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Now This Looks Like an Intelligence Failure

By | 01.19.10 | 10:00 am

Previous reporting has all indicated to me that the big systemic failure in the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 near-attack concerned the standards for moving someone onto specific terrorism lists like the no-fly list. President Obama has said the watchlisting standards are going to change, but he also said More…

Psychotic Hatchet-Attacker Not Immediately Placed on No-Fly List

By | 01.11.10 | 4:46 pm

Maybe it really is time to revisit those standards for watchlisting, as per Mark Hosenball:

A procedure used to place suspects on U.S. terrorism “watch lists” is so rigorous that even a Kenyan man who tried to murder a Danish cartoonist on New Year’s Day with a hatchet

More…

Poll: American Public Actually Not Afraid of Terrorism; Backs Obama Post-Northwest 253

By | 01.11.10 | 1:49 pm

A fascinating CNN/Opinion Research poll (PDF) shows that there really isn’t much change pre- and post-Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in how the American public views the threat of terrorism. For instance, ten percent of respondents polled between Oct. 16 and 18 were “very worried” about terrorism. On Jan. 8-10, More…

Giuliani Says 9/11 Never Happened

By | 01.08.10 | 10:35 am

When partisanship curdles into the malleability of the truth, you get former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on “Good Morning America”:

“What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did – one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on

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The Post-Northwest Flight 253 No-Fly Expansion Begins

By | 01.04.10 | 1:55 pm

The Associated Press reports:

Counterterrorism officials have moved the names of dozens of people onto the terror watch list and the no-fly list after reviewing a massive government database of suspected terrorists.

An intelligence official says the government scrubbed thousands of names in its database after an attempted bombing

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So Much for Dick Cheney’s Meme

By | 01.03.10 | 11:31 am

Dick Cheney says something, Politico uncritically reports it, Obama administration officials wearily refute it. So goes the ritual. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that John Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the former vice president is either “willfully mischaracterizing this president’s position” or is “ignorant of the facts” when More…

Hoekstra: ‘Truth Hurts’

By | 12.30.09 | 3:11 pm

Clearly enjoying the attention he’s getting for his aggressive attacks on the Obama administration’s handling of terror threats, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) takes to Twitter to declare victory:

Dick Cheney Isn’t Making Sense

By | 12.30.09 | 9:53 am

One of the problems with Politico’s connection to former Vice President Dick Cheney is that the paper seems to get quotes from the former vice president without the opportunity to ask follow-up questions. To wit, here’s his timely attack on the president’s response to the botched Christmas terrorist attack. More…

Spencer Ackerman and Rachel Maddow Discuss the ‘24’-ification of the National Security Debate

By | 12.30.09 | 9:45 am

After debating Pat Buchanan on “Morning Joe” earlier in the day about the efficacy of torturing terror suspects, TWI’s Spencer Ackerman returned to MSNBC last night to resume the conversation with Rachel Maddow. Video after the jump.

Thompson Calls on DeMint to Lift TSA Chief Hold

By | 12.29.09 | 11:42 am

How long will Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) go after the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 incident before allowing the Transportation Security Administration to have someone running the place? Chris Good at The Atlantic has a statement from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House homeland security committee, calling for More…