Why do we need a smoking SUV to tell us that a terrorist
attack is under way?
Though Attorney General Eric Holder said he “was never in
any fear that we were in danger of losing him” Faisal Shazad —
the would-be Times Square bomber — slipped his tail and boarded
an Emirates Air flight bound for the United Arab Emirates despite
the fact that he was on the “no-fly list.”
Shazad was taken off the aircraft late Monday after it had
been pushed back from the gate and was about to
leave.
It wasn’t just good police work that led to his
identification and arrest. It was, from what we can glean from
open sources, good intelligence work that traced his disposable
cell phone calls, identified him as the purchaser of the Nissan
Pathfinder used in the attempted bombing, and enabled federal
agents to put him under surveillance and on the much-touted
“no-fly list” on the day of his arrest.
But the “no-fly list” is checked only daily by the
airlines. When Shazad made his flight reservation by cell phone
on the way to the airport, Emirates Air apparently was unaware
that the “no-fly list” had been updated, and had no obligation to
check it against the passenger list for that flight.
How — in an age when every animal that can walk upright
and has opposable thumbs uses them to “tweet” on “Twitter” and
blog on “Facebook” and whateverthehellelse from their cell phones
and BlackBerries — could there not instantly be an e-mailed
urgent notice to all airlines about Shazad?
Perhaps, amidst their self-congratulatory celebrations,
Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and AG Holder could figure
that out.
There are Federal Air Marshals in every major airport,
especially those such as JFK from whence Shazad nearly escaped. I
know a bit about the FAMs: they are well-trained not only to
shoot but to share and act on intel information among themselves
and with other law enforcement agencies. They could easily have
been put on alert for Shazad by Blackberry e-mail and prevented
his getting on the plane. Why, when he was added to the no-fly
list, wasn’t a FAM alert sent? And why, when the Feds tailing him
lost their man, wasn’t a “bolo” — be on the lookout — alert
blasted to them for immediate action?
All of that can be fixed so easily that even a caveman —
or Janet Napolitano — could do it. But the second level of
concern arising from the Shazad case is a much more difficult. It
would require a willingness to act against terrorism
uncharacteristic of the Obama team.
Our attention has — yet again — been diverted to the
question of what to do with Shazad and his ilk when we catch them
in the act, or after. Much more important is the issue of
interdicting these attackers before they can do harm.
Shazad was a classic sleeper terrorist. A native Pakistani
naturalized by marriage to a U.S. citizen, he visited his
homeland last summer and we now know met with at least one of the
terrorist varsity — a Jaish-e-Muhammed commander — and an
unidentified “foreign diplomat” going by the name of
Williams.
Shazad has apparently told his interrogators that he
received bomb-making training (thankfully, not enough to make him
competent) in a Taliban camp in the Waziristan region of
Pakistan. He returned to the U.S. on or about February 3, having
spent months in Pakistan.
There is no evidence that his itinerary triggered any
investigation or that he was questioned at all on his
return.
Shazad has two things in common with Adam Gadahn, the
California-born al-Qaeda spokesman and imam to the terrorist
stars Anwar al-Awlaki: all three are U.S. citizens and all three
are Islamic terrorists. How do we deal with those such as
him?
The Obama administration has placed al-Awlaki on the “kill
or capture” list, entitling him to his very own Hellfire missile
if he’s spotted. Gadahn is the first American charged with
treason since 9-11, and has evaded capture.
But Shazad — and an unknown number of others like him —
are US citizens who are also dedicated Islamists who live
lawfully before called upon to attack. All it will take is
someone such as Gadahn or Al-Awlaki to shout “shazam” and the
Shazads will turn from apparently quiet citizens into mass
murderers.
What should be done?
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct) has legislation that would strip
people involved with terrorist groups defined by the State
Department of their citizenship. My friend Andy McCarthy suggests
amending the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed
by Congress after 9-11 to enable such people to be treated as
enemy combatants (“unprivileged enemy belligerents” under the
current version of the law.) McCarthy’s solution is better, as it
provides more flexibility to the intelligence and law enforcement
agencies, and will require fewer Congressional and court actions
to carry out.
But both deal with the aftermath, once a terrorist suspect
has been caught. What can we do — right now, today — to prevent
the next attack?
From evaluations I’ve seen, there is — judging from the
messages the Pakistani Taliban have sent — a high likelihood
that more attacks will be made in the next weeks or months. We
need to do something right bloody now, or innocent Americans will
be killed and maimed.
Shazad is — dare we say it? — a Muslim man between the
ages of 18 and 45. That population cohort, more than any other,
contains Islamic terrorists. Pakistan — at best a sometime ally
— has enormous territories where the writ of the government
doesn’t run. Shazad visited Waziristan — in northwest Pakistanis
bordering Afghanistan — one of those territories controlled by
terrorists and warlords.
Any American citizen who travels to Pakistan — especially
those who visit the areas such as Waziristan — should be
interrogated upon their return. And the same should be true for
those that visit — legally or otherwise — any of the nations
that sponsor or harbor terrorism.
And here’s the kicker: anyone who travels to any of those
nations should be the subject of intense electronic surveillance,
especially if they are Muslims, male or female, in the 18 to 45
age bracket. That travel should be enough for the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act Court to issue a warrant allowing
all of their electronic communications to be monitored.
If, perchance, CIA Director Leon Panetta can entice Eric
Holder to take time from planning civilian trials for Khalid
Sheik Mohammed et al., they should be putting a plan to do just
this into operation forthwith.
