Thread title is taken from news article title, complain to newspaper.

Neither Bush nor Obama are at fault for this. It's plain old basic human error. Some security guard somewhere just plain made a mistake.

You deserve a fourth option: "Blame good old plain mistakes and ignore the damning, wholesale admission of gross and inexcusable incompetence".

 

[Miles Teg]

This far in to the Obama administration, I dont see how you can blame Bush....

I agree. Now, if it had been September that the undie bomber had struck, naturally, it would be all Clinton's Bush's fault.

Now, let's get serious. First things first. The airline security worked about as well as could be expected. Medal detectors, random searches, and everything else forced the guy to smuggle in an unreliable explosive in his underroos, instead of taking a reliable explosive and detonate. We could install fully body screeners (and don't worry, your junk would be safe if they did) but that's just going to get them to find new methods. Soaking there clothes in explosives for example. We could try profiling by country of origin, and force the terrorists to buy an extra ticket for a connecting flight to some "safe" country.

Now, on to the intelligence angle. The article in the OP is really, really alarmist here. This was a system wide failure, and people should be fired over this. However, it's not exactly mindboggling when you consider the situation. We talk about connecting the dots, But I don't think I've ever seen a version of that game where you picked out a shape from three or four dots among millions of others.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Almost everything at this point is smoke and mirrors to make people believe our military actions are somehow justified. Anything to make "terror" seem legitimate. It's silly to blame Bush or Obama as they are only actors for the establishment, a face for the people to blame. How do people still think Presidents actually decide things?

Bush: "I'm the decider."

 

[Formaldehyde]

Here is a much better written editorial, which was also written by an expert on the subject instead of a NY tabloid:

Spoiler :

Will we ever learn?

By Bob Graham, special to the Times
In Print: Sunday, January 10, 2010

Since the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, policymakers and analysts have been rushing to solve air security. "Flurry of proposals targets air security," declared one news headline. If this is what America is learning from the near-tragedy, we are destined to be attacked again.

And the next time is more likely to be successful.

Aviation was the means of attack. The cause was a failure in the collection, analysis, dissemination and action on intelligence. We had a name. We had a potential motive, and we had the tactical intelligence to prevent the attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. His own father had identified the increasingly radicalized son as a threat.

In 2002, the Congressional Joint Inquiry Into 9/11 found a dozen instances of failures of intelligence. Had we avoided any one of them, the tragedy could have been prevented. The Christmas Day terrorist attempt demonstrates how far we still have to go protect the people of the United States and the world.

The unlearned lessons of 9/11 appear to include:

• Failure to communicate. Half the failures of 9/11 occurred when one federal agency failed to share information with another that had operational responsibility. The CIA knew two of the 19 hijackers intended to enter the United States in January 2000. It failed to provide that information to the immigration service or the FBI.

In 2009, the State Department, and possibly the CIA, was informed the assailant was extremist and dangerous. Mirroring 9/11, neither informed the immigration agencies, and the State Department's consular service failed to cancel his multiple-entry visa.

• Failure of the visa process. Before 9/11, the States Department's consular service had issued or renewed visas to most, if not all, the 9/11 hijackers. This was shocking but not surprising. The decision to grant or deny a visa is usually made by the youngest, least experienced in the embassy or consulate. Often, this person views service at the visa window as a ticket to be punched before advancing to a "serious" position.

• Failure to appreciate the new al-Qaida. Before 9/11, key security agencies could not imagine a rag-tag al-Qaida, operating from desolate Afghanistan, could plan and execute a plot within our homeland. Today, we have failed to imagine the technical and organizational sophistication of the new, decentralized al-Qaida.

This al-Qaida has advanced its skills in the development and use of chemical weapons since the shoe bomber of December 2001. It is exploring bioweapons — as evidenced by the labs found in Afghanistan — but remains underappreciated, allowing al-Qaida to exploit America's vulnerability.

• Failure to address recruitment. The number of adherents to al-Qaida, including those willing to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers, has increased dramatically. The recruiting billboard erected by the war in Iraq and the organizational reach of regional groups, such as al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula, have significantly increased al-Qaida's numbers since 9/11. It is imperative the United States and its allies redouble their efforts to reduce the attraction of extremism.

• Failure of accountability. The previous administration resisted sanctioning anyone — whether a consulate or White House staff member — for the numerous failures of imagination, will or competence which led to 9/11. A culture of non-accountability contributes to bureaucratic sloppiness. This appears to have recurred in the days before Christmas 2009.

• Failure to think strategically. In February 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks, then head of U.S. Central Command, told me Somalia and Yemen were the most significant al-Qaida national units after Afghanistan. That insight was ignored. The United States pursued a war of choice in Iraq.

Eight years later, we continue to pay the price for that disastrous decision. If we respond to the Christmas attack as a tactical failure of aviation security — rather than a strategic failure of intelligence — we will add another chapter to that mistake.

The solution lies in improving our intelligence. In the words of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, we must "accelerate integration of effort among the counterproliferation, counterterrorism, and law enforcement communities to address WMD proliferation and terrorism issues. …"

The commission and others have been urging the intelligence community to improve intelligence sharing related to terrorism. Yet it appears this is exactly where the United States fell flat.

If we can avoid the myopia that followed 9/11, see Flight 253 for what it is — a failure of intelligence — and sweep away the compartmentalization and bureaucratic complacency which hobble our nation's capacity to respond strategically, that would be a gift worthy of a Christmas Day.

Bob Graham chairs the congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Graham represented Florida as a U.S. senator from 1987-2005 and chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2002. He is the author of Intelligence Matters (Random House, 2004).

To try to claim that this was solely the fault of the Obama admistration is disingenuous at best, since all of these problems clearly predate that administration and even directly fed the problem of recruitment by invading and occupying Iraq. Then again, Obama has apparently done little to try to fix this obviously broken system since he took office.

 

[choxorn]

Option number three, except that I'm not acting--I really AM nonpartisan and enlightened.

Did I mention I'm also modest?

You're also, apparently, a master of irony.