By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
December 27, 2009
A passenger onboard a flight from the Netherlands to the United States allegedly attempted to blow up the aircraft as it was landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, according to a source with the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Within minutes of the news breaking about the attempt, an NYPD detective told NewsWithViews.com that the suspect-passenger claimed to be acting on behalf of al-Qaeda in the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight #253 from Amsterdam-to-Detroit.
The suspect attempted to detonate a device as the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, according to the official report. While the details are still sketchy, the NYPD detective said that when passengers observed the suspect attempting to detonate the explosive device, they subdued him and held him for law enforcement. Flight #253 was carrying 278 passengers and no one was seriously injured during the incident.
The White House immediately labeled the incident "an attempted terrorist act."
Some Obama critics believe the president may attempt this alleged attack as a rationale to increase his power and might within U.S. borders.
For example, when the Obama administration announced that enemy combatants and terrorists will be given Miranda Warnings when they are captured, many Americans wondered how that would improve war fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq or other terrorist havens. However, upon examining this latest directive by President Barack Obama, perhaps there is an ulterior motive for his directive.
Blurring the lines between law enforcement and the military appears to be the goal sought by Obama and the progressives. More federal control of local law enforcement while at the same time cross-training soldiers to perform the police function within the U.S appears to be Obama’s plan., according to the former intelligence officer and NYPD detective.
The decorated detective, Michael Snopes, believes Iraq and Afghanistan may be training for U.S. forces to bring their skills back to the United States.
“Obama won election partly because he promised to bring the American troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now he’s sending more troops to Afghanistan and Iraq appears to go unnoticed by the news media,” said Snopes.
In a recent report released to the US Congress, analysts assessed what they termed “preparedness tests” between the U.S. military and government agencies at the federal, state and local levels.
U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) exercises to test preparedness to perform its homeland defense and civil support missions. The Government Accountability Office was asked to assess the extent to which NORTHCOM is consistent with Department of Defense guidelines for training and exercise requirement involving interagency partners and states in its exercises.
NORTHCOM’s exercise program is generally consistent with the requirements of DOD’s Joint Training System, but its exercise reporting is inconsistent. Since the command was established in 2002, NORTHCOM has conducted 13 large-scale exercises and generally completed exercise summary reports within the required time frame.
However, those reports did not consistently include certain information, such as areas needing improvement, because NORTHCOM lacks guidance that specifies exercise reports’ content and format, potentially impacting its ability to meet internal standards for planning and execution of joint exercises, and to compare and share exercise results over time with interagency partners and states.
“While the rationale for using the US military domestically had been debated for years, President Barack Obama appears intent on using our military at least until he can create his promised 'Civilian Security Force' which he said would be as big and powerful as the military,” said political strategist Mike Baker.“The fact that the military — in this instance NORTHCOM — is being trained to operate with our borders should be setting off alarms throughout this nation. But it’s being ignored even by those who profess to be conservatives,” he said.
Nineteen federal agencies and organizations and 17 states and the District of Columbia have participated in one or more of the seven large-scale exercises that NORTHCOM has conducted since September 2005. However, NORTHCOM faces challenges in involving states in the planning, conduct, and assessment of its exercises, such as adapting its exercise system and practices to involve other federal, state, local, and tribal agencies that do not have the same practices or level of planning resources.
Inconsistencies with how NORTHCOM involves states in exercises are occurring in part because NORTHCOM officials lack experience dealing with states and do not have a consistent process for including states in exercises. Without such a process, NORTHCOM increases the risk that its exercises will not provide benefits for all participants, impact the seamless exercise of all levels of government, and potentially affect NORTHCOM’s ability to provide civil support capabilities.
"It is up to the residents of individual states to tell their governors they do not want the federal government intruding on law enforcement and public safety issues," said former NYPD detective and Marine intelligence officer Sid Frances.
"This is especially true if their governors share the same political philosophy as the President and his minions in Washington," he added.
NORTHCOM has a systematic lessons learned and corrective action program to improve preparedness, but gaps remain with collecting and sharing lessons with agency and state partners and managing corrective actions.
Access to the system NORTHCOM uses for managing exercise observations is limited for non-DOD participants, and DOD believes that the Homeland Security Department's system is not adequately protected from unauthorized users. NORTHCOM’s mitigation steps have not resolved the issues. In addition, about 20 percent of the corrective actions tracked by NORTHCOM were being closed prematurely due to gaps in oversight. Closing issues prematurely increases the risk that issues will reoccur and limits the knowledge gained and value of the exercise.
The Government Accountability Office is making recommendations to DOD to direct NORTHCOM to consistently involve the states in planning, executing, and assessing exercises and improve oversight of corrective actions. READ MORE ....
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news180.htm
