Nigerian Terrorist Determined to Strike In US

In the aftermath of the failed Christmas day attack we now know much about our intelligence system.  After 9/11 the Bush administration said they would keep us safe by setting up a system impervious to another attack.  As a country we rallied around them we supported them.  Almost all who questioned them were branded traitors and unpatriotic.  The administration subtly encouraged this and had free reign to do much.

    Theirs is basically the same system in place today.  We spent eight years and billions putting it together.  We hired so many private contractors to fill the intelligence dearth they eventually outnumbered US government employees in some areas of our intelligence services such as the CIA.  They created a newly structured system designed to create communication paths and sharing apparatus previously not in existence.  That so many different players with so many different agendas working completely seamlessly together was a ridiculous proposition apparently was lost on the Bush/ Cheney administration.
    In fact many believed previous to 9/11 FBI and the CIA, for example, purposely kept information from each other an outgrowth of perceived "turf" disputes.  This was at times put before the good of a nation.  At times intelligence briefings were shared at the highest levels and failure still occurred.  On August 6, 2001 The Bush White House was delivered a briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike In US.  The briefing contained among other warnings this quote, "FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/august6.memo/)
    The Bush administration chose to ignore these warnings, and we were hit.  The changes made in the system since those attacks were supposed to make information sharing seamless.  The Bush administration had eight years to perfect this.  Those changes are still in place.  In fact most of the people on board through most of the changes are still in the system today many in the same roles or departments.
    They also chose after 9/11 to specifically go after targets other than Al Qaeda.  They decided Saddam Hussein, someone unaffiliated with the 9/11 attacks and who his own circle claimed felt threatened by Bin Laden, was more a threat than Al Qaeda.  On Wednesday, March 13, 2002, "President Bush declared Osama Bin Laden all but vanquished... saying the Al Qaeda leader -- dead or alive -- no longer poses a serious threat to America.  'We haven't heard from him in a long time,' Bush told reporters at the White House. 'I truly am not that concerned about him.' " (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/03/14/MN233349.DTL...)  All but vanquished... really?
    In fact Richard Reid the notorious shoe bomber whose detonation of an improvised explosive device similar to the one the Christmas day bomber set off was foiled only by an alert passenger in the same way.  Intelligence did nothing to stop this.  The changes made since the December 22, 2001 attack to US airline security was supposed to thwart any such future attack.  With all the same mechanisms essentially in place it is clear the changes made during those eight years were insufficient and haphazardly thought through.
    In realizing this one would think members of the Bush administration would be more humble in responding to the attacks.  They would perhaps realize all the holes they left leading to this predicament.  As no substantial changes were made as of yet the same system they set up was essentially still in place with most of the same faces even.  Yet they were very quick to criticize President Obama for what was essentially the failures in their system. (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-obama-chen...)
    "The National Security Agency four months ago intercepted conversations among leaders of Al Qaeda in Yemen discussing a plot to use a Nigerian man for a... terrorist attack, but American spy agencies... failed to combine the intercepts with other information that might have disrupted (the) attempted airline bombing... A family cousin quoted the (bomber's) father as warning officials from the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency in Nigeria: 'Look at the texts he’s sending. He’s a security threat...They promised to look into it. They didn’t take him seriously.'
    Some government officials blamed the National Counterterrorism Center... as failing to piece together information about an impending attack.  Others... pointed the finger at the C.I.A., which in November compiled biographical data about (the Christmas bomber) but did not broadly share the information." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31terror.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2)
    "Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NCTC, said in a written statement that despite improvements to information sharing, 'it is clear that gaps remain, and they must be fixed.' " (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126213211097909605.html?mod=rss_Today%27...)  Instead of blaming the Obama administration why isn't former Vice President Cheney more humble and willing to admit much of this is due to an inefficient system set up by him?
    Why can't he admit taking his eye off of Al Qaeda and wasting our nation's time and treasure in Iraq was a big mistake?  Doesn't he feel some sense of shame and guilt at the danger now posed to our nation as a result of his policies?  It's as if he thinks of himself first and United States second.
    We need to piece together what happened now as the system set up predominantly under the Bush administration has proven a collapsed failure.  With the changes swept into office in 2008 we will now include a tighter and better intelligence system from the one left slack and pervious under the previous administration.  Defensive posturing will not help our nation it is only self serving.  Though it is telling.
    To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.