My observations on items in the news.
WE’RE STILL NOT CONNECTING THE DOTS – You may recall after the World Trade Center attack, there was a great hue and cry over our inability to connect the dots. The CIA, the FBI and local law enforcement officials were not communicating. No one could explain how a group of terrorists could become proficient commercial airline pilots. There was no suspicion, even when one of them said he wasn’t interested in how to land the aircraft.
As it turns out, federal authorities were aware that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden were receiving flight training at schools in the United States, according to a report in the September 23, 2001 Washington Post. “Three days after the attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, then FBI Director Robert Mueller described reports as ‘news, quite obviously,’ adding, ‘If we had understood that to be the case, we could have – perhaps one could have averted this.’”
Quoting a “senior government official,” who acknowledged that law enforcement officials were aware of individuals with links to bin Laden had attended flight schools, however, there was no information to indicate they had been planning suicide hijacking attacks.
“We were unable to marry any information from investigations or the intelligence community that talked to their use of this expertise in the events that we saw unfold on the 11th, the official said.
IN 2012, THE FBI FAILED TO CONNECT THE DOTS due to a spelling error while supposedly watching the Tsarnaev brothers, who later carried out the bombings of the Boston Marathon. The FBI opened an investigation of Tamerian Tsarnaev after receiving a tip from Russian authorities. He was placed in the Customs and Border Protection database that would trigger an alert whenever he left or re-entered the U.S.
When he boarded a flight for Moscow in January 2012, he triggered the alert, but he wasn’t considered high priority among the 100 other names on a “hot list” of people travelling through JFK that day.
Upon his return six months later, he was not detained or questioned because of a misspelling of his name – Tsarnayev instead of Tsarnaev.
Nine months later Tamerian and his brother Dzhokhar set off bombs that killed three people and wounded nearly 300 others. It was later determined that Tamerian was radicalized during his six-month trip to the Russian region of Dogestan.
STILL UNABLE TO CONNECT DOTS IN TIME – When investigators of Sunday’s church shooting in Texas learned that the shooter had purchased three weapons even though he was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force, they found that someone in the Air Force failed to transmit information about his military conviction. That information is normally sent to the National Criminal Information Center, a federal database used by gun dealers to check prospective buyers for criminal backgrounds.
Did the Texas shooter’s records just slip through the cracks, or were the records of more dishonorably discharged service members not transmitted? It’s under investigation.
VIN SCULLY, the respected, well-known Dodger baseball announcer, who recently retired after 67 years behind the microphone, has joined those of us who have pledged not to watch another NFL game.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, who never hesitates to take to the floor of the Senate or one of those hallway microphones to spew his hate of President Trump and the Republican Party, had nothing to say about Donna Brazille’s book on Hillary Clinton’s rigging of the Democrat nomination. Reason? He hadn’t read the book. Not having all the facts never stopped him before. Appearing on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC” with Kasie Hunt, Schumer also said that he did not follow the 2016 campaign. Click here and watch the clip of the interview. Notice that Hunt exhibits no astonishment with the Democrat Senate Minority Leader’s responses.
GO FIGURE – You may remember that Navy seaman Kristain Saucier was found guilty of taking pictures in the submarine on which he served. Yes, it was a mistake. He simply wanted to show his family and future children what he did while in the Navy. He was sentenced to a year in prison and six months of home arrest.
Former FBI Director James Comey determined that Hillary Clinton didn’t intentionally transmit or willfully mishandle classified information. She was secretary of state and often referred to as the smartest woman in the world, but was so ignorant that she couldn’t recognize classified material. No indictment.
Yesterday, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, was found guilty of sexting with a teenage girl and was sent to prison for 21 months.
And U.S. Army deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl gets no jail time.
Justice for all?
