U.S. learned intelligence on airline bomb suspect while he was en route
U.S. border enforcement officials came close to stopping the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet while the suspect was en route to Detroit on Christmas Day, new data show.
By Sebastian Rotella
LA Times
5:36 PM PST, January 6, 2010
Reporting from Washington
U.S. border security officials learned of intelligence about the alleged extremist links of the suspect in the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt as he was en route to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed, officials said in new disclosures today.
The new information shows that border enforcement officials came close to uncovering the plot despite previous intelligence failures that were criticized by President Obama this week.
If the intelligence had been discovered sooner, it could have resulted in the interrogation and search of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he boarded the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, senior law enforcement officials said.
"The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection," said a senior law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "The decision had been made. The . . . database had picked up the State Department concern about this guy, that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen. . . . They could have made a decision on whether to stop him from getting on the plane."
(More here.)
By Sebastian Rotella
LA Times
5:36 PM PST, January 6, 2010
Reporting from Washington
U.S. border security officials learned of intelligence about the alleged extremist links of the suspect in the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt as he was en route to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed, officials said in new disclosures today.
The new information shows that border enforcement officials came close to uncovering the plot despite previous intelligence failures that were criticized by President Obama this week.
If the intelligence had been discovered sooner, it could have resulted in the interrogation and search of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he boarded the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, senior law enforcement officials said.
"The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection," said a senior law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "The decision had been made. The . . . database had picked up the State Department concern about this guy, that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen. . . . They could have made a decision on whether to stop him from getting on the plane."
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Abdulmutallab has provided valuable information to the FBI and federal prosecutors about his dealings with extremists in Yemen, where he was allegedly trained and outfitted with the explosive device that he concealed in his underwear during the trip that began in Ghana, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
I don't want to be a skeptic but haven't we heard during the Bush Adminisration about how much information suspects reveal.
Also, the story is a little misleading in regards to his trip. I believe he paid for his plane ticket in Ghana but boarded the plane in Lagos, Nigeria so the first opportunity for a physical screening would have been in Nigeria not Ghana.
But the real question that needs to be asked : Should the crew have been notified in-flight to monitor this guy ? One of the problems according to Representative Peter King (R-NY) is that Amsterdam does not permit air marshals to be on flights ... President Obama just issued orders that beginning next month, all international flights must have air marshals.
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