By The Prowler on 12.29.09 @ 6:09AM
Shifting blame won't cut it, Mr. President.
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was placed
on the British government's watch list in May 2009 and banned
from entering the country, the U.S. embassy in London (and by
extension the U.S. State Department), as well as U.S.
intelligence agencies, were notified of this move as part of
information-sharing agreements entered into by a number of
Western governments after the September 11, 2001 attacks, says a
U.S. State Department employee on the condition of anonymity
because of concern that by speaking about the situation, their
job could be endangered.
"We have agreements with a number of different countries that
work with us cooperatively on intelligence matters," says the
State Department employee. "A number of the treaties work through
our justice departments or foreign offices or intelligence and
interior or homeland security agencies. Several departments here
in Washington got the information from London and it didn't
trigger anything within our own system.
This employee says that despite statements from the Obama
Administration, such information was flagged and given higher
priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the
changeover "we are encouraged to not create the appearance that
we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees
were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were
relieved to not have to live under them any longer."
The Obama Administration is attempting to shift blame for
Abdulmutallab, pointing reporters to information that the
Nigerian was given a visa by the U.S. embassy in London to travel
to the U.S. in 2008, around the same time that he graduated from
University College London, a well-respected university. But the
State Department source says at that time Abdulmutallab was not
on a watch list and traveled to Houston on that visa without
incident. A year later, in May 2009, his application for a
student visa to return to Britain was rejected because the
college Abdulmutallab claimed he would attend was "bogus," and
that red flag was shared with U.S. State Department, Homeland
Security Department, U.S. Justice Department, and almost
certainly U.S. intelligence agencies.
The State source says that several schools, particularly those
with ties to the British Muslim community, have come under
tighter scrutiny over the past five years, and when foreign
nationals with Muslim backgrounds apply to those schools, it is
red flag for British security offices.
"I'm not saying that this kind of screw up might not have
happened in the Bush Administration," the State source says,
referring to the Christmas Day snafu. "I'm just saying that a
number of us were encouraged to have a different mindset about
such intel and such individuals, and today, we are encouraged not
to have that same mindset."
topics:
Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Terrorism
