"Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Newt Gingrich, Gov. Deval Patrick and Andrea Mitchell join NBC's David Gregory, moderator of "Meet the Press," to discuss the future of the nation as it enters a new decade." Video below (12-27-09):
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Meet The Press Video: Mayor Bloomberg, Newt Gingrich, Gov.Deval Patrick
We Need a New Government Agency to Prevent Terrorism
Once again we have failure to prevent an a terror attack. This time we were lucky. Obviously the CIA and FBI are inadequate or incapable of fighting terrorism. We need a spy/investigative government agency that deals exclusively with terrorism, domestic and foreign. 9-11 happened exactly because neither the FBI or CIA communicated with each other. Neither department was set up specifically to process, investigate or pursue terrorists. The CIA was defanged in the 70s and are not allowed to track terrorists domestically. This leaves and gaping hole. So lets scrap Homeland Security and create a department that actually does something to protect us. Obviously, no amount of airport security will stop the terrorists:
The alleged Christmas Day terrorist had been in one of the U.S. government's many terror databases since November, which is when his father brought him to the attention of embassy officials in Nigeria.
However, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came to the attention of intelligence officials months before that, according to a U.S. government official involved in the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because it is ongoing.
Still, none of the information the government had on Abdulmutallab rose to the level of putting him on the official terror watch list or no-fly list. On Christmas Eve, the 23-year-old Nigerian - who later claimed to law enforcement that he was operating on orders from al-Qaida - was able to carry a concealed explosive device onto a U.S.-bound airplane.
...Four weeks ago, Abdulmutallab's father told the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son's religious beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials.
Abdulmutallab received a valid U.S. visa in June 2008 that is good through 2010.
His is one of about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Intelligence officials said they lacked enough information to place him in the 400,000-person terror watch list or on the no-fly list of fewer than 4,000 people who should be blocked from air travel.
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