Earlier this year, and for over a year prior, as documented in previous entries about my mother, I had to deal with the United States Govt trying to deport my mother for a crime she committed 40+ years ago…
This all came to light when she had the unfortunate timing of traveling internationally when some idiot tried to drive his car in to the Heathrow airport after setting it on fire.
So my mother, is pulled out of a customs / security line at the PHL international airport, and given two years of hell. (you can read the above blog posts, or search my blog for “deport” to get more of the story…) In the end, she was granted “relief” from deportation, and got to stay … But thats just the background to what I found today.
The Dec 25th attempted bombing of that airliner headed for detroit, by the “underwear” bomber has a lot of people scrathing their heads, and wondering what happened, and how it came to pass.
Me too.
Because I read this today at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31062.html and I wanted to choke some one… anyone….
And agencies did not trigger their own alarms by connecting clues about the suspect with other available data, which might have shown he posed a high risk. “Listmasters didn’t link up some of the data points that were vague but available,” a knowledgeable official said.
A U.S. intelligence official contended that the data points were too elliptical to be useful: “Abdulmutallab’s father didn’t say his son was a terrorist, let alone planning an attack. Not at all. I’m not aware of some magic piece of intelligence that suddenly would have flagged this guy — whose name nobody even had until November — as a killer en route to America, let alone something that anybody withheld.”
Ok, let me get this straight.
40+ years ago, my mom gets caught smoking some pot. Hell, the last 3 Presidents of the USA have admitted to doing as much, if not more. And they try to deport her when she gets off an airplane after being in France for a week or two, 2 years ago.
And this week, some guy, who.
1. Buys a 1 way airplane ticket
2. With Cash
3. Has no checked luggage
4. Is flying from places on the planet that are known to help traffic illegal cargo and persons
5. Has his own father report him to the US Govt warning that he might be a threat.
6. DOESN’T HAVE A PASSPORT
…
Gets on an airplane, and __stuff__ happens.
Really, and the govt is saying “data points were too elliptical”.
And depending on what and where you read, there’s even more bullshit information coming out about how this guy was a known person on what ever lists are being kept by our Intellegence community.
The breakdown is embarassing, disgusting, and clearly indicates how much of a failure the security response since 9/11 has been. Sure, maybe we’ve stopped some things from happening, that we may, or may not ever know about. But when I think about what happened to my mother, and compare it to this story… Like I said, I get angry.