Obama’s Counter-terrorism Grade?

Failed airliner attack was tardy wake-up call for spreading al Qaeda menace

29 Dec. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources note that in the past year, Washington was strangely deaf to Saudi, Egyptian and Yemeni warnings that al Qaeda had established itself in Yemen and gained a jumping-off base into the Arabian peninsula and across the strategic Gulf of Aden. The network was now directly linked from Yemeni shores to Osama bin Laden at his new headquarters in Pakistani Baluchistan.

Only two months ago, on Oct. 7, President Barack Obama told the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia: “We’re making real progress in our core mission – to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and other extremist networks around the world. Because of our efforts, they have not only lost operational capacity, they’ve lost legitimacy and credibility.”

But three days before that speech, the FBI arrested the Chicagoan David Headley on charges of involvement in the terror massacre in Mumbai of November 2008. A month later, US Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan shot dead 13 comrades at the Fort Hood base in Texas. Federal investigators persist in refusing to call the crime an act of terror.

And Yemen has been on US radar since al Qaeda blew up the American destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor on Oct. 12, 2000 and the CIA and the FBI have maintained a covert presence in this Red Sea country in the past year at least.

US intelligence and anti-terror machinery suffers from a serious disorder when it even failed to take up the Abdulmutallab family’s warnings about their fanatical kinsman.

Eight years after 9/11 no one was yet connecting the dots.

Obama Exempts Interpol From Immunity and Discovery

Did Obama exempt Interpol from same legal constraints as American law-enforcement?

During his presidency, Ronald Reagan granted the global police agency Interpol the status of diplomatic personnel in order to engage more constructively on international law enforcement. In Executive Order 12425, Reagan made two exceptions to that status. The first had to do with taxation, but the second was to make sure that Interpol had the same accountability for its actions as American law enforcement — namely, they had to produce records when demanded by courts and could not have immunity for their actions.

Barack Obama unexpectedly revoked those exceptions in a change to EO 12425 last month, as Threats Watch reports.

Read the rest at HotAir.

Sacramento County Sheriff to Keep 70 Officers

Nearly 70 Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies will remain on duty after concessions were made in an overwhelming vote.

Ninety percent of members of the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association voted to approve the contract addendum, which will save the county $24 million.

“The men and women who make up the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association realized the importance of being part of a solution to the current economic downturn and their role in trying to avert an even more ominous public safety crisis,” association president Kevin Mickelson said in a statement.

Earlier, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said could lose 370 of its employees, including 300 deputies, because of severe county budget cuts.

Spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran called the move a worst-case scenario, depending on how the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors allocates money in its budget.

SOURCE: MSNBC

RE Graswich, Kitty O’Neal and Sheriff McGinniss Change Tune On KFBK

Last week we questioned the fearful tone of the McGinniss Monday Segment on KFBK in reference to the cuts the Sheriff’s Department is facing.

This week the show sounded much more positive. Yes there will be cuts, but the Sheriff has assured us he will make sure the public is safe. Thanks Guys.

RE Graswich, Kitty O’Neal and Sheriff McGinniss Fear Mongering On KFBK?

Are Sheriff McGinniss, RE Graswich and Kitty O’Neal on the KFBK afternoon news handing Sacramento County’s criminal element an advantage by hard selling the budget cuts the Sheriff’s Department is facing?

During RE and Kitty’s afternoon news feature McGinniss Mondays, the Sheriff has complained repeatedly about the impending cuts. He says response time and service will be severely impacted and is threatening to issue more gun permits (actually a good idea) so people can protect themselves since the Department will not be able to. The Sheriff has even acknowledged on the air the criminals are aware of the cuts and are planning accordingly.

I understand he is trying to apply pressure to the Board of Supervisors to reduce the cuts, and that service will be impacted, but is scaring the crap out of everyone in the process the way to do it? It is starting to sound like the Sheriff is saying he cannot do the job he was elected to do if the budget is cut. Everyone’s budget will be cut, it is unavoidable in the current economic climate.

Maybe he said it and I missed it, but it would make me feel better if Sheriff McGinniss was saying is that despite the cuts, which he is fighting as hard as he can, the Sheriff’s Department is drawing up contingency plans to protect people with whatever budget cards the Department is dealt.