Security - Providing National Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/nation...

Top 234. Jul 17, 2003 6:13 AM

» Lawhawk - Lack of human assets on ground focus of 9/11 probe

American intelligence agencies failed to obtain reliable human sources inside the Afghanistan training camps run by Al Qaeda before the September 2001 attacks, according to government officials who have read an unreleased Congressional report on intelligence lapses in the months before the hijackings.
The absence of such sources left counterterrorism officials largely blind to Osama bin Laden's specific intentions before the attacks and contributed to what the joint intelligence committees concluded in their report was a lack of knowledge about Al Qaeda even as the agencies for years collected information that showed the terror network hoped to strike inside United States.

Part of the reason for the lack of humint infiltrating these terror cells is that US policy was changed to prevent agents from dealing with folks who might be less than honorable. HUMINT was cut back worldwide as some within the National Intelligence Community believed that SIGINT would be able to detect these kinds of threats.

SIGINT cannot detect these threats as it has been plainly shown. The US must have HUMINT all over the world trying to figure out these threats and then having the ability to do something about them.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 235. Jul 17, 2003 6:36 AM

» Kirk - Re: Lack of human assets on ground focus of 9/11 probe

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In response to message posted by Lawhawk:

Part of the reason for the lack of humint infiltrating these terror cells is that US policy was changed to prevent agents from dealing with folks who might be less than honorable.

That and "don't ask, don't tell," another complete failure, is the homeland security legacy of Bill Clinton.

Clinton gets much credit for the good times of the 1990's but what Clinton did was lead the nation while we had a roaring economy and he canceled the fire insurance so there would be more money to spend on punch.

-- posted by Kirk

Top 236. Jul 17, 2003 7:38 AM

» Lawhawk - Re: Re: Lack of human assets on ground focus of 9/11 probe

In response to message posted by Kirk:

I'm not just going to fault Clinton on this, but the Congress as well. Everyone was in on the plan, and no one made a big enough stink on the actual policies that affect national security for it to be changed in a positive way.

The final blame rests with the President, but Congress doesn't get off scot-free.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 237. Nov 26, 2003 5:28 PM

» Q_out - Former Israeli Commando Offers Training

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Former Israeli Counterterrorism trainer Doron Benbenisty is now offering his training to civilians, police officers and soldiers from his new hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
http://www.businessreport.com/pub/22_6/p...

Bus hostage tactics, counter car bombing training, bodyguard training, self defense, martial arts are all taught by this former Israeli commando. His latest contracts are at Fort Gordon to train counterintelligence soldiers and in Singapore to train special forces next year.
http://www.critraining.com/

Last year his business was just getting started, but Benbenisty's reputation has been on an upward swing since this little Jew led a rowdy, hulking football player out of a Baton Rouge nightclub by his pinky finger.

<img src="/files/mysites/qout/bhoestarts.gif" width=53 height=34 align="left">
Q_out

-- posted by Q_out

Top 238. Nov 26, 2003 10:45 PM

» BANANAS_ - Re: MSFT wins Homeland Security contract

In response to message posted by Jen_:

I guess after today's annoucnement of MSFT's vulnerabilities of IE 6, we should all feel safe & secure now that they've signed on with our SS Homegang Security. There's no way we can lose the war against terrorism now...

....BANANAS_

-- posted by BANANAS_

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr...

Top 239. Dec 5, 2003 7:21 AM

» Lawhawk - /11 panel's air-defense probe grapples with many mysteries

For almost a half-century, the state Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing, based at Atlantic City International Airport in Pomona, had been a key part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. The command runs radar sites and monitors fighter squadrons assigned to protect the United States and Canada from attack, and from unauthorized flights by drug smugglers and undocumented immigrants. Under NORAD procedures that date to the Cold War, two F-16 fighters from the 177th were parked around the clock on the Atlantic City runway. Pilots waited in a nearby building, ready to scramble.
But the 177th's jets were not on alert Sept. 11. A series of Pentagon cutbacks, beginning in 1998, changed the wing's mission from scramble-ready status to dropping bombs on enemy positions. In 2000, after two years of training, the 177th was even sent to Saudi Arabia to fly patrols over southern Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch.
By Sept. 11, the unit was back in New Jersey - but still training to bomb enemy targets overseas.
A spokeswoman for the 177th confirmed that two of its F-16s were flying unarmed bombing runs that morning over a section of the Pine Barrens designated for military drills. But the F-16 pilots, she said, were unaware that America's air defense system needed them desperately.
"Isn't that something?" asked Lt. Luz Aponte, the 177th's public affairs officer, pointing out the irony of having jet fighters so near to the tragedy but with a mission so far afield.
Soon after two hijacked commercial jetliners slammed into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, Aponte said, the two F-16s landed and were refitted with air-to-air missiles, then sent aloft. But that happened more than an hour after the trade center attacks.
Such irony - and tragedy - is not lost on the commission.

Many of these failures can be traced to policy changes made by the Clinton Administration, but there is a failure of imagination as well. The DoD dropped the ball in air defense of the country by not having combat air patrol available to scramble at a moment's notice. That was unconscionable.

NORAD confirmed it had only eight fighters on the East Coast for emergency scrambles on Sept. 11. Throughout Canada and the United States, including Alaska, NORAD had 20 fighters on alert - armed, fueled up, and ready to fly in minutes. Four years earlier, NORAD could count on having 175 jets ready to scramble, including two on the tarmac at Atlantic City's airport.
With the New Jersey Air National Guard's 17 F-16s out of the picture on Sept. 11, the commission is trying to assess why the Pentagon left what seems to be a yawning gap in the midsection of its air defenses on the East Coast - a gap with New York City at the center. Since Sept. 11, the 177th has been back on alert status, with its pilots logging hundreds of hours of patrols above New York City and along the East Coast.

The drawdown of fighters available for the mission was due to budget cuts made by the Clinton administration but corrections and changes were implemented by Bush following 9/11 as part of an increase in defense expenditures (for which he's been criticized for deficit spending by some Democrats).

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 240. Dec 18, 2003 9:43 AM

» Lawhawk - 2d Circuit Rules On Padilla Status

A federal appeals court has ruled that President Bush does not have the power to detain an American citizen arrested in the United States as an enemy combatant. The court ruled 'dirty bomb' suspect Jose Padilla must be released from military custody within 30 days -- but said he could be transferred to civilian detention.

- from CNN.

This is a solid ruling; the Administration exceeded its authority under federal law and the Courts ruled in favor of Padilla. It is likely that the feds will charge Padilla in federal court in order to keep him behind bars.

This ruling brings up the interesting question of how to treat terrorists who are American citizens operating in conjunction with foreign terrorist groups. Should they be treated as enemy combatants (the route the Administration took), or should Congress create a new category of law in order to deal with this issue.

While Padilla's civil liberties are protected, some can and will argue that the Court reduced the nation's national security interests.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 241. Dec 18, 2003 9:53 AM

» DellaO - Re: 2d Circuit Rules On Padilla Status

In response to message posted by Lawhawk:

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Lawhawk...how about treating them as the traitors that they are? Obviously, Padilla gave the finger to the very country that gave him his civil liberties.

Perhaps we could re-instate the firing squad...

-- posted by DellaO

Top 242. Dec 18, 2003 10:49 AM

» Lawhawk - Re: Re: 2d Circuit Rules On Padilla Status

In response to message posted by DellaO:

Even though Padilla acted as a traitor for all intents and purposes, federal law is apparently (based on this decision) pretty clear that folks like him should be handled in federal courts and not military tribunals and that he should be entitled to Constitutional protections.

That said, the crimes he should be indicted on will likely include treason, conspiracy, and any number of provisions of 18 USC Ch. 40 (dealing with crimes against the US/foreign relations) and 18 USC Ch 113B (terrorism).

-- posted by Lawhawk