Flight 253

Abdulmutallab, Barack Obama, Dennis Blair, Eric Holder, Flight 253

Did DNI Blair misinform Senators or tell them too much of the truth?

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Obama administration officials are fearful that Blair may have ended up hand-delivering their Republican critics an issue by his misinformed remarks. “I didn’t think there was going to be a fall guy for the Detroit incident,” said the senior official. “But Blair may have just talked himself into being one.” — Michael Isakoff, Newsweek magazine, January 21, 2010

Apparently, those same White House officials did not dispute DNI Dennis Blair telling the Senate Intelligence Homeland Security Committee that, “The FBI interrogated Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab when they took him into custody. They received important intelligence at that time.” They could not dispute him as FBI Director Mueller told the Senate Judiciary exactly the same thing, that very same day.

I don’t believe that Director Robert Mueller told the whole truth.

Eli Lake of the Washington Times reported (‘Blair: FBI mishandled bomb case’):

“It appears to me that we lost an opportunity to secure some valuable intelligence information, and that the process that Director Blair described should have been implemented in this case,” Ms. Collins said. Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the administration’s intelligence officials “fumbled the Christmas Day terrorist case.”

“That this administration chose to shut out our top intelligence officials and forgo collecting potentially lifesaving intelligence is a dangerous sign,” Mr. Bond said in a statement.

Mr. Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to ignite a military-grade explosive known as PETN that was sewn into his underwear on the Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Dec. 25. The plot failed, and FBI agents apprehended Mr. Abdulmutallab in Detroit. He was questioned for at least two hours before agents read him his Miranda rights, which allowed him to have an attorney before answering further questions.

Mueller cited “Quarles” which indicates FBI agents initially believed “the use of the Miranda warnings could be avoided” because “public safety was at issue” (New York v Quarles). Perhaps limiting questions to asking Abdulmuttalab if he had accomplices aboard Flight 253 (who might also have bombs) and if bombers were aboard additional aircraft currently in flight or soon to depart would be upheld by the courts.

Yet at least two hours went by before they read Abdulmuttalab the warnings because FBI agents know similar and simultaneous attacks are al Qaeda’s M.O. and Abdulmuttalab told them “twenty-five” others had trained with him in Yemen. Surely the agents would have alerted the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge in Detroit or its Assistant U.S. Attorney.

If FBI agents made the decision, it was left to them to decide, after word reached some level above them and came back down. Director Mueller, DNI Blair, DHS Secretary Napolitano, and NCTC Director Lieter all claimed to not have been asked.

Attorney General Eric Holder knows who advised the FBI agents. The Senate should ask him if he or the President made the call and if not, who left a national security policy decision up to “agents on the ground.”

Update:

Abdulmutallab, Barack Obama, Flight 253, Richard Reid

Buck stops with Obama; President responsible for Flight 253 post-arrest intelligence failure

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Stephen Hayes writes today in The Weekly Standard that there is no protocol in place to evaluate a terrorist captured here for their potential intelligence value and the FBI agents who arrested Flight 253 bomber Abdulmuttalab decided on their own if and when to read him Miranda warnings. Yet those agents were operating in the dark:

“Mueller testified that those FBI agents interviewed Abdulmutallab about “ongoing and other threats.” What the FBI director did not mention was that his agents interviewed the terrorist without any input from the National Counterterrorism Center — the institution we now know was sitting on top of a small mountain of not-yet-correlated information about the bomber. So whatever information Abdulmutallab provided, he gave up in response to general questions about his activities, not in response to specific questions based on the intelligence the U.S. government had already collected on him. And within 24 hours — according to Senator Jeff Sessions, whose tough questioning [see video below] left Mueller stuttering — Abdulmutallab was Mirandized and he stopped talking. (It would be nice to learn, from Mueller or someone else in a position to know, precisely when Abdulmutallab was read his rights.)”

Director Mueller correctly defended the FBI agents who arrested Abdulmuttalab. From everything President Obama has said to date, it is apparent that he had given no guidance to the Department of Justice to do otherwise when terrorists are captured here.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair literally slapped himself in the forehead yesterday while testifying “Duh! We never thought of that.” Meaning, the current National Security Council never thought they needed to establish a protocol and disseminate guidance to federal law enforcement agents. Blair further testified that the “High Value Interrogation Group” (HIG) … was created exactly for this purpose — to make a decision on whether a certain person who’s detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means.” Only, he later wrote on the DNI’s web site that, “the FBI’s expertise in interrogation that will be available in the HIG once it is fully operational.” (Click on image below.)

President Obama did not establish either a protocol or the HIG to determine when to interrogate terrorists captured here, as enemy belligerents, or when to treat them as common criminals and read them their rights. The FBI agents went with what they knew, their training and the “Bush successfully prosecuted shoe-bomber Richard Reid” talking point. The lesson of Reid was lost, that his accomplice remained free with an armed shoe-bomb for two years because Reid was allowed to lawyer up and remain silent.

What Abdulmuttalab knows and is being allowed to not say may well get people killed. If so, that buck also stops with President Obama; he is responsible for the Flight 253 post-arrest intelligence failure.