[Infowarrior] - Plane suspect was listed in terror database

[Richard Forno]

Plane suspect was listed in terror database after father alerted U.S.  
officials
By Dan Eggen, Karen DeYoung and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 27, 2009; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/25/AR2009122501355_pf.html
A Nigerian man charged Saturday with attempting to blow up a U.S.  
airliner on Christmas Day was listed in a U.S. terrorism database last  
month after his father told State Department officials that he was  
worried about his son's radical beliefs and extremist connections,  
officials said.

The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was added to a catch-all  
terrorism-related database when his father, a Nigerian banker,  
reported concerns about his son's "radicalization and associations" to  
the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a senior administration official said.  
Abdulmutallab was not placed on any watch list for flights into the  
United States, however, because there was "insufficient derogatory  
information available" to include him, another administration official  
said.

Abdulmutallab was granted a two-year tourist visa by the U.S. Embassy  
in London in June 2008. He used the visa to travel previously to the  
United States at least twice, officials said.

On Friday, Abdulmutallab, 23, was subdued by passengers and crew  
members onboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 after he allegedly  
ignited an explosive device that set afire his pants leg and part of  
the airplane during preparations to land in Detroit.

The incident marks the latest apparent attempt by terrorists to bring  
down a U.S. aircraft through the use of an improvised weapon, and set  
in motion urgent security measures that disrupted global air travel  
during the frenetic holiday weekend.

The case also reignited a partisan debate within Washington over  
whether the Obama administration was doing enough to guard against  
terrorist attacks after the shootings last month at Fort Hood, Tex.,  
and other incidents.

Passengers on international flights bound Saturday for the United  
States were required to undergo more stringent searches before  
boarding and were ordered to remain glued in their seats for the final  
hour of many flights. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano  
said domestic passengers may notice additional security measures in  
coming days, but she did not specify them.

Abdulmutallab was charged Saturday in U.S. District Court for Eastern  
Michigan with attempting to destroy an aircraft and with placing a  
destructive device onboard a plane, each of which is punishable by up  
to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman informed  
Abdulmutallab of the charges during a hearing at the University of  
Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated at the  
burn unit.

The suspect was rolled into a conference room in a wheelchair for the  
hearing. Asked whether he understood the charges against him, he  
replied, "Yes, I do." When a federal prosecutor asked how he was  
doing, Abdulmutallab replied, "I feel better."

The suspect allegedly told FBI agents after his arrest that he had  
received training and explosive materials from al-Qaeda-linked  
terrorists in Yemen, a claim that U.S. law enforcement officials were  
still attempting to verify Saturday. The FBI said the device strapped  
to Abdulmutallab contained PETN, or pentaerythritol, which is the same  
plastic explosive used by al-Qaeda operative Richard C. Reid in his  
December 2001 attempt to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner by igniting a  
homemade bomb in his shoe.

A senior administration official said Abdulmutallab, who had studied  
engineering at University College London, was issued a two-year U.S.  
tourist visa in June 2008 in London and did not raise any red flags  
during screening before boarding Northwest Flight 253 at Amsterdam's  
Schiphol airport, one of the most heavily secured air facilities in  
the world.

Administration officials acknowledged Saturday that Abdulmutallab's  
name was added in November to the Terrorist Identities Datamart  
Environment, or TIDE, which contains about 550,000 individuals and is  
maintained by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at  
the National Counterterrorism Center. TIDE is a catch-all list into  
which all terrorist-related information is sent.

Some, but not all, information from TIDE is transferred to the FBI- 
maintained Terrorist Screening Data Base (TSDB), from which consular,  
border and airline watch lists are drawn. The Transportation Security  
Administration has a "no-fly" list of about 4,000 people who are  
prohibited from boarding any domestic or U.S.-bound aircraft. A  
separate list of about 14,000 "selectees" require additional scrutiny  
but are not banned from flying.

Abdulmutallab's name never made it past the TIDE database. "A TIDE  
record on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was created in November 2009," one  
administration official said, but "there was insufficient information  
available on the subject at that time to include him in the TSDB or  
its 'no fly' or 'selectee' lists."

Several top Republicans criticized the administration's approach to  
counterterrorism, saying the government had not pieced together  
warning signs in recent cases, including the slayings of 13 people at  
Fort Hood, allegedly by a Muslim soldier. "I think the administration  
is finally recognizing that they got this terrorism thing all wrong,"  
said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House  
intelligence committee and a state gubernatorial candidate. "I think  
we came very, very close to losing that plane last night."

After being briefed by federal authorities, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)  
said Abdulmutallab did not undergo body scans that might have helped  
detect the explosive material when he went through security at  
airports in Nigeria and Amsterdam.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland  
Security Committee, released a statement saying he was "troubled by  
several aspects" of the case, including the visit by Abdulmutallab's  
father to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.

Democrats in the House and Senate vowed to hold hearings in January  
but also urged caution in jumping to conclusions. Rep. Jane Harman (D- 
Calif.), chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on  
intelligence, said a federal official briefed lawmakers about "strong  
suggestions of a Yemen-al-Qaeda connection and an intent to blow up  
the plane over U.S. airspace."

Administration officials said President Obama is seeking  
accountability in the incident, although he has not demanded any sort  
of special review. He is getting detailed briefings on the facts of  
the case and the airport security changes while on vacation in Hawaii,  
the officials said.

One administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity  
because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said  
Abdulmutallab received his 2008 tourist visa from the U.S. Embassy in  
London. "We interviewed him, and his name was run against the watch  
list maintained by [the Department of Homeland Security] and the FBI,"  
the official said. "There was no indication of any derogatory  
information. There is every indication that whatever radicalization  
took place occurred recently."

In a new emergency order effective until Wednesday, TSA is requiring  
that all passengers bound for the United States undergo a "thorough  
pat-down" at boarding gates, concentrating on the upper legs and  
torso. All carry-on baggage also should be inspected, focusing on  
syringes with powders or liquids, TSA said.

In addition, passengers must remain seated and may not access carry-on  
baggage for the final hour before the landing or hold any personal  
item on their laps.

The extraordinary steps came as former senior U.S. officials spoke in  
unusually blunt terms about the apparent failure of aviation security  
measures to detect a common military explosive allegedly brought on  
board.

Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary from 2005 to  
2009, said terrorists appear to have exploited the natural inhibition  
of screeners to conduct overly intrusive searches, and he renewed  
calls for widespread expansion of whole-body imaging scanners that use  
radio waves or X-rays to reveal objects beneath a person's clothes.  
Chertoff said the government has sought to expand use of imaging  
scanners, but privacy advocates and Congress have raised objections.

"This plot is an example of something we've known could exist in  
theory, and in order to be able to detect it, you've got to find some  
way of detecting things in parts of the body that aren't easy to get  
at," Chertoff said. "It's either pat-downs or imaging, or otherwise  
hoping that bad guys haven't figured it out, and I guess bad guys have  
figured it out."