Mayor Bloomberg vs Obama: White House Cuts NYC's Security Funding

White House Slashes NY Anti-Terrorism Funds


Eleven days after the botched plot to bomb Times Square, the Obama administration on Wednesday slashed some $53 million from the city's terror-fighting budget.

"For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don't get it and are not doing right by New York City," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

To top it off, the news arrives as President Obama comes to town today amid buzz he will meet with the very cops who helped thwart the bombing.

Obama will also be tapping the city's deep pockets for the Democratic Party.

"The President seems more interested in raising money for political campaigns than providing New York the money it needs to defend itself against Islamic terrorism," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

The cuts, to be announced today, target the annual allocations for transit and port security, legislators said.

The New York City area will get $111million for transit security in the final 2010 budget - a 27% chop from last year's $153 million. The port security program is getting chopped from $45 million to $33.8million - a cut of 25%.

"The fact that the Obama administration would cut New York's homeland security funding just 11 days after the Times Square car bomb attempt is dangerous and unconscionable," King said.

The Department of Homeland Security had forecast the cuts in December, but local leaders thought the administration would change its mind after a car packed with fireworks, propane and fertilizer nearly detonated in Times Square on May 1.

Another terror plot busted up last September targeted the city's subways.

"Just when we thought they finally realized a war on terror is going on, they do something like this," raged City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), head of the Council's Public Safety Committee.

"This leaves us more vulnerable to 'man-caused disasters,'" he said sarcastically, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's term for terror attacks.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler begged to differ with New York's interpretation, insisting his agency is "actively engaged in supporting New York City's first responders and overall preparedness."

He argued that in 2009, the administration gave the area more than $457 million for "terrorism and other threats." He blamed Congress for appropriating less money for 2010, and an administration official said if New York includes the cash it got from the economic stimulus bill passed in 2009, it's actually getting $47.3 million more than last year for ports and transit protection.

King was unimpressed by that math, arguing the stimulus cash is a one-time payout that won't be repeated.

"That's a story they're coming up with at the last minute, because an hour ago they were saying they couldn't give us the money because Congress only allocated $300 million," he said. "Actually, Obama only asked for $250 million."

King noted there is nothing stopping the administration from giving the city a bigger slice. "New York should get first shot, because we're the No. 1 target," he said.


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, NY Daily News, Politico, Youtube, Google Maps

Gulf Oil Spill Obama's Katrina? Did He Wait Too Long?

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Gulf Oil Spill: What Went Wrong?


Suddenly, everything changed.

For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the Government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were content to let the company handle the mess while keeping an eye on the operation.

But then Government Scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe, and days of lulling statistics and reassuring words gave way Thursday to an all-hands-on-deck emergency response.

Now questions are sure to be raised about a self-policing system that trusted a commercial operator to take care of its own mishap even as it grew into a menace imperiling Gulf Coast nature and livelihoods from Florida to Texas.

The pivot point had come Wednesday night, at a news conference at an oil research center in the tiny community of Robert, La. That's when the nation learned the earlier estimates were way off, and an additional leak had been found.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama set in motion a larger federal mobilization, pledging to deploy "every single available resource" to the area and ordering his disaster and environmental leaders to get down there in person. Only a few days after the Coast Guard assured the country there was "ample time" to protect the coast if oil came ashore, warnings from the government were newly alarming.

"I am frightened for the country, for the environment," David Kennedy, assistant chief of the National Ocean Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "This is a very, very big thing, and the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

The next Katrina?

The political subtext of the crisis was clear and increasingly on people's minds, whether from a federal office deploying oil-containment booms or from a Louisiana parish awaiting yet another sucker punch from the sea.

Will this be Obama's Katrina? Should the federal and state governments have done more, and earlier? Did they learn the lessons of the devastating hurricane?

Political calculations vied with the increasingly scary Gulf reality — hundreds of thousands of oil and its progression to landfall as soon as Thursday night.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who also is in a hot campaign for the Senate, flew over the slick and commended the federal actions to date but wondered if anyone, really, could be doing enough in this situation. "It appeared to me," he said, "that this is probably much bigger than we can fathom."

The crisis began with a massive explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20, more than 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. The search for 11 missing workers overshadowed environmental concerns until they were given up for lost.

Rear Adm. Mary Landry, chief of the Coast Guard in the region, said at the outset that most of the oil was burning off, leaving only a moderate rainbow sheen on the water and no sign of a major spill.

"Both the industry and the Coast Guard have technical experts actively at work," she said. "So there's a whole technical team on both sides of the aisle here to ensure we keep the conditions stable."

Two days later, the Deepwater Horizon sank and crews spotted a 1-by-5-mile sheen with a dark center that appeared to be a crude oil mix. Obama got his first briefing on the accident.

Landry said the following day that no oil appeared to be leaking from a well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking noted at the surface.

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Issues of Offshore Drilling

At the White House, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said that sometimes accidents happen, and the loss of the Deepwater Horizon was no reason to back off on the president's recent decision to support expanded offshore drilling.

On Thursday, that policy was challenged by some Democratic lawmakers, now that the fuller extent of the spill was known, and Gibbs acknowledged that details might be revisited.

Throughout last week and into this one, the government was deferring to BP on what was being done at the site and on assessments of progress.

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The Coast Guard was not doing its own independent, firsthand assessment of the seabed rupture. Landry repeatedly asserted that BP was the responsible party and would shoulder the costs and organizational duties associated with the cleanup effort while the Coast Guard monitored things and approved the numbers of vessels working the scene and the methods of control.

On Monday, Landry offered assurances that the Gulf Coast should be safe. "This is ample time to protect sensitive areas and prepare for cleanup should the oil impact this area," she said. And at sea, BP officials were "doing their best."

On Wednesday night, she reported the findings of federal experts that up to 5,000 barrels a day were leaking from the well. BP had estimated only 1,000. As well, the company told the Coast Guard a new leak had been found. Obama was briefed on these developments on Air Force One while returning at night from the Midwest.

The equation had changed, like a hurricane setting a new course.



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Sources: Fox News, MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama & Civil Rights Leaders Slam Arizona's New (Racial Profiling) Immigration Law

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Ariz. Governor Signs Immigration Bill Into Law

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a new state immigration bill that President Barack Obama called "misguided" hours earlier.

Brewer, saying that the state had been "more than patient waiting for Washington to act" on the issue of illegal immigration, said that the bill would protect Arizona citizens without violating individuals' constitutional rights.

The sweeping legislation makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants.

At a press conference to announce her decision to sign the bill, the Arizona governor countered the claim of opponents who have said that the law essentially legalizes racial profiling.

"I will not tolerate racial discrimination or racial profiling in Arizona," Brewer said.

Obama warned earlier Friday that the law "threaten[s] to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe."

He said he's instructed the Justice Department to examine he Arizona bill to see if it's legal, and said the federal government must enact immigration reform at the national level — or leave the door open to "irresponsibility by others."

Party Pressure

Brewer was under intense pressure from Anti-Illegal Immigration groups and lawmakers in her own party to sign the bill.

The bill's Republican sponsor, state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, said Obama and other critics of the bill were "against law enforcement, our citizens and the rule of law."

Pearce said the legislation would remove "political handcuffs" from police and help drive illegal immigrants from the state.

"Illegal is illegal," said Pearce, a driving force on the issue in Arizona. "We'll have less crime. We'll have lower taxes. We'll have safer neighborhoods. We'll have shorter lines in the emergency rooms. We'll have smaller classrooms."

Hundreds of Hispanics protested the legislation at the State Capitol complex on Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who opposes the measure, said he's closing his Arizona offices at noon Friday after his staff in Yuma and Tucson were flooded with calls this week, some from people threatening violent acts and shouting racial slurs.

Arizona has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants and is the state with the most illegal border crossings, with the harsh, remote desert serving as the gateway for thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans.

Other provisions of the bill allow lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws, and make it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them.

The bill takes effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends.

Brewer faces a contested Aug. 24 Republican primary election, and one of her opponents, State Treasurer Dean Martin, had called on her to sign the legislation.

Also, the March 27 shooting death of rancher Bob Krentz on his property in southeastern Arizona brought illegal immigration and border security into greater focus in the state. Authorities believe Krentz was killed by an illegal border crosser.

Since the shooting, Brewer and other officeholders and candidates have toured the state's border with Mexico. On Thursday, she ordered a reallocation of state National Guard and law enforcement resources and called on the federal government to deploy National Guard troops.

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Past measures

Arizona has previously passed a variety of get-tough measures dealing with illegal immigration.

Brewer's predecessor, Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who is now President Barack Obama's Homeland Security secretary, vetoed proposals similar to the bill just approved by the Legislature.

But she signed a 2007 law that imposes sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Other state laws make human smuggling a state crime and restrict illegal immigrants' eligibility for public services.

The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund said the bill before Brewer is unconstitutional because regulation of immigration is a federal responsibility.

Others who urged Brewer to veto the bill included Catholic bishops, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for governor. Mexico's embassy also has voiced concerns about racial profiling.

A Phoenix Law Enforcement Association representative acknowledged that racial profiling can occur but said fears associated with the bill are unfounded.

"We're not targeting any particular group," said Levi Bolton, a retired police detective. "Cops are not here to do these things to you."


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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Janet Napolitano On List To Replace Justice Stevens??

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ABC News Potential Supreme Court Nominees: White House Prepared For Stevens Retirement


Lawyers for President Obama had prepared a short list of potential replacements for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens long before he officially announced his retirement today.

Stevens signaled in the fall that he was considering retirement, which gave White House lawyers plenty of time to rework the list of potential nominees that had been created when Justice David Souter announced his retirement in May 2009 and vet new possibilities.

The crucial calculation that Obama will have to make is what kind of political capital he wants to spend on potentially contentious nomination hearings. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signaled that a candidate with a paper trail on divisive social issues could create a firestorm.

The president will review nominees, read their legal writings and perhaps meet with some of them. A decision will be made "in the coming weeks," a senior White House official told ABC News.

Democrats are hoping to schedule the hearings by mid-July in order to vote before senators leave for the August recess to prepare, in some cases, for the mid-term elections.

Top Candidates to Replace Stevens on Supreme Court:

According to White House sources, Obama has a list of fewer than 10 possible nominees to review. Among them: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Judge Diane Wood and Judge Merrick Garland.

Top candidates went through extensive vetting last year before Obama settled on Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The short list then included Wood, Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

A name that has gotten a lot of attention since the Souter retirement is Garland.

Janet Napolitano

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, 52, enjoys a close relationship with the president and would be an "outside the judicial box" candidate, but may be roundly criticized for her comments after the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, who attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight with explosives. Napolitano initially told ABC News, "Once the incident occurred, the system worked." A day later, she had a slightly different message on NBC News: "Our system did not work in this instance," she said. Obama later ordered an extensive review.

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan, 49, serves as the president's solicitor general. She is known as one of the finest scholars in the country, dazzling both liberal and conservative friends with her intellectual prowess and her ability to find consensus among ideological opposites.

Judge Diane Wood

Judge Diane Wood, 59, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1995. She has a wide array of job experiences away from the bench, including positions in the U.S. government at the departments of State and Justice, and as a teacher at the University of Chicago. While at the university, she played a key role in developing policies on sexual harassment and maternity leave. Unlike Kagan, Wood has had to wrestle with hot-button issues such as abortion. Potential confirmation hearings would be lively and controversial.

Merrick Garland

Judge Merrick Garland, 58, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. He sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.



Sources: ABC News, Hardball, MSNBC

Joseph Stack's Crash: Domestic Terrorism Or Criminal Act?

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Austin Plane Crash: Criminal Act Or Domestic Terrorism?



A "cowardly, Criminal" act ... or Domestic Terrorism?

That's one of many questions being asked in the wake of Thursday's plane crash in Austin, Texas, where a software engineer with an anti-government grudge crashed his single-engine plane into an office building that housed nearly 200 Internal Revenue Service employees.

The pilot, 53-year-old Joseph Stack, killed both himself and a 67-year-old IRS employee, Vernon Hunter, in the attack.

Stack is believed to have posted an online manifesto just hours earlier, detailing his longstanding gripes with "big brother," the "IRS man" and the Catholic church.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that White House officials will let an investigation "play out" before determining how to label the incident. He had earlier said that the incident did not appear to be terrorism, and when asked specifically if domestic terrorism was a possibility, he said he did not suspect ''somebody like an Al Qaeda.''

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, meanwhile, labeled the incident a single act by a lone individual and refused to classify it as terrorism.

"I call it a cowardly, criminal act, and there was no excuse for it," he told reporters.

But at least one lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, disagreed and compared the incident to the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

"Like the larger-scale tragedy in Oklahoma City, this was a cowardly act of domestic terrorism," Doggett said in a statement. "Stack's apparent website message reflects the steadily increasing flow of 'the government is out to get me' paranoia."

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, referred FoxNews.com to Gibbs' comment when asked to clarify why the incident has not been labeled an act of domestic terrorism.

Ken Gude, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, said that while it's appropriate for Gibbs to reserve judgment on the matter, Stack's act of violence has all the markings of domestic terrorism.

"It certainly appears as if his motives would qualify as domestic terrorism," said Gude, a former policy analyst at the Center for National Security Studies. "He put out an anti-IRS creed, he used an airplane to crash into a building with the clear intention of causing destruction and death."

But Gude urged caution before placing any label on the event, which he characterized as an inexcusable, unacceptable act that "should not be tolerated" in any way whatsoever. He said the Austin crash differed from the Oklahoma City bombing because Stack apparently acted alone. (Militia sympathizer Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001 for organizing the Oklahoma City bombing; his accomplice, Terry Nichols, was sentenced three years later to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for assisting him.)

DHS officials explicitly warned against the potential emergence of terrorist groups or "lone wolf extremists" in a report issued in April. The report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," found that while no specific threat existed, there was the potential for violence from extremists concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increased federal power and restrictions on firearms.

The report followed a similar DHS document released in January 2009 that detailed left-wing threats, focusing on cyberattacks and radical "eco-terrorist" groups like Earth Liberation Front.

Jena Baker McNeill, a homeland security policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, said it's "too early" to make a definitive determination of whether Thursday's incident was a criminal or terrorist act.

"I would also await more details from the investigation," McNeill wrote in an e-mail. "I will say that the number of fatalities should not have an impact on whether something is labeled an act of terrorism — but again, still waiting on more details before a conclusion can be made."

Gude echoed that sentiment, saying the focus shouldn't be on casualty rates, but rather on the source of the extremism.

"There has always been an undercurrent of anti-government groups in the United States," he said. "It's appropriate for our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies to be vigilant and be aware that this threat is real."

Gude continued, "There is concern, certainly, about the volume of extremist views that seems to be percolating in the political space in the United States. But it's also evident that this type of threat from extremism has existed for a very long time and it will be with us for a very long time."

Several news reports likened Thursday's event to that of Charles Bishop, the teenage Al Qaeda sympathizer who flew a small plane into a Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla., in 2002, and Johnny Lee Wicks, a 66-year-old shotgun-wielding retiree who killed a security guard and wounded a deputy U.S. marshal at a Las Vegas courthouse in January. FBI officials have said Wicks was angry about losing a government lawsuit in which he had challenged a cut in his monthly Social Security benefits.


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Sources: Fox News, MSNBC, EmbeddedArt.com, Google Maps

Jihad! Feds Confirm Texas Plane Crash Intentionally! Where's Obama??

Updates: Plane Crashes Into Building In Austin, Texas


1:19 p.m.: FAA officials tell CNN the plane was a Piper Cherokee PA-28.

1:18 p.m.: A federal law enforcement official tells CNN that they believe the plane belonged to Joseph Andrew Stack.

12:49 p.m.: The Internal Revenue Service in Dallas, Texas, told CNN that the building is a federal IRS outsourced building. It said 199 of its employees work there. The IRS said it thinks all employees are accounted for, but they are checking.

12:42 p.m.: The pilot of the plane had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane and crashed it intentionally, a federal official told CNN.

12:40 p.m.: Federal officials said two F-16 fighter jets were launched as a precaution after the crash, though terrorist intent was not indicated.

12:32 p.m.: Preliminary information indicates that the plane was a Cirrus SR 22, the FAA said. A Cirrus SR22 is a single-engine four-seat aircraft.

12:32 p.m.: The FAA said the plane departed Georgetown Municipal Airport, north of Austin, about 9:40 a.m., and that the pilot did not file a flight plan.

12:18 p.m.: Witnesses described an infernal scene that shook nearby buildings and sent fire and smoke bellowing into the sky. "I just saw smoke and flames," said CNN iReporter Mike Ernest. "I could not believe what I was seeing. It was just smoke and flames everywhere."

12:11 p.m.: Harry Evans of the Austin Fire Department said firefighters found "heavy fire destruction in and around the second floor ... lots of heat, lots of smoke, lots of fire."

12:05 p.m.: Two people were transported from the crash site to University Medical Center Brackenridge, said hospital spokeswoman Matilda Sanchez. She could not provide additional information. University Medical Center Brackenridge is the only Level 1 trauma center for adults in Austin.

12:03 p.m.: Cynthia Reed, who works in the building next to the one hit, told CNN she saw people who apparently were trapped. "They were hanging out the windows, screaming for help," she said.

12:02 p.m.: "At this time we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to criminal or terrorist activity," said Matt Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "We are in the process of coordinating with state officials and other federal partners to gather more information and at this time we will defer additional questions to local officials and the FAA."

11:44 a.m.: Firefighters used two ladder trucks and other equipment to hose down the blaze at the building, which police said was located in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard. Traffic on Southbound U.S. 183, which is adjacent to the crash site, started to snarl as black smoke poured out of the seven-story building.

11:36 a.m.: A small airplane crashed into a building in Austin, Texas, Thursday morning, according to Lynn Lundsford of the Federal Aviation Administration.


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

Texas Terror Attack! Obama's 9-11! Retaliation For Baradar!

Despite media spin and rhetoric from the Obama Administration calling today's incident in Texas a "Criminal Act", its obvious this was a planned Terror Attack in retaliation for Mullah Baradar's capture.

The Taliban is angry because U.S. Soldiers have detained one of its top commanders and they are sending us a message.

In essence this could be considered Obama's 9-11.

Since Obama eliminated many of the Bush Administration's Counter Terrorism operations, I wonder what he plans to do about this attack.

Let's see how well his Arrogant, know-it-all staff handles this National Security Emergency.

About as well as the Christmas Day Bombing?

God help us!

I suggest we all fall to our knees and begin praying right now.

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Small Plane Crashes Into Texas Office Building


A small plane crashed Thursday into a multistory office building in Austin, causing a fire and sending black smoke billowing from the seven-story structure, officials said. At least two people were injured and a third was unaccounted for.

Federal officials said the incident did not appear to be terrorism-related but authorities were investigating whether the pilot intentionally crashed the plan, according to media reports.

Authorities were investigating whether the plane crash was related to an Austin-area house fire earlier in the day.

The plane hit the Echelon Building, which is next to a major highway in north Austin.

Fires were burning from the second through fourth floors, KXAN reported. Crews used ladder trucks and hoses to battle the blazes. Dozens of windows were blown out of the hulking black building and vehicles traveling on a nearby highway paused to look.

Authorities were conducting a roll call to try to account for all the workers who were in the building.

Two people were taken to a hospital, Austin Assistant Fire Chief Harry Evans said. The nature and severity of their injuries wasn't immediately clear. A third person was unaccounted for, Evans said.

The IRS, CIA and FBI all have offices in the complex where the building is located, though it was not clear if they are in the building that was hit. The FBI said its office was not in the building that was struck.

"At this time we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to criminal or terrorist activity," said Department of Homeland Security Deputy Press Secretary Matt Chandler.

It was not immediately known where the plane was headed. The nearest airport is Austin Bergstrom International Airport, which is some 15 miles away.

FBI sources told the Austin Statesman-American that several eyewitness accounts saying that the plane did not slow down is making some authorities wonder if it was an intentional act.

'Huge fireball'

A witness who described himself as a small-aircraft pilot told KXAN-TV that he witnessed the accident from the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.

“It was really low,” he said. “He brushed along a parking lot light … (and) shot right across the road. It was going really fast. … It sounded like the engine was on full blast. Then it whacked in-between the first and second floor.”

Austin-Travis County EMS Assistant Director James Shamard said smoke was visible for at least a mile and that paramedics had set up a triage center at the scene. "We have no idea right now if there are any patients, or how many," he told the Austin American-Statesman.

Tucker Thurman was driving to work when he said he saw a small plane flying very low over the highway. He said he saw it then bank heavily to the right before heading into the building.

"There was a huge fireball. It's right into the building," Thurman told the Statesman.

Another witness told KXAN that the plane buzzed a nearby apartment building before hitting the office building.

“It looked like he had full control, but as soon as he cleared the apartments, he just dropped down. … It was within feet of the top of the apartment complex,” he said.


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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Another TSA Screw Up: Forces Disabled Boy To Remove Braces

Another Terrorist Stopped By Vigilant TSA Officer: 4-Year-Old Boy In Leg Braces


Now we know how the "Crotch Bomber" got through security – TSA Screeners are busy terrorizing disabled toddlers.

4-year-old Ryan Thomas is developmentally disabled as a result of being 16 weeks premature and has to wear corrective braces. His ankles are malformed and his legs have little or no muscle tone. He only just learned how to walk, briefly, on his own, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

But that didn’t seem to matter to the Transportation Security Administration Screeners at Philadelphia International airport.

It was Ryan's first trip to Disney in March 2009, according the paper's columnist Daniel Rubin. All was going well for the Thomases -- they had gotten to the airport with hours to spare before their flight, but as it turns out, they would need that extra time.

Ryan's father was breaking down his son's stroller to put it on the conveyor belt as his wife, Leona, walked Ryan through the metal detector. As expected the alarm went off and Leona tried to explain the situation, the paper said.

The screener replied that the boy would have to take the braces off and walk through the detector again. When Leona Thomas attempted to walk with Ryan she was told he would have to do it alone.

She tried, calmly, to explain that Ryan could barely walk with the braces, let alone without them, but the compassionless screener was deaf to her pleas, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile Bob Thomas was getting increasingly agitated. He is an officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, so he understood the need for security, but this was overkill, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Thomases eventually complied and Ryan made it through on his own, but Bob immediately asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was less than sympathetic and stood by the screener's actions. A fellow police officer even told Bob Thomas to drop it and go enjoy his vacation.

But Bob Thomas didn’t forget and after his trip he called the airport manager. Eventually, with help from Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Daniel Rubin, the TSA finally responded to the incident saying that the boy never should have had to remove his braces and they would be looking into what went wrong that day in March.

For the Thomases that probably feels like too little too late.

Sources: Philadelphia Inquirer, TSA, CBS News

Is Obama Admin. Prepared For Another Terrorist Attack?

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Intelligence Chiefs Say Another Terror Attempt In U.S. Is "Certain"


Another attempted terrorist attack on the United States in coming months is "certain," the heads of major U.S intelligence agencies told a Senate committee Tuesday.

Al Qaeda remains the top security threat to the United States, but a growing cyber-security threat also must be addressed by the U.S. intelligence community, the heads of the CIA, the FBI and other agencies told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The hearing covered a range of security issues and became contentious, with Republicans on the committee arguing with Democratic counterparts and the intelligence chiefs on how the Obama administration has handled terrorism suspects such as the failed Christmas Day bomber of a U.S. airliner.

Asked by committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, of the likelihood of another attempted terror attack on the United States in the next three to six months, the officials agreed with Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's initial answer of "certain."

While none of the intelligence chiefs, who included CIA Director Leon Panetta, FBI Director Robert Mueller and others, cited a specific pending threat, their testimony made clear that an evolving al Qaeda remains their top concern.

"My greatest concern, and what keeps me awake at night, is that al Qaeda and its terrorist allies and affiliates could very well attack the United States," Panetta said.

Al Qaeda is adapting methods to make their plots more difficult to detect, shifting from large attacks with multiple players to using individuals without any background in terrorism, Panetta said.

He noted the Christmas Day attempt as an example, saying the suspect had a U.S. visa but little history of involvement with terrorist groups.

"Obviously, they decided to make use of someone like that within a very short period of time" of the suspect coming into contact with al Qaeda, Panetta said.

Blair also said that deciding whether to prosecute terrorist suspects in a criminal court or by a military commission should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

The question involved the handling of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner.

Republicans have criticized security officials for charging the suspect in criminal court instead of treating him as an enemy combatant to be prosecuted by a military commission.

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Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri, said it was a mistake for security officials to have read AbdulMutallab his Miranda rights on the night he was arrested, instead of first conducting further interrogation.

Blair, however, said the handling of terror suspects requires flexibility to allow for the appropriate response in each case. FBI Director Robert Mueller agreed, saying that providing a suspect with Miranda rights can bring better information than traditional military or intelligence interrogation.

Mueller noted that incentive agreements with suspects have many times resulted in gaining "actionable intelligence" that otherwise might never have come forward.

Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and James Risch of Idaho, asked why AbdulMutallab was read his Miranda rights so quickly. Mueller said the decision must be considered in the context of the full investigation.

"You're looking at it through the rear-view mirror," Mueller said.

"Do not discount what has happened or what does happen after that in terms of gaining intelligence."

Later Tuesday, a law enforcement official told CNN AbdulMutallab had been talking to investigators since last week and providing useful, current and actionable intelligence -- leads that the FBI and intelligence officials have been actively following up.

The official was not authorized to speak for attribution because the case remains under investigation. Mueller said none of the intelligence chiefs at Tuesday's hearing were consulted about the decision to read AbdulMutallab his Miranda rights. That decision was made by the chief security interrogator at the scene in consultation with the Department of Justice, Mueller said.

The discussion included a harsh exchange among committee members, with Democratic Sens. Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island accusing Republican Sens. Bond and Orrin Hatch of Utah of politicizing the issue.

Feinstein noted the policy of charging terrorists in U.S. criminal courts dates back to the Reagan administration, while Whitehouse called Republican framing of the issue "fallacious."

Hatch also asked Blair if any evidence showed that President Obama's plan to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility for terrorism suspects would reduce the terrorist threat against the United States.

Hatch and Bond said they opposed the plan because it would bring terrorism suspects to U.S. soil.

Blair responded that Guantanamo has become a major recruiting tool for al Qaeda, setting off an exchange with Hatch that concluded with Blair saying: "Guantanamo has achieved a sort of mythic quality that helps al Qaeda."

In his written testimony to the committee, Blair said it would take the capture or deaths of al Qaeda's top two leaders -- Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri -- to possibly end the group's intent to attack the United States.

On the cyber-security threat, Blair's written testimony described an inability to contend with attacks using computer networks and telecommunications systems.

"Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems, and in the very information these systems were intended to convey," Blair wrote. "We often find persistent, unauthorized, and at times, unattributable presences on exploited networks, the hallmark of an unknown adversary intending to do far more than merely demonstrate skill or mock a vulnerability."

Feinstein agreed with Blair's assessment that the nation was unprepared for the kinds of possible cyber attacks it could face.

"The need to develop an overall cyber-security strategy is very clear," Feinstein said.


Sources: CNN, MSNBC

Obama Admin. Receives "F" For Biological Attack Preparation

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WMD Panel Gives F To Obama For Failing To Prepare For Bio-Weapons Attack


The Obama administration and Congress get an F for failing to prepare for a biological terrorist attack—a “national security” risk that is getting greater “by the day,” according to the director of a blue-ribbon federal panel set up to study the issue.

Borrowing a page from the 9/11 Commission, the bipartisan WMD panel is today issuing a “report card” on how the U.S. government has responded to its December 2008 recommendations for steps needed to prepare for the threat that terrorists will strike using nuclear or biological weapons.

The panel—chaired by former Democratic senator (and intelligence-committee chairman) Bob Graham and former GOP senator Jim Talent—concluded more than a year ago that there was better than a 50-50 chance that Al Qaeda or some other terrorist group would use weapons of destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years.

Since then, the risks of such an attack have only gotten greater, said Randell Larsen, the executive director of the panel, in an interview. “The further we go down the road, the easier it gets to make a biological weapon,” he told Declassified. “It’s getting easier every day.”

Larsen acknowledged that the panel is aware of no “tactical intelligence” that Al Qaeda is about to mount such an attack. But the panel’s updated report being released Tuesday finds that “it is well within [Al Qaeda’s] present capabilities to develop and use bioweapons.” (One ominous development was the release from a Malaysian prison—just days after the panel’s initial report—of Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained microbiologist who had been working on developing a biological weapon for Al Qaeda.)

But the panel says the Obama administration and Congress get the lowest possible grade by failing to respond to one of its most important recommendations: taking steps to prepare vaccines, train medical workers, and conduct environmental cleanups in the event that a terrorist group unleashes anthrax or other biological weapons on the U.S. homeland. One development that underscored how woefully the government is prepared for such an attack was the problems encountered getting and distributing vaccines to deal with the H1N1 virus last year.

The panel estimates it would cost $3.4 billion a year for the next five years to do what is required to prepare for a biological-weapons attack, but the government is currently spending less than one tenth of that. Larsen noted, for example, that an anthrax attack in the New York subway system could cripple the city, but there are still no plans in place to decontaminate trains if such an assault were to take place. “If there were anthrax in the New York City subways, it could take decades to clean it out,” said Larsen.

The panel also gave the administration a D-plus for failing to tighten government oversight of high-contaminant labs where pathogens are stored, and Fs for failing to streamline and reform congressional oversight of homeland security and intelligence and for failing to implement programs to educate and train national-security experts who can deal with a WMD attack. But the panel gave better grades—ranging from A to C—for the response to some of its other recommendations, such as strengthening “domestic and global diseases surveillance networks,” strengthening nuclear nonproliferation programs, and creating a more efficient White House policy structure to deal with the issue.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman said the White House will respond on Tuesday.


Sources: MSNBC, Newsweek