and Its Lessons
Published on February 1, 2010
Winging its way over Canada, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 sailed towards Detroit, a long flight near its end with passengers eager to get to their loved ones on Christmas day. The only problem was that when they boarded the flight in Holland a terrorist joined them on the plane. A small, 23-year-old Nigerian, of good birth but recruited by al Qaeda, sat amongst them, with an explosive device hidden on his body.
Only days before this man’s father had contacted U.S. authorities to warn that his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had been radicalized. The father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, was no flake to be brushed off, but a well-respected Nigerian who had been a government minister and had recently retired from his position as Chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria. The CIA dutifully took the information and then sent it home to the United States, where it was lost in the bureaucratic morass that is Homeland Security.
Abdulmutallab had gone to the lavatory to prep the explosive hidden in his underwear. The material used is said to be Pentaerythritol (aka PETN), so highly explosive that should it have gone off properly, especially in the seat the young Nigerian occupied over the wing, the plane would have been doomed. Luckily for the passengers, something went wrong for the terrorists. After injecting the acid into the mixture the young man complained of stomach pain and pulled his blanket over his head. Other passengers quickly smelled something burning and noted his legs were on fire. At this point passengers jumped on the young terrorist and stopped him from killing them all. Badly burned, Umar will have little use of 72 virgins in this life. Between you and me, I hope it hurts like Hell.
Umar was taken into custody in Detroit, but rather than being turned over to the military, as he should have been as an enemy combatant, the Obama administration in their continued comedy of errors are treating this as a criminal matter. During the first hours in custody the young terrorist was spilling his guts. He told investigators that he had been one of a wave of terrorists trained in Yemen by two former GITMO detainees and that he knew more terrorists were coming to strike at the U.S. and the West. And then… well, his Obama-appointed attorney appeared and told him to shut up. So our little terrorist now refuses to talk. Now if we want to know anything we are going to have to offer him plea bargains to get information. Sheer idiocy.
Obama, of course, showed the nation the depth of his concern as he took precious minutes from his tee time while on vacation in Hawaii to come forward and first said that it was a lone wolf attack and therefore nothing to worry about. Janet Napolitano at the same time told us “the system worked” and all was well.
But they blew that factually and a day later it came out that all was not well and it appeared there was an al Qaeda connection. However, it did not merit Obama leaving Hawaii early.
After New Years Day and the return of the Obamas to Washington, the president decided to come forward and say there had a been a failure to pass on information. While Intelligence had indeed been collected, like the warning from the father of the terrorist and that Abdulmutallab was in fact on a watch list, mistakes had been made but he was not going to allow any finger pointing; and oh yes, it was Bush’s fault.
He also told us that although it was clear the leaders of al Qaeda in Yemen had been captured and held at GITMO at one time, it was still wise to repatriate as many of the detainees to their home countries and to close GITMO. He then went on to stupidly say that al Qaeda now had a foothold on the Arabian peninsula only because they were able to use propaganda that we have GITMO as a recruiting tool. Apparently the president is ignorant of the fact that bin Laden is a Saudi who started al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia as a protest of American troops on Saudi soil during the first Gulf War. He also seems to be ignorant of the fact that al Qaeda is doing things in the name of liberating Al Andalus. If you are wondering where that is, it is Spain and Portugal. Apparently they are still seething about Moors being driven out of the Iberian peninsula over five hundred years ago. I don’t think Spain and Portugal are ready to surrender to the caliphate again just yet, so expect trouble.
It should be clear to anyone with a brain that al Qaeda’s grievances have a wandering zero. If you address one concern then they will come up with yet another affront to their sensibilities to pursue their war against the West.
Returning to Abdulmutallab, his status as a criminal in our court system is folly. Like those already held at GITMO, he is an enemy of the United States who was actively trying to kill American. Three hundred souls, at a minimum, would have perished had he succeeded. This was not a mugging or a bank robbery. It was an act of war, and to treat this as anything else is dangerous lunacy. Everything I said back in December about bringing Khalid Sheik Mohammed to New York City for trial applies here too. This administration is playing a dangerous game of trying to appease and appeal to people who have only one interest: to kill us. Obama needs to get serious about this and stop being more afraid of Dick Cheney than he is of terrorists who want to kill Americans. However, I will not hold my breath for that to happen. Sadly, more Americans will die in large numbers in one fell swoop, because the people running the show are dangerously incompetent. Lawyered up now, little Umar sits on a treasure trove of information that could save lives. But now, with all the rights of an American citizen, this terrorist is silent. God delivered us another gift on Christmas 2009 and saved lives. Pity Obama has learned nothing from it and has squandered another opportunity to protect the American people.