 Unfair? Why? Do they have something to hide? "Saudi US Students Fear 'Unfair' Enhanced Security," by Hadi Faqihi and Mina Al-Oraibi for Asharq Al-Awsat, January 10 Dammam, Washington D.C., Asharq Al-Awsat- There is deep concern among Saudi students with scholarships to study in the United States, following the introduction of enhanced security search measures affecting passengers from 14 states, including Saudi Arabia.
These measures have been taken against the backdrop of the attempt by a Nigerian extremist to blow up an American airliner on 25 December 2009.
The fear of these students is all the more acute as they have returned home to spend the New Year holidays with their parents.
Groups of these students have started to return to the United States as the New Year holidays come to an end.
Meanwhile, the sequestration of a Saudi student at Amsterdam airport in the Netherlands, for two days, has fueled these fears. In fact, many students fear a return to the measures that were taken in the wake of the 11 September incidents: enhanced checking of Saudi passengers, delays in granting entry visas, and other complications that followed the blowing up of the World Trade Center in 2001. Ahmad al-Kaabi, a Saudi scholarship student in the State of Texas, in the United States, returned to Saudi Arabia a few days before the attempted airliner bombing.
He said that he had noticed a great deal of concern among his fellow scholarship students, and mainly the fear that the enhanced security checks would affect their entry into the United States and their return there to finish their studies.
Al-Kaabi pointed out that the particular treatment of Saudi nationals at checkpoints on their way to the United States is not the result of this incident; in fact, it has been in force for years, but the announcement that Saudi travelers are part of the list of the nationals of 14 states who will be subject to enhanced security searches will further complicate the situation. Al-Kaabi added: "During our trips to the United States we notice that we are treated differently by the security agents as soon as they see the green passport," which is a sign of Saudi identity. In the same context, Osama al-Naqli, director of the information desk at the Saudi Foreign Ministry, said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that the ministry, through the Saudi Embassy in Washington, has asked for clarifications about the enhanced security checks that will be imposed on Saudi nationals traveling to the United States.
Asked about the details of this clarification request and the measures that will be taken to follow up the situation of Saudi scholarship students, Al-Naqli said that an answer to this question will be given later. For his part, Dr Muhammad al-Isa, cultural attaché at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said that these measures will not affect the situation of Saudi students who are sent to study in the United States. This will not affect students and should not frighten them, and the measures in question are quite normal, he said.... Thanks to JihadWatch 
 Damascus and Beirut protested today, albeit in differing tones of voice, at the US government's decision to intensify checks of citizens of some nations - including Syria and Lebanon - which are held to be sponsors of terrorism, or potential places of refuge and territories for the passage of suspect terrorists.
Receiving the US politician Alcee Hastings, in Beirut, the Lebanese President, Michel Suleiman, expressed his "concern at the security measures announced by the United States", stating that Lebanon "enjoys a climate of stability and has shown itself capable of fighting terrorism".
Following the failed attack on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight at Christmas, the United States has recently decided on tightening its security cordon at airports, especially concerning passengers originating from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen.
For its part, Syria has strongly criticised Washington's decision, albeit unofficially, calling it "a dangerous return to the 'black lists' of the Bush era".
The editorial of daily newspaper al Watan, which is close to the government, this morning averred that "Mr Obama is staking his reputation on this affair".
 Editor's note: Steven Emerson is the executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, one of the largest archival storehouses of open source intelligence on radical Islamic networks, and the author or co-author of six books on terrorism and national security. (CNN) -- In the wake of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, security experts, political commentators and the media have been asking one question: How can the United States prevent terrorists from smuggling homemade bombs through security? The most frequent answer has been full body scanners, a developing technology used in a handful of airports around the world. Although these scanners may be effective, they are at best the right answer to the wrong question. The question that law enforcement and security professionals must ask is how to prevent the terrorists themselves from getting on the airplane. Once we focus our attention on individual terrorists rather than their potential weapons, one fact is immediately clear: We must completely change the way we go about airport security and counterterrorism in general. The procedures are both inadequate and ineffective.
The current random searches do only a minimum to improve security. Nothing is more unproductive than searching an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair from Sweden or a 3-year-old child simply because she or he was the 10th person in line. Quite simply, the system has failed and must be revamped. Recognizing existing deficiencies, on Monday the Transportation Safety Administration announced it has taken the first step toward implementing a revised screening process for airline passengers. TSA will mandate that "every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening." This is a step in the right direction. But more should be done. Instead of a system akin to searching for a needle in a haystack while blindfolded, the Transportation Security Administration and the intelligence community should institute a system of "smart screening." Such a revised screening process would consider a host of factors in determining whether someone is a potential security threat. Among the considerations would be: behavioral signs; appearance; itinerary and travel history; appearance on watch lists; known connections to radical organizations or individuals; and yes, ethnicity and religious identity. Recognizing that the inclusion of ethnicity and religious characteristics in this list may be unsettling, it simply cannot be ignored that the overwhelmingly large majority of terrorist attacks undertaken over the past decade were committed by Islamic fundamentalists. Consequently, to ignore it as a factor -- as does current policy -- could have devastating effects. The procedures are both inadequate and ineffective. The current random searches do only a minimum to improve security. Any characteristic that can help us identify followers of radical Islam would be critical to determining who should be denied a visa, who should be put on the no-fly list and who should be subjected to a secondary inspection at the airport. One point worth mentioning is that a proposal for "smart screening" is not a call for a ban on Muslims flying on planes, nor is it an attempt to stop every person with Arab features and put them on a watch list. Rather than an accusation of guilt, it is simply an additional investigative tool that will allow law enforcement officials to effectively and efficiently marshal their resources toward a known threat, that posed by violent adherents of radical Islamic theology. Screeners and officials of intelligence agencies need as much information as possible to make decisions. To ban the use of critically relevant criteria in preventing catastrophic acts of terrorism, a policy in effect today, is to deny intelligence officials all the tools they need to make critical decisions. Law enforcement has done criminal profiling for decades and recognizes it as an invaluable tool. If a child is raped, the first suspects logically are pedophiles. Skeptical that "smart screening" will be effective? Mohammad al-Qatani, the intended 20th hijacker from the September 11 attacks, was stopped in Orlando, Florida, in 2001 because of profiling. It must be conceded that this proposal may not be 100 percent effective. No system ever will be. However, as terrorist groups consistently demonstrate their adaptability, one thing that has remained relatively constant is the pool of willing and able recruits. If some of the most well-trained and effective terrorists cannot carry out their mission because of profiling, that makes the likelihood of a successful terrorist attack that much slimmer. The new operatives may be less well-trained and hence less deadly. What they will undoubtedly have in common with their more experienced brethren, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality, will be an adherence to radical Islam. Rather than calling for an all-encompassing program where all followers of Islam would be swept up in some sort of dragnet, law enforcement officials should be provided with all of the tools necessary to prevent acts of terrorism, including the ability to consider the potential that an individual getting on an airplane has been radicalized. Race and ethnicity should never be sole criteria in evaluating threats. Rather I am calling for consideration of such criteria only in addition to many other factors. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steven Emerson. IPT
 US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has announced she will postpone her visit to Israel, which was slated for this week, due to public pressure on the government following the thwarted attempt to blow up an American airplane during Christmas and President Barack Obama's demand to hold an extensive investigation into aviation security measures and submit recommendations ahead of a White House hearing on the subject scheduled for Tuesday. Napolitano's deputy, Jane Lute and Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman will arrive in her place. The visit, slated for Wednesday, was planned as part of a round of meetings in several world capitals. The American delegation will leave to Europe on Monday and arrive in Israel Wednesday for coordination and educational meetings between professional echelons. Recently, Republican sources have been pressuring Napolitano to resign her post, following her slip of the tongue during an interview, in which she said that authorities managed security measures well following the attempted attack on the US-bound plane. A day after the interview, Napolitano retracted her statement and admitted that many breeches in the security establishment allowed for the Nigerian terrorist to board the flight. The goal of the American delegation that was to be headed by Napolitano was to coordinate security measures of US-bound flights around the world. Despite her absence from the upcoming meeting, Napolitano is slated to visit Israel in a few weeks to take part in a round of meetings between ministerial echelons. In accordance with increased American aviation security measures, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced it began conducting Monday new passenger screening procedures for passengers flying to the US. The new procedures include physical searches of passengers and their baggage, metal detectors and x-raying luggage. According to the TSA announcement, passengers holding Cuban passports as well as passports from 13 Arab countries including Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia will be subject to physical searches. YNet
 US authorities have tightened security measures for all US-bound airline passengers, including enhanced mandatory screening of travellers from countries deemed to sponsor terrorism. Ten days after a failed Al-Qa'ida bid to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, US transport officials said the new measures were part of a drive to put in place “long-term, sustainable security measures”. All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening or so-called “threat-based” screens, the Transport Security Administration said in a statement. But it further mandated that “every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening”. He boarded the flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after flying in from Lagos, Nigeria. Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are currently the only four countries deemed by the State Department to be state sponsors of terrorism. But a senior administration official told the Politico daily that all passengers from other countries of interests “such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen will receive full body pat-down and physical inspection of property”. “These are changes that weren't widely in place for all carriers or countries on 12/24,” the official told Politico, quoted on its website. Such screening “could also include explosive detection technology or advanced imaging technology where it's available”. TSA said the new measures were being introduced “because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners”. The increased screening came as the United States and Britain closed their embassies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa over security fears, as President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism advisor warned Al-Qa'ida could be planning another attack. There were “indications that Al-Qa'ida is planning to carry out an attack against (a) target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy,” advisor John Brennan told CNN. Obama directly linked Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemen-based cell of Osama bin Laden's group, to the failed bombing of the Northwest jet carrying 290 people. He has ordered two reviews into the security lapses which nearly led to another tragedy in a nation still scarred by the Al-Qa'ida attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr Obama, who is due to end his Christmas vacation in Hawaii today to return to Washington, will huddle with his top security advisors tomorrow to review the findings of the investigations. The Australian
 Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.
Heck of a job, Brownie.
The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension.
From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters."
Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.
And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over -- that is, if it ever existed.
Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."
And produces linguistic -- and logical -- oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Ford Hood shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" -- code for daring to associate Nidal Hasan's mass murder with his Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the bomber acted alone.
More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."
Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant -- an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians -- and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point -- surprise! -- he stops talking.
This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved." Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed and sent him.
This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant.
The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator -- no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation.
The president said that this incident highlights "the nature of those who threaten our homeland." But the president is constantly denying the nature of those who threaten our homeland. On Tuesday, he referred five times to Abdulmutallab (and his terrorist ilk) as "extremist(s)."
A man who shoots abortion doctors is an extremist. An eco-fanatic who torches logging sites is an extremist.
Abdulmutallab is not one of these. He is a jihadist. And unlike the guys who shoot abortion doctors, jihadists have cells all over the world; they blow up trains in London, nightclubs in Bali and airplanes over Detroit (if they can); and are openly pledged to war on America.
Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks. But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy -- jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon -- turns laxity into a governing philosophy.
 by Frank Gaffney The Center For Security Policy Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came in for some well-deserved criticism for declaring over the weekend that "the system worked" with respect to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's effort to blow up the plane he was flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.
By Monday, she was backpedalling, acknowledging that "our system did not work in this instance." In truth, for a lot of Americans, Ms. Napolitano has not had much credibility since she tried to ban "terrorism" from the official lexicon of her department. But arguably the most serious indication that she is wholly ill-equipped to carry out her present responsibilities can be found in another - as yet uncorrected - statement she made on Sunday.
She told CNN's "State of the Union" that, "Right now, we have no indication [that Abdulmutallab's actions were] part of anything larger." Not "part of anything larger"? Is she serious? Does she take us for fools? Read my lips, Secretary Napolitano: Abdulmutallab's actions were absolutely, positively part of something larger. What they were part of is the comprehensive theo-political-legal program that authoritative Islam calls Shariah. This supremacist program requires its adherents to engage in jihad, or holy war, to bring about the triumph of Islam under a global theocracy, one that will impose Shariah on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Pursuant to Shariah, jihad should - wherever practicable - be pursued through the terrifying use of violence. Where violent jihad is impractical or would be counterproductive, Shariah directs faithful Muslims to use other means to advance the same goal. Koran expert Robert Spencer calls the latter "stealth jihad." The question must be asked: Are we seeing a dramatic increase in violent jihadism in America - National Public Radio reported on Saturday that there had been fourteen attempts in 2009 (compared to two or three in recent years) and that they had been increasingly "operational" in character, not just "aspirational" - because violence is now seen to be practicable here? Specifically, could it be that jihadists have been emboldened by what they see as weakness and/or fecklessness on the part of the U.S. administration?
Could steps Team Obama has taken - such as the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the release of some hardened terrorists held there to Yemen (where Abdulmuttalab claims he got his plastic explosive device), granting others access to civilian courts and constitutional rights, etc. - actually be emboldening them to believe that murder and mayhem will accelerate the defeat and conquest of the infidel West? The U.S. government was warned by Abdulmutallab's father at least two months ago that his son had been "radicalized" - in other words, that he had embraced Shariah. That being the case, he was transformed from being one of the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world who are not a problem into one of those who are. In the wake of the latest, narrowly averted massacre at the hands of jihadists, we are being promised executive branch reviews of the practice that, in the wake of his father's warning, put Abdulmuttalab on the improbably named Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database - but did not revoke his multiple entry U.S. visa or otherwise keep him from flying. Multiple congressional investigations will be launched, as well. Such reviews will, however, amount to little more than a waste of time and taxpayer resources - and possibly a serious distraction - if they do not address, and henceforth require screening for, the motivation for such attacks. It is absurd to think that "the system" is going to do anything other than exponentially increase the amount of discomfort for airline passengers as long as it does not weed out those who embrace as an article of faith their duty to destroy us. We need to be equally clear about the menace posed by those who adhere to Shariah but profess to seek to "Islamicize" America through non-violent means. In the wake of the recent actual and averted attacks, the press has, for example, trumpeted the views of parents of five jihadists from Northern Virginia, imams at mosques where they worshipped and prominent fixtures in the various Muslim Brotherhood front organizations. Unsurprisingly, all of them profess shock - shock! - that these young people would want to do as they have been taught to, pursuant to Shariah: namely, follow the way of jihad against the Dar al-Harb (the "House of War" that is the non-Muslim world). Nowhere in these disinformation operations is any mention made of the Muslim Brotherhood's self-declared mission in America. According to an internal Brotherhood strategic plan dating from 1991, that mission is: "A kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions." As long as Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder, the intelligence community, law enforcement, the military, the media and most especially President Obama refuse to acknowledge what animates our enemies, we will never develop an effective strategy for defeating them, let alone successfully implement it. Part and parcel of achieving such an understanding is to stop allowing the stealth jihadists in our midst to blind us to this reality. With thanks to Radical Islam
 President Obama yesterday pulled his head out of the sand long enough to promise a thorough review of US se curity practices after the near-suicide bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day. Then he stuck it right back in. Obama, in a brief address from Hawaii, did manage to utter the "T" word: "A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism." But he refused to define the nature of the threat. Nor did he fire Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- a pity, because if any government official ever earned the boot, it's her. Sunday, she claimed "the system" she allegedly oversees "worked" on Christmas Day -- even though Nigerian jihadist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab brought a bomb aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 and almost detonated it. The claim was nonsensical, as she finally noted yesterday -- "the system didn't work" -- but not before destroying the credibility she needs to hold the job. Yet Obama is short on credibility, too. Why can't he bring himself to describe the threat for what it is: an Islamist holy war against America? Yesterday, Obama termed Abdulmutallab "an isolated extremist." Really? Is that all? The bomber's own father warned US officials in October that his son had fallen in with Islamic radicals. Abdulmutallab himself reportedly told federal officials he trained with al Qaeda in Yemen -- and, for what it's worth, al Qaeda in Yemen confirms that. And ABC News reported yesterday that two of Abdulmutallab's Yemeni trainers had been released from Guantanamo Bay to the Saudis in 2007 -- and then set free after (no joke) "art therapy rehabilitation." Meanwhile, Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation reports 12 incidents of Islamist terror either in the United States or involving Americans abroad in 2009, the most in any year since 9/11. (These include the Fort Hood massacre.) See the trend line? Obama refuses to. "Those who would attack our country" is how he described the jihadis -- a formulation he used four times in his brief address. But if the president refuses to define the enemy, how can he expect America to defend against that enemy? No wonder Napolitano is so confused. No reasonable person believes that terror screening can ever be foolproof. But Americans need full confidence that their government is addressing the problem as vigorously as possible. This would require Obama to order two basic changes in anti-terror policy: * Captured terrorists need to be treated as such -- and not as common criminals. Abdulmutallab needs to disappear down a black hole somewhere, and stay there until the war on terror is over. No criminal trials for terrorists. * Homeland Security needs to quit pretending little old ladies from the heartland pose a security threat and institute an intelligent traveler-profiling policy that targets Middle Eastern males. Certainly, Abdulmutallab's attack was instructive: Who knew it was so easy to waltz through security with high explosives stuffed down one's pants? But while odds are that some equally imaginative jihadist will someday succeed, a comprehensive, focused anti-terror policy will make that much less likely.
 It is sad that President Obama and his team are still going through on-the-job training a year into their administration. Despite the fact that Janet Napolitano, our homeland-security secretary, bizarrely tried to nix the use of the term terrorism and despite the fact that his own White House dubiously dubbed this global conflict "an overseas contingency operation," the president has finally learned to use the most obvious term — terror— this week. Mr. President, if you are listening, here are a few more thoughts from a concerned Muslim. You cannot just stay hunkered down at your "beachhead" in Hawaii after another virulent byproduct of global political Islam attacked on our homeland. While no one was really hurt, you don't exactly look like you are taking the issue seriously when your photo of the day captures a romp on the beach.
It was not a coincidence that this was attempted on Christmas day, yet you ignore the religious struggles in this conflict. It is time that our commander-in-chief and the leader of the free world come to terms with the reality that this is the greatest conflict of the century and a battle of ideas between western liberal secular democracies and political Islam. While you and your colleagues are stymied by the question of whether to even use the term "terror," the ideology of al-Qaeda (violent political Islam) is spreading exponentially. Your systematic failure to advance American security against ideologies that threaten us may turn catastrophic. In fact the Christmas bomber said so himself, telling an investigator that "there are more just like me who will strike soon." By all means, Mr. President, fix the holes in our security that we know are there — but terrorists who are suicidal religious zealots and very creative will sadly very likely strike again soon. This year certainly proves that. Our nation is clearly becoming more and more anxious and concerned over the rash of radicalized Muslims. Is it not time for you to acknowledge that terror is a simply a symptom of a more profound deeper underlying disease? That disease is political Islam. Hopefully you will realize that we can only defeat an enemy we can name, describe, and understand. As Thomas Friedman and others have recently reminded us, the only answer to jihadists, Salafists, and Islamists is a narrative from within America, and most important from within Islam, that counters the global supremacism of political Islam. Until you say exactly that, we will continue to flail in this conflict. I hope after Nidal Hasan, after the American jihadis in Pakistan, and now after the Christmas bomber radicalized in London, that you see our need for clear leadership against political Islam and its ubiquitous permeating militant manifestations.
We need a leader who recognizes that this conflict is most significantly within Muslim communities as we Muslims struggle with the conflict between theocracy and democracy, sharia and liberty, Islamism and freedom, and salafism and modernity.
The longer you squander your leadership and stay silent on this, the more vulnerable we will be. M.Zudhi Jasser
 It's time to step back, take a deep breath and review the war against the west, and specifically America in the year 2009. Islamic invasion of America: The 20 Point Plan The stealth jihad is raging every day in our schools, our universities, our culture, in the courtroom and workplaces, but I thought it important to list the Islamic attacks against America this past year -- because the media won't. The colonization is full on. Look at the number of violent attacks against this country in 2009 alone. And what have we done in retaliation? Taken our shoes off at airports. Confiscated our lotions and perfumes to TSA. Created an outreach division at the State department reporting directly to the Secretary of State. Started teaching a glossed over, mendacious narrative about Islam in public schools across the country. Instituted prayer times for devout Muslims in the workplace. The list towards surrender and dhimmitude goes on and on. The refusal to address the ideology, the refusal to address the inspiration, the objective, the goals of the devout pursuing the Koranic goal of a universal caliphate ensures our defeat. On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid attempted to blow up a plane with his shoes. Nine years later we are still taking our shoes off while the jihadis have advanced their goals, Islamic supremacists have made incalculable inroads into our government institutions, culture, schools and workplaces.
What have we done to combat the enemy within and without? After Bush lost his mojo in 2006, nothing, Worse, we regressed, and in a final act of mass confusion and denial, elected Barack Hussein. Unbelievable. This is not my father's America. Misunderstander of Islam, Butcher knife on hand, Out on $100 Bail: "He was a Muslim and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis" 12/28/09 Abdul Mudallad Tries To Blow Up Northwest Airlines Plane, Directed by Al Qaeda: The AP says motive unclear 12/25/09 Five Missing Muslim DC Students Americans Planning Jihad in Pakistan: Like Father, like son 12/10/09 Chicago Muslim Charged In Mumbai Islamic Massacre Planned More Terror Attacks in India 12/09/09 “I said he was acting...like a terrorist,” roommate of Jihadi that Murdered Professor 12/07/09 Chicago Jihadis who Plotted to bomb Danish Cartoon Publisher at Halal Slaughterhouse Tied to Mumbai 11/24/09 Muslim Sentenced to Six-year jail term in Plot to Blow up Sears Tower: "Islamic terrorism is one of the most tremendous problem that this country now confronts ... this defendant took an oath to Al-Qaeda" 11/18/09 Muslim Garbed Jihadi Nidal Hasan Screamed "Allah Akbar" as he Mowed Down US Soldiers at Fort Hood, Death Toll Rises Going Muslim on a Photographer outside Michigan Mosque 10/30/09 Muslims of America Domestic Terror Jihad training camp videos to be released Beltway Jihadi Sniper John Muhammad: Death to the Jihadi Tonight 11/10/09
Son of an Imam Killed in Gun Battle with the FBI in Detroit is Arrested 10/29/09
Michigan Mosque leader killed during Islamic gun battle with fed 10/28/09
Hush Hush: Huge Fed/FBI Raid on Chicago Halal Goat Meat Slaughterhouse 10/20/09
Boston Muslim Terrorist Son of MAS (Muslim American Society) Leader 10/26/09
Another Conviction of Muslims Engaged in Plotting Islamic Attacks Against American Overseas 10/22/09 NY Imam Indicted in NYC Terror Attack Plot 10/22/09
Massive Muslim Attack Averted: "plot to kill two prominent US politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in US malls and American troops in Iraq" 10/31/09 "New York Muslim indicted for plotting to kill U.S. troops 9/25/09 FBI arrests Jordanian for downtown Dallas bomb plot... 9/26/09
NYC: Muslims Protest "RACIAL PROFILING" in wake of arrests in major jihad terror plot 10/00/09
Illinois man charged in plot to bomb federal offices... 9/24/09
Terror suspects accused of targeting Marine base in Quantico... 9/24/09
Men vanish after taking photos of Philly subway system... 9/24/09
Muslim Bomber Targeted Republican Representative Aaron Schock in Illinois 9/26/09 New York Muslim indicted for plotting to kill U.S. troops 9/25/09 Another Muslim Bomber: Hosam Maher Husein Smadi Arrested in Dallas Bomb Plot 9/25/09 New York City on High Alert for Islamic Bomb Attacks: Scouring Stadiums, Mass Transit, Hotels, Entertainment Complexes UPDATE: "Especially Troubling" Revelations on Muslim Suspects, 9 More BEING SOUGHT 9/22/09 Terror Bust in NC: "This was a homegrown cell based in rural America. 2) It was led by a white convert to Islam named Daniel Patrick Boyd. 3) The cell had plotted against Israel, which means they could very well have targeted Jewish sites on U.S. soil" 7/28/09 NY Muslim Convert Charged with 2008 Attack on US Base in Afghanistan and assisting in Islamic Plot to Blow Up NY Subways on Thanksgiving 7/22/09 Muslim Gangs Get Foothold in Minnesota 7/20/09 THE WAR ON AMERICAN SOIL: JIHADI WHO KILLED/SHOT US SOLDIERS said, "an act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military” "American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Koran" 6/10/09 Muslim[s] Killer Targeted Jewish organizations, a Baptist church, a child care center, a post office and military recruiting centers 6/03/09 BUSTED: More Terror In Chicago 5/26/09 MINNEAPOLIS MUSLIM GUILTY OF AIDING AL QAEDA 5/21/09 4 NYC MUSLIM TERRORISTS ARRESTED IN PLANNED MASSIVE BOMB ATTACK ON NYC SYNAGOGUES, NATIONAL GUARD AVIATION 5/20/09 5 Convicted if Sears Tower Islamic attack plot: "I want to fight some jihad" 5/12/09 MUSLIM GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR BINGHAMTON MASSACRE 4/4/09 BREAKING: ANOTHER BROOKLYN SYNAGOGUE ATTACKED BY A JIHADI3/4/09 FBI Raids UF's Nuclear Power Institute and Iranian Nuke Professor - Director's Home 2/25/09 It's important to know, there are many many sympathizers here. JIHAD IN USA: PRO-HAMAS DEMONSTRATIONS ACROSS THE USA
"I want you to watch as I kill your children, cover your children in their own blood!" I want you to to watch me blow your children's brains out" With many thanks to Atlas
 The near-success of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, to set off an explosive on Christmas Day should open the American public's eyes to the sad state of counterterrorism eight years after 9/11. The incident involved a Nigerian national in Seat 19A – ideally placed over the fuel tanks, atop the wing, and next to the exterior of the aircraft – of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
As summarized by the Wall Street Journal, it happened as the Airbus 330-300 carrying 289 people was approaching Detroit. Mr. Abdulmutallab went to the plane's restroom for about 20 minutes, and upon returning to his seat he stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself, according to the Justice Department complaint. As the flight was heading for a landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport before noon, the complaint alleges, Mr. Abdulmutallab set off the device. Passengers heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odor, and some observed Mr. Abdulmutallab's pants leg and the wall of the airplane on fire. Subsequent investigations learned that the plot was organized and launched by Al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen, who arranged for 80 grams of PETN (pentaerythritol) to be sewn in Abdulmutallab's underwear. Investigators concluded that only a chance malfunction prevented the explosives from bringing down the Northwest plane. Umar Farouk's father, Umaru Abdulmutallab, former chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria and one of his country's most prominent businessmen, recently went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja to warn about his son's "radicalization and associations," prompting American officialdom to place the son on a terror watch list of about 550,000 names, the Terrorist Screening Data Base. But they did not place him on the list of about 15,000 individuals who must go through additional screening, much less the list of about 4,000 people on the "no-fly" list, who are not allowed to fly to or in the United States. Nor did they revoke Abdulmutallab's two-year, multi-entry tourist visa. Nor did an air marshal accompany his flight. Despite these multiple failures, Janet Napolitano, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, astonishingly claimed that the system "worked really very, very smoothly" in Detroit.
This institutional myopia increases my worries about U.S. law enforcement. Of course, had the system worked, Abdulmutallab would never have entered the airplane, much less set off an explosive device. Looking ahead, the Transportation Security Administration has issued an emergency order requiring travelers headed for the United States to undergo a "thorough pat-down" at the boarding gate, with a focus on the upper legs and torso and a secondary inspection of carry-on baggage. During the final hour on all U.S. flights, passengers must remain seated, may not access carry-on baggage or keep personal items on their laps. More delights may follow, reports the New York Times: "Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane. … On one flight, from Newark Airport, flight attendants kept cabin lights on for the entire trip instead of dimming them for takeoff and landing. … In effect, the restrictions mean that passengers on flights of 90 minutes or less would most likely not be able to leave their seats at all." As Phyllis Chesler plaintively asks, "Are we all going to be subjected to underwear checks before boarding our flights? If so, Al-Qaeda will soon secrete explosives in body cavities. Will we all be searched there as well?" In other words, because U.S. security agencies refuse to take the sensible precaution of concentrating their resources on the small target pool of suspects, namely Muslims, about 1 percent of the population, hundreds of millions of passengers must bear the burden of extra cost, inconvenience, and loss of privacy. The Detroit episode renders invalid several aphorisms I honed over recent years: - Had U.S. law enforcement devoted the attention to the 9/11 plotters that it has since given to counterterrorism, 9/11 would never have taken place.
- While Sudden Jihad Syndrome by isolated individuals remains beyond the abilities of American institutions to stop (viz., the Ft. Hood shooter last month), terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda are well under surveillance.
- Government authorities have terrorism under control, so we private analysts can focus instead on the non-violent forms of radical Islam known variously as "stealth jihad," "creeping Shari'a," "lawful Islamism," or "Islamism 2.0."
The Northwest incident takes me back to 9/11 itself, when I wrote a bitter analysis how the U.S. government had "grievously failed in its topmost duty to protect American citizens from harm." That failure continues. What size disaster must occur to inspire a serious approach to counterterrorism? Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum, Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. Dec. 28, 2009 update:
Janet Napolitano reversed her inane comment under withering criticism, saying on NBC's "Today" program this morning that "Our system did not work in this instance.
No one is happy or satisfied with that." But her original statement still indicates an alarmingly self-satisfied mentality at the upper reaches of the Obama administration. Daniel Pipes
 Investigators in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East are racing to determine how the son of a Nigerian banker became the first person in eight years to try to set off an explosive aboard a U.S. commercial airliner. President Barack Obama on Sunday ordered a review of government procedures for screening airline passengers and for tracking individuals suspected of terrorist ties.
The administration also said it was tightening security procedures, which airlines and passengers say is already causing delays on international flights.
Lawmakers of both parties expressed concerns that the man charged in the Christmas Day attempt to bomb Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was able to board an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight with a hidden cache of explosives even though he was on a terrorist watch list.
The incident comes on the heels of nearly a dozen terrorism probes and alleged plots to come to light in recent months. The string of cases highlights the difficulty, more than five years after the 9/11 Commission called for better communication between intelligence, law-enforcement and security agencies, of identifying relevant information that could stop a terrorist attack. One U.S. official briefed on the inquiry said investigators are still trying to determine whether the suspect's claims of links to al Qaeda in Yemen are accurate, and how strong those ties are. Jitters over the case were heightened on Sunday by another incident involving a passenger on the same Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, two days later. A Nigerian man was subdued by the flight crew after he began "acting belligerently," according to U.S. officials. Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, said the crew of Sunday's Flight 253 asked authorities to meet the plane upon landing in Detroit because of a "verbally disruptive" passenger. All 257 passengers and 12 crew members got off the plane safely. The Homeland Security Department said Sunday evening that "indications at this time are that the individual's behavior is due to legitimate illness, and no other suspicious behavior or materials have been found." In the aftermath of the attempted Christmas bombing, federal agents are working with authorities in Britain, the Netherlands, Yemen, and Nigeria to determine whether Mr. Abdulmutallab was part of a wider plot. Mr. Abdulmutallab told investigators he had affiliations with al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, who gave him the device and detonation instructions to blow up the plane, according to U.S. officials. Law enforcement officials said there is no evidence yet to indicate that Mr. Abdulmutallab was part of, or in contact with, any terror cell in the U.S. or the U.K., and that early evidence indicates he was radicalized through contacts with extremists via the Internet. Federal prosecutors are expected on Monday to request a judge's permission to obtain DNA from Mr. Abdulmutallab to compare with DNA found on remains of the device taken from the aircraft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said the device contained the explosive PETN, which convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid used in his 2001 attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight. The FBI's office in Yemen is working with authorities there to track any recent travel by Mr. Abdulmutallab in that country. U.S. officials say the accused man's father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, had warned officials at the U.S. embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, in recent weeks that he feared his son had been "radicalized" during trips outside the West African country. The father's concerns about his son weren't specific, nor did they point to any imminent threat against the U.S., according to a U.S. official. But they were enough for U.S. authorities to add his name to a broad terrorism database, called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. People on the list are not precluded from boarding flights to the U.S. Mr. Abdulmutallab wasn't added to more sensitive databases, such as the so-called "no fly" watch list, that would have flagged him for additional screening or barred him from boarding a U.S.-bound flight. In June 2008, the U.S. Embassy in London had issued a multiyear, multientry tourist visa to Mr. Abdulmutallab, when the Nigerian national was a student living in the U.K., said a U.S. official. Mr. Abdulmutallab later left the U.K. and traveled to Dubai and Yemen. He was denied entry to the U.K. in May 2009 by border officials who said the school he proposed to attend wasn't legitimate. Rep. Peter King of New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview that briefings from U.S. security officials indicate that "the government definitely knew about [the alleged attacker]. They had a file on him. The question now is why wasn't he on the no-fly list." According to a federal criminal complaint, Mr. Abdulmutallab boarded a Northwest flight, shared with Dutch Airline KLM, in Lagos on Thursday, then transferred to the Northwest airliner Friday in Amsterdam, bound for Detroit. He had a device attached to his body, according to the criminal complaint. As the Airbus 330-300 carrying 289 people was approaching Detroit, Mr. Abdulmutallab went to the restroom for about 20 minutes. On returning to his seat, he stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself, according to the complaint. As the plane was heading for a landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the complaint alleges, Mr. Abdulmutallab set off the device, causing a fire. He was subdued by passengers. WSJ
 An attempted jihad attack on Christmas Day has revealed that Americans are much more vulnerable to such attacks than most have believed – while government officials whistle in the dark. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 just before it landed in Detroit. In response, Barack Obama chose not to cut short his golfing vacation in Hawaii; the White House announced that he would “likely” have something to say about this latest attempted jihad attack on U.S. soil “in the next few days.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was ebullient, maintaining that “the system worked” and “everything happened that should have.” Unless the “system” was consisted of relying on passengers to tackle jihadists (as Jasper Schuringa, the Dutch passenger on Flight 253, subdued Abdulmutallab), and trusting that jihadis’ detonators will malfunction (as did Abdulmutallab’s), Napolitano’s statement couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth.
In reality, nothing worked. Nothing at all, both in terms of security procedures for individual air passengers, and in terms of the larger strategy for dealing with jihad terrorism. All the stupid and humiliating airport security procedures, all the little baggies for toothpaste and shampoo, all the padding through the security scanner in stocking feet, didn’t work.
Abdulmutallab was able to board the plane with the makings of a bomb that would have destroyed the aircraft and killed everyone in it. The Transportation Security Administration has scrambled since Christmas Day to stiffen security procedures, but its effort is foredoomed: jihadis study these procedures carefully, always searching for ways to circumvent them. And such ways exist, even if every passenger were subjected to a full body cavity search – bomb ingredients can be separated and combined mid-flight, or spirited onboard in ways as yet unimagined by the most visionary TSA official. Abdulmutallib was also on a terror watch list, although that fact, and the fact that he had been known to anti-terror officials for several years, did not prevent him from boarding Flight 253 – showing that such lists and even official scrutiny are as useless as taking off your shoes in the airport security line.
What’s more, the jihadi’s father warned American officials about his son, who was being watched already. And still nothing was done to keep him from boarding the plane. Abdulmutallab likewise demonstrates the failure of long-term anti-terror strategies. Educated at the British International School in Lome, Togo, he was a classic recipient of Western largesse designed to win over the loyalties of Muslims. Yet his encounter with kindly non-Muslim Westerners spending their lives to educate him and his peers did not blunt the fervor of his jihadist fanaticism. And as a rich man’s son, he once again gives the lie to the firmly and widely held assumption that poverty causes terrorism. All the aid programs based on the assumption that poverty does cause terrorism and that money for schools and roads and hospitals would win over Muslim hearts and minds have not worked, and will not work. All the concerted efforts by the State Department and DHS to ignore the jihad doctrine and reach out to people they deemed to be “moderate Muslims” have likewise not worked. According to the Nigerian newspaper This Day, when Abdulmutallab was at the British International School, “he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called ‘Alfa,’ a local coinage for Islamic scholar.”
This illustrates yet again that, contrary to the popular view, Islamic jihadists present themselves among their fellow Muslims as the exponents of authentic Islam, making their case from the Qur’an and Sunnah — and those Muslims who oppose jihadist violence and Islamic supremacism have never successfully refuted their arguments. Outreach to moderate Muslims has not aided in this effort, and has deceived the general public into thinking that the influence of peaceful Muslims over jihadists is much larger than it actually is. As far as the DHS and Janet Napolitano are concerned, the Flight 253 incident is a massive and unmitigated disaster, showing the complete and abject failure of their anti-terror policies across the board.
The Flight 253 attempted jihad attack shows that the American response to jihad terrorism has failed not just in one detail or a single area. Rather, the failure is massive, comprehensive, all-encompassing.
The anti-terror approach adopted since 9/11 is not working, and is never going to work. Until it is scrapped, there will be many, many more incidents like the one on Flight 253. But rather than have the decency to admit the truth, the DHS chief is putting on a brave face and pretending that up is down and down is up. And the President keeps golfing. Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of ten books, eleven monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book, The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, is available now from Regnery Publishing, and he is coauthor (with Pamela Geller) of the forthcoming book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (Simon and Schuster). FPM
 A NEW regime of even tougher airport security is expected, after screening failures allowed a Nigerian man who trained with al-Qa'ida and was listed on a US terrorist database to try to blow up an international flight shortly before it landed in Detroit. The attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, with 278 passengers, has highlighted security weaknesses in three countries. Authorities are particularly concerned that the accused bomber, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was already registered as a suspected terrorist but not prevented from flying or put on an official "watch-list" because of insufficient information. Abdulmutallab, who was badly burned during the incident on Christmas Day (Washington time), was charged in a Detroit hospital yesterday with attempting to destroy an aircraft. He is accused of detonating an explosive device attached to his body. Investigators have found the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, the same plastic explosive used by convicted al-Qa'ida "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in December 2001. Flights to the US were already subject to random searches and explosives-detection tests, but US authorities have told airlines worldwide that all passengers must now be patted down by security staff and have their carry-on baggage searched prior to boarding. As well as being required to be seated one hour prior to arrival, passengers will be prevented from accessing overhead lockers and cabin baggage or having blankets, pillows or belongings on their laps during this time. Security at airports around the world was significantly tightened after al-Qa'ida-backed terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, brought down four aircraft and killed almost 3000 people. Reid's failed attempt to destroy a US-bound flight using a bomb in his shoe prompted authorities to require passengers to take off their shoes during airport screening. In the latest attack, the accused Nigerian man is said to have passed security undetected by hiding PETN detonation materials on his body that were too small to detect. After possibly mixing powder and a small amount of fluid in one of the jet's toilets and returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab covered himself with a blanket and allegedly set off the device. Passengers who witnessed the incident as the plane approached Detroit Metropolitan Airport said they saw a man on fire and an apparent explosion. He was overpowered by passengers and brought to the front of the aircraft. Abdulmutallab was charged while sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital conference room at the University of Michigan Health Centre, where he is being treated for third-degree burns. He faced two charges: attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device on board an aircraft. According to reporters, he was asked if he understood the charges. He replied in English: "Yes, I do." British police yesterday conducted searches at various addresses in London, including the basement flat where Abdulmutallab had lived when he was a student. Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent Nigerian former banker, revealed yesterday that he had alerted the US embassy in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, six months ago about the possible risk posed by his son's "radicalisation and associations". Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, is understood to have raised concerns that his son may have travelled to Yemen and feared that he wanted to join "some kind of jihad". The US government appears to have followed up the alert by creating a file in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. But Abdulmutallab had already been granted a two-year tourist visa in June last year by the US embassy in London. He was not placed on a "no-fly list" nor "watch-listed" on the day of the incident.
Abdulmutallab was a mechanical engineering student in London. He is then believed to have asked his family for further support to study in Dubai, but may have travelled to Yemen.
He is alleged to have told FBI investigators after his arrest that he received training and explosive materials from terrorists in Yemen linked to al-Qa'ida. This information is still to be verified.
Amsterdam's Schipol aiport, where Abdulmutallab boarded for Detroit, is one of the world's most high-security airports.
Schipol is understood to be testing a new generation of screening equipment, called backscatter body scanners, although it is not known at this stage if this device was used for Abdulmutallab's flight.
While some reports said yesterday explosive materials were hidden on his body, one claimed more specifically that powder was sewn into his underpants.
It was also claimed he mixed the powder with liquid from a syringe, part of which was found near his seat after the explosion. The small quantity may not have been sufficient to do wider damage to the plane.
If explosives were attached to Abdulmutallab's body, the only way to have detected them would have been a body search.
Several Republicans yesterday accused Barack Obama of failing to take notice of early signs of terrorism. Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said: "We came very, very close to losing that plane."
The US President, who is holidaying with his family in Hawaii, was briefed on the incident and did not return home early to Washington. The Australian
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