Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
Have you wondered WHY, in this post-9/11 era, the obvious red flags exhibited by the Ft. Hood shooter and the Dec.24 airline bomber, never got through to where they could be acted upon?
Could it be that our intelligence agencies, fearing further prosecutions, blame, and career-ending tirades and accusations from our highest elected officials, at some point decided to delay passing on certain opinions or warnings until they could bild airtight cases and complete the CYA needed to protect themselves?
Background: Dick Morris is a lifelong Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004 since, he said, defense against terrorism was overy important in those years and he favored Bush's approach ove the Democrats'. He is a campaign consultant who has worked for Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and a variety of international figures.
And, like Joe Lieberman, though his politics are mainstream liberal, his views on defense are actually sensible.
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http://www.dickmorris.com
The Consequences of Obama: Terrorism is Back
by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
January 5, 2010
Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that the "chickens came home to roost" on 9-11. He was wrong. But they have now, indeed, come home to roost as we witness the results of the unilateral disarmament President Obama has practiced in the war on terror. Beset once more by terrorism on our soil and in our airspace, we find ourselves suddenly overmatched by those who the Bush Administration kept away from our shores for seven years.
This new onset of terrorism is not the product of any change in the international environment or some new "systemic" flaw in our intelligence operations. It is due to the policy of President Obama in letting down our guard and inhibiting those charged with our protection.
Under Obama, the hunters have become the hunted as America inverted her priorities. Those who have been working to keep us safe have, themselves, come under scrutiny for profiling, harsh interrogation techniques, and a failure to give terrorists constitutional rights they don't have.
The result is predictable: Timidity and caution have become the order of the day in our intelligence community. In a world where hunch, guesswork, and a willingness to leap to conclusions by imagining the worst are vital to success, a cover your butt mentality has taken over. If you come to the wrong conclusion, if you profile without adequate justification, if you accuse incorrectly, you are finished. Your career and your pension will be gone. Guess right and you are accorded anonymity. Guess wrong and you're through.
The failure of the intelligence operatives to pass along the information about the Ft. Hood shooter or the airline bomber did not flow from a blind spot or a lack of co-ordination, they stemmed from terrorism of a different sort -- the terror of making a mistake and falling on the harsh mercies of Eric Holder.
Now Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall sits, lawyered up, in a federal prison. His interrogation will proceed, if at all, under the watchful eye of his counsel. He will not finger other operatives nor warn us of other impending attacks. He will receive the full panoply of constitutional rights, none of which he is entitled to.
Barack Obama does not seem to understand that these terrorists come here to use our laws and our system, not to protect us, not even to shelter themselves, but to destroy us.
Abdulmutall should be interrogated by the military, without benefit of counsel. [Editor's Note: As prisoners of war have always been, ever since there has been war among otherwise-civilized nations. -LA] The evidence we obtain should not be admissible in a court of law nor used as the basis for his sentencing. But it must be used to ward off future threats and attacks.
But Obama is a true believer. His persistence in downgrading the war on terror to a criminal investigation will continue. And we will experience more and more attacks. Because pessimism is the bodyguard of liberalism, he will explain to us that the world has become more threatening and that he is doing all he can to keep us safe. But the truth will be that it will have been his policies and priorities that are leaving us exposed.
And the attacks will continue.
Could it be that our intelligence agencies, fearing further prosecutions, blame, and career-ending tirades and accusations from our highest elected officials, at some point decided to delay passing on certain opinions or warnings until they could bild airtight cases and complete the CYA needed to protect themselves?
Background: Dick Morris is a lifelong Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004 since, he said, defense against terrorism was overy important in those years and he favored Bush's approach ove the Democrats'. He is a campaign consultant who has worked for Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and a variety of international figures.
And, like Joe Lieberman, though his politics are mainstream liberal, his views on defense are actually sensible.
----------------------------------
http://www.dickmorris.com
The Consequences of Obama: Terrorism is Back
by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
January 5, 2010
Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that the "chickens came home to roost" on 9-11. He was wrong. But they have now, indeed, come home to roost as we witness the results of the unilateral disarmament President Obama has practiced in the war on terror. Beset once more by terrorism on our soil and in our airspace, we find ourselves suddenly overmatched by those who the Bush Administration kept away from our shores for seven years.
This new onset of terrorism is not the product of any change in the international environment or some new "systemic" flaw in our intelligence operations. It is due to the policy of President Obama in letting down our guard and inhibiting those charged with our protection.
Under Obama, the hunters have become the hunted as America inverted her priorities. Those who have been working to keep us safe have, themselves, come under scrutiny for profiling, harsh interrogation techniques, and a failure to give terrorists constitutional rights they don't have.
The result is predictable: Timidity and caution have become the order of the day in our intelligence community. In a world where hunch, guesswork, and a willingness to leap to conclusions by imagining the worst are vital to success, a cover your butt mentality has taken over. If you come to the wrong conclusion, if you profile without adequate justification, if you accuse incorrectly, you are finished. Your career and your pension will be gone. Guess right and you are accorded anonymity. Guess wrong and you're through.
The failure of the intelligence operatives to pass along the information about the Ft. Hood shooter or the airline bomber did not flow from a blind spot or a lack of co-ordination, they stemmed from terrorism of a different sort -- the terror of making a mistake and falling on the harsh mercies of Eric Holder.
Now Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall sits, lawyered up, in a federal prison. His interrogation will proceed, if at all, under the watchful eye of his counsel. He will not finger other operatives nor warn us of other impending attacks. He will receive the full panoply of constitutional rights, none of which he is entitled to.
Barack Obama does not seem to understand that these terrorists come here to use our laws and our system, not to protect us, not even to shelter themselves, but to destroy us.
Abdulmutall should be interrogated by the military, without benefit of counsel. [Editor's Note: As prisoners of war have always been, ever since there has been war among otherwise-civilized nations. -LA] The evidence we obtain should not be admissible in a court of law nor used as the basis for his sentencing. But it must be used to ward off future threats and attacks.
But Obama is a true believer. His persistence in downgrading the war on terror to a criminal investigation will continue. And we will experience more and more attacks. Because pessimism is the bodyguard of liberalism, he will explain to us that the world has become more threatening and that he is doing all he can to keep us safe. But the truth will be that it will have been his policies and priorities that are leaving us exposed.
And the attacks will continue.
