Key security agencies lack permanent leaders – Yahoo! News

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 9:52 am

The attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner has prompted a review of U.S. security policies. The acting heads of those agencies — both created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — will be at the forefront of these discussions.
Former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin is nominated to run CBP, and former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers is the president’s pick for TSA.
Abdulmutallab was not on the government’s terrorist watch list — though he was on a less sensitive and broader database. Those facts are prompting a broad review of the government’s terrorist detection efforts.
“The president is looking for answers on this,” Denis McDonough, chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, told reporters Monday in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. McDonough said officials have begun to assemble information related to watch list procedures. Acting TSA Administrator Gale Rossides is “very able” and “we have a very able team of career professionals at TSA. “Running a security agency with a revolving door is a recipe for failure,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.
Michael Chertoff, who headed the Homeland Security Department in the Bush administration, said if the country is going to work on enhancing security, there needs to be permanent people in place at TSA and Customs and Border Protection. U.S. officials had warning signs that Abdulmutallab might be a threat.
The embassy visit in which Abdulmatallab’s father said he was concerned about his son’s radicalization triggered a Nov. 20 State Department cable from Nigeria to all U.S. diplomatic missions and department headquarters in Washington. It was also shared with the interagency National Counter Terrorism Center, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
These concerns landed Abdulmutallab among the about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the NCTC. According to Yemen’s foreign minister, Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from August until early December. Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden’s family, has been an al-Qaida haven partly because of a weak central government and rugged terrain, affording al-Qaida fighters numerous places to hide. A Yemen-based group, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has claimed responsibility for Abdulmutallab’s actions.

___

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Honolulu; Lolita Baldor in Washington; Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria; and Donna Abu-Nasr in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED BLOGS

The Canadian Sentinel: No One Leading TSA
Erroll Southers, who was serving as an FBI special agent at the time of the censure, asked a co-worker’s husband who worked for the San Diego Police Department to run a background check on his ex-wife’s boyfriend. We’ve already seen, …
Petty Politics, Poor Priorities and Protecting Us from Terror …
In a time of attack by terrorists using airliners, petty politics continues to prevent Errol Southers from being confirmed to lead the TSA.
L.A. Airport Police Group Says Detroit Attack Shows Need For TSA …
Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, states that the “U.S. Senate should have acted to confirm Erroll Southers as the new TSA administrator before it recessed December 24.” …
TSA Nominee Erroll Southers's Stand on Collective Bargaining Needs …
Congress should wait to confirm any nominee to head the TSA until that nominee states his or her position on mandatory collective bargaining over security procedures.
Matthew Yglesias Â» DC Population Growth
Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, is blocking the confirmation of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration, saying Southers would permit screeners to seek full union representation, a move DeMint says would weaken …
Let The New Security Bumbling Begin â€¦ Meanwhile, Why Has the TSA …
Hawley was working to seal those cracks, and the man President Omaba named to replace Hawley, Erroll Southers, has been cooling his heels, waiting for Republicans in Congress to get out of the way so the nomination can be approved. …