DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Transportation Security Administration
Aviation Security Directive
Subject: Security Directive
Number: SD 1544-09-06

Date: December 25, 2009
EXPIRATION: 0200Z on December 30, 2009
This Security Directive (SD) must be implemented immediately. The measures contained in this SD are in addition to all other SDs currently in effect for your operations.

INFORMATION: On December 25, 2009, a terrorist attack was attempted against a flight traveling to the United States. TSA has identified security measures to be implemented by airports, aircraft operators, and foreign air carriers to mitigate potential threats to flights.

APPLICABILITY: THIS SD APPLIES TO AIRCRAFT OPERATORS THAT CARRY OUT A SECURITY PROGRAM REGULATED UNDER 49 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (CFR)1544.101(a).

ACTIONS REQUIRED: If you conduct scheduled and/or public charter flight operations under a Full Program under 49 CFR 1544.101(a) departing from any foreign location to the United States (including its territories and possessions), you must immediately implement all measures in this SD for each such flight.

The Rest

Hummm…. Don’t see where it says round-up the run away horses…..and don’t forget to shut the barn door…..

Larry’s right, not enough was there on a single actor motivated at this, to connect him anywhere feasibly.

Now, of the contacts he had with people we did have awareness of or keep dibs on their actions, what level were they and can a review of that accelerate a better way to elevate threats?

Holiday time, AQ and such always plan events around such for symbolic reasons, or on days of political consequence,  thus the Detroit destination to a community with many muslim expats? Simple traits for a copycat or individual to try and employ.

The fundamental items Larry notes make it a red flag. Combine it with known knowns to accelerate response. We can’t stop every person wanting to do these things, we can improve our response. The news that ops were going forward in Yemen shows we already had some things in place anticipating a way to get in front of this if it’s ever found to be an operational link.

The reaction to our enforcement efforts is most important. The second wave is more likely to be inspired individuals. Limit collateral results, be precise, surgical, and then we get less sympathy for those who wish us ill will.

If he had contacts with people we watch, and goes to the extent of throwing up the noted red flags, those items could combine and put him through a new level to filter the threat presence.

It seems to me that the terror groups would implement the above changes right away since it’s now been advertised that people flying one way with no checked baggage are going to be under additional scrutiny.  

It strikes me as absurd that passengers in the United States will now find themselves searched to a fare-thee-well because security in Lagos, Nigeria failed.

Insofar as the Obama administration is concerned, this crisis did not go to waste.  They have seized it as an opportunity to exercise even more control over Americans, with no justification other than their own incompetence.

Heads need to roll over this failure.  Instead of seeing the blame placed where it belongs…on the idiots who dropped the ball not once but several times…we are now being subjected to a steady chorus of “it’s not my fault.” 

By all of the guidelines currently in place here is the states, this man would never have been allowed to board a commercial airliner.  In its response demanding even further intrusion on our persons and further curtailment of our freedoms the administration is simply moving the goalpost down the field toward total control of our lives. 

They fumbled the ball and are now demanding that it be returned to them with an extra ten yards awarded.  That their position is being given credibility by anyone is ludicrous.

It has been bothering me a lot and it is hardly mentioned anywhere, including
here.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-surrenders-u-s-sovereignty-his-interpol-executive-order/

What do you think El Al does?  As I understand, it takes 3 hours to get on a plane and everyone is interviewed.  Yes, by far most terrorists may be Jihadists.  (Not McVeigh.)  But they have tried to use plants and patsies.  This <a href=”http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=892&dat=19861024&id=L6cOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QIIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489,4861204″>Jordanian</a> planned so far ahead as to seduce this Irish girl, plan a wedding, got her pregnant to make her look even less suspicious, coached her not to mention his name to El Al, and then planted a bomb in her baggage to blow up the plane along with her and his own child.  Pregnant Irish woman?  El Al still picked her out with terrorist profiling.

As Larry says, profiling is not ethnic profiling.  This Jordanian was counting on ethnic profiling.  Ethnic profiling would have let this woman on the plane and the bomb plot would have worked.

If you rule out 75-year old grandmothers, they’ll plant an explosive on a 75-year old grandmother.  Its part of their playbook.  Nobody just walks onto an El Al airplane because they are not Muslim.

It’s not the job of the field office to do analysis–but it is the job of the people who receive their reports, correct?

Well, who do they send their intelligence reports to? Who takes the very actionable reports that they receive? Isn’t there someone who is capable of taking an intelligence report and qualifying it as a more credible threat than something else? Doesn’t the CIA employ thousands of analysts who are then required to pass actionable intelligence reports to a broad chain of responsible individuals who are connected to the larger intelligence community? Why are we paying billions to these frauds to do nothing, then? Why do we have shredded privacy rights and politicians writing fundraising E-mails while no one does what they’re required to do by law?

This young man’s father took the time to go into an American embassy and proceeded to tell whoever would listen to him that his son was dangerous. He did this in November. And, over thirty days later, the son gets on a plane, flies to the United States, and tries to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear. How much time does pantload A need in order to get something to pantload B in Washington?

And, despite the fact that his father warned the CIA over thirty days before the incident happened, it still happened, primarily because the intelligence report passed from the embassy up the chain didn’t end up going to the people who needed it?

Allow me to call bullshit. When, oh when, is it ever the fault of the people who are incompetent and don’t do their jobs? When will anyone ever be held accountable for failing to do an adequate job? From Obama to Panetta to Freeh to the worthless members of Congress to the acting secretaries and political appointees and the overpaid, useless contractors–who, exactly is ever to blame when there’s a massive, glaring screwup of monstrous proportions that could have killed hundreds of people?

When do we stop carrying water for whoever we support politically and start holding people responsible what they have failed to do? No one can stop every terrorist, but why do we have to have morons presiding over a broken system that can’t even catch a sad, lonely little man from Nigeria who couldn’t even swim through the drugs they gave him and blow himself up properly?

TO EVERYONE at NQ; thanks for the year of fanstastic posts and comments. I have only my deepest gratitute for all the great contributions. A Deeply humble, thank you Mr. Johnson.

Barack Obama gets an ‘F’ for protecting Americans
UK Telegraph link here