American Glob

Would you believe that US authorities learned of the plot to blow up flight 253 over Detroit as the plane was in the air? A report from FOX News says so…

U.S. border officials learned of intelligence linking the man suspected of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane to extremists while he was en route from Amsterdam, the Los Angeles Times reported late Wednesday.

Authorities planned to question the Nigerian when the plane landed, the paper said, showing officials came close to uncovering the Christmas Day plot, despite failures at other levels.

Senior law enforcement officials told the Times if intelligence officials had learned of the information earlier, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab could have been interrogated and searched before he got on the flight from Amsterdam.

Here’s a picture of the terrorist’s bomb stuffed underwear…

Glenn Beck Keith Olbermann is pushing a well thought out an insane new theory that the United States intelligence community deliberately withheld information about the “Fruit of the Boom” terrorist who tried to blow up flight 253 over Detroit.

Why would the intelligence community do such a thing you ask? To embarrass Obama on purpose!

Olbermann Watch has video/audio of this lunacy. Click the image of the loudmouthed one below to go there if you dare…

American comedian Joan Rivers was bumped from a Continental flight to New Jersey from Costa Rica because she was singled out as a threat. I feel safer already!

Rivers, 76, was deemed a danger to national security and booted from a Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica on Sunday by a jittery Continental Airlines gate agent who found the two names on her passport fishy.

Her passport reads: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers. Rosenberg was her late husband’s last name.

The “nasty and cruel” Continental gate agent bumped Rivers from the last flight out Sunday and the comedian found herself alone (her daughter, Melissa, flew out to Los Angeles earlier in the day) and with no ATM card and just $100 cash, she said.

Rivers’ tale of woe put a famous face on travel’s new reality – one that leaves many feeling like common criminals.

On a more infuriating note, independent war reporter and photographer Michael Yon was handcuffed upon entering a Seattle airport today for refusing to disclose his income. Michelle Malkin has all the details.

I’ve met Michael and have blogged about his enterprising war coverage as an embed in Iraq and Afghanistan for years. The idea of him being treated as a national security threat and handcuffed is as ridiculous as anything we’ve seen from Janet Clown-itano and her cadre.

On Christmas day, a man boarded an international flight in Nigeria. He had no luggage and paid for his ticket in cash. His own father had telephoned government officials to warn them that his son posed a threat, yet he was able to board the plane which he promptly tried to blow up.

Now we have 76 year old comedians and war correspondents being singled out as threats?

Don’t worry though, the government will do a much better job with health care.

Erick Erickson of Red State and James “the Ragin’ Cajun” Carville went on CNN yesterday to debate Obama’s reaction to the terror attempt on Flight 253 over Detroit.

Erickson won.

Tucker interviews Karl Rove on the Detroit terror attack. Video by The Right Scoop.

MSNBC didn’t cover the Detroit bombing attempt as the story broke on Christmas night. I didn’t know this because at the time I was watching FOX News, the non-news network which was providing comprehensive updates by the minute.

Mediaite covered MSNBC’s non-coverage as the news didn’t break:

“Tonight, the White House is calling an attempt to detonate a bomb aboard Northwest Flight 253 an attempted terror attack, by a man who himself claims to have been sent by al Qaeda — and MSNBC is showing “Disappearance at the Dairy Queen.” Fox and CNN are on the story with updated information and ongoing.”

“On CNN, Ed Henry is reporting from Hawaii, where President Obama’s vacation was just seriously interrupted; Fox has a counterterrorist expert on the phone talking about the incident and the potential ramifications. On MSNBC, Christina Brown broke in for about a minute with a quick report, before taking the audience back to their program. Now, Fox is interviewing a passenger, who was sitting in front of Abdulmutallab, who says that the security was pretty tight.“

Read it all.

I’m so disappointed. Here I was getting all this “news” about the situation in Detroit by watching FOX when I could have been watching “Disappearance at the Dairy Queen” on MSNBC.

The attempted act of terror on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas has already resulted in new restrictions imposed on airline passengers by the TSA.

Every time someone commits an act of terrorism, it results in new rules and loss of freedoms for the rest of us who have done nothing wrong.

James Joyner explains it well…

“Among other steps being imposed, passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane, and domestic passengers will probably face longer security lines.”

“The restrictions will again change the routine of air travel, which has undergone an upheaval since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001 and three attempts at air terrorism since then.”

“In effect, the restrictions mean that passengers on flights of 90 minutes or less would most likely not be able to leave their seats at all, since airlines do not allow passengers to walk around the cabin while a plane is climbing to its cruising altitude.”

Joyner goes on to quote the Agitator, who makes the smartest point.

“In addition to keeping with its usually tradition of making policy on a reactionary basis, this one wouldn’t even have done anything to prevent the attempt over the weekend. The guy was in his seat when he tried to light the explosive device. And the passenger who confronted him got out of his seat to do it.”

“TSA, on the other hand, equates hassle with safety. For all the crap they put us through, this guy still got some sort of explosive material on the plane from Amsterdam. He was stopped by law-abiding passengers. So TSA responds to all of this by . . . announcing plans to hassle law-abiding U.S. passengers even more.”

We were warned about this by Ben Franklin who said “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”

Am I saying we should do away with air travel security? No. But there’s no denying that as security measures increase, our privacy and liberty erodes.

There has to be a better way.

The suspect, a 23 year old Nigerian man had an explosive device strapped to his leg. He is currently in custody. The White House has already issued a report confirming this was an attempted act of terror.

The WSJ reports:

“A passenger on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight tried Friday to detonate an explosive device strapped to his leg and later told investigators he had affiliations with Al Qaeda and was trying to blow up the plane, according to a senior U.S. official.”

“We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism,” said a White House official.”

“The suspect told investigators he was given the device by al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, along with detonation instructions, the official said. “This guy claims he is tied to al Qaeda, specifically in Yemen,” the official said. “He claims he was on orders from al Qaeda in Yemen. Who knows if that’s true?”

“Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) identified the man as a 23-year-old Nigerian named Abdul Mudallad. Officials said they believed the man boarded a KLM flight in Lagos, Nigeria, and changed planes in Amsterdam, although that couldn’t immediately be confirmed. The suspect’s name didn’t appear on any terrorist watch lists maintained by U.S. authorities, Mr. King said, but it turned up “hot” in other terrorism-related databases maintained by intelligence officials.”

Thank goodness for alert passengers:

“A Nigerian man tried to set off an explosive device aboard a U.S. passenger plane as it approached Detroit Friday, but was overpowered by passengers and crew and the aircraft landed safely, U.S. officials said.”

“The suspect suffered third-degree burns and was taken into custody.”

“The passengers, two of whom suffered minor injuries, disembarked safely from the Delta Air Lines plane, which had departed from Amsterdam.”

UPDATE: More Video

Forget the useless American car companies that can’t create a competitive product.

Forget the property values that are dropping to the point where you can buy a house with a credit card.

How about leadership that is nothing short of stinking racism? Yeah, you heard me right, racism.

Monica Conyers, the president of the Detroit City Council and wife of US Rep. John Conyers ( A Democrat – as if you had to ask) is a racist. Let me put that in bold type for you….

Monica Conyers is a RACIST.

Ever wondered what it might be like to attend a meeting of the Detroit City Council?

Here you go:

“A pitiful Teamster official who practically crawled to the table on his knees expressing profuse respect for this disrespectful body was battered by both the crowd and the council.

When he dared suggest that an improved Cobo Center would create more good-paying jobs for union workers, Conyers reminded him, “Those workers look like you; they don’t look like me.”

Desperate, he invoked President Barack Obama’s message of unity and was angrily warned, “Don’t you say his name here.”

Juxtapose the place and the faces and imagine a white Livonia City Council treating a black union representative with such overt racial hostility. The Justice Department would swoop down like a hawk, and the Rev. Al Sharpton would clog Five Mile Road with protesters.”

Paging the ACLU…. Oh wait. What am I thinking?

Somebody get Eric Holder on the phone quick. There are some racist cowards he should speak to in Michigan.