Beyond ‘Mutallab

TIMELESS EDITORIAL

The nearly successful terrorist plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who has pleaded not guilty to a six-count indictment for trying to blow up a US-bound Northwest Airlines flight out of Amsterdam last Christmas Day with explosives he had smuggled aboard, undetected in his underwear (he was on the verge of injecting chemicals into the package), proves that blind spots abound all over. More importantly, they need to be acknowledged and addressed.

This is a clarion call for across-the-board sharing of bits and pieces of information as equals between Western and other security agencies.

Nigeria has remained clueless with its Nigerian Intelligence Agency, NIA; it is doubtful if it is adequately staffed and funded--and not another hostage to ‘federal character’. It speaks volumes that many in the country are in the dark about its existence.

Given alleged Koranic incentives for carrying out such dastardly acts being propagated by disgruntled elements waging a ‘Grudge War’ against the rest of us (their ‘Jihad’ constitutes a ‘sixth pillar’ of faith), it has become imperative to as a matter of urgency step up monitoring of Islamic schools (madrassahs) across the country. Preachers with decidedly anti-Western and Christian biases (‘Mutallab’s Christmas Day timing was deliberate) and militant tones should be put on a watch-list.

Further, northern Nigeria’s cannon fodder al-majiris, fallout of the region’s festering sociological malaise fueled by grinding poverty and perpetuated ignorance, now a vicious cycle, is a keg of gunpowder for coming conflagrations. It is a knife in Nigeria’s underbelly. A watch-list of fiery clerics who provide instruction for them has become indispensable.

Indeed, what stops Nigerian-based Islamist extremist elements from blowing up Western interests in Nigeria? Such groups already seem well-entrenched in Nigeria, like the Boko Haram which always seems to catch the authorities pants down.

‘Mutallab could have been arrested in Nigeria and his plot nipped in the bud (without the psychological trauma of his attempt now inflicted on hundreds) if the NIA had figured out his intent; his guards would have been down.

Finger-pointing will not help; all are indicted. US National Intelligence Directorate and their National Counterterrorism Center must reach out to other national agencies to share experiences and competencies. The world is still wondering what the all-knowing Americans did with the information the would-be bomber’s father volunteered them on his son’s Islamist radicalisation, from romping in such red-flag locales like Yemen, frolicking with al-Qaeda. Why did the American downplay that calibre of information?

Why ‘Mutallab wasn’t put on a watch-list, beyond a humongous terrorist database maze of 550,000 other names as a result, is beyond us. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had a travel visa granted since June 2008, valid through June 2010.

The following brazenly bully assertion by US President Barack Obama’s adviser on counter-terrorism, John Brennan is simply unacceptable: “There was no smoking gun. There was no piece of intelligence that said this guy is a terrorist and is going to get on a plane....None whatsoever.”

Meanwhile his admittance that several “bits and pieces” of intelligence had been gathered in the run-up to the failed Christmas Day bombing shows clearly that human and systemic failure on their part was responsible for not putting together the pieces as part of a larger puzzle. In his own words: “It was a failure to integrate the bits and pieces of information.” And that is what it’s always about.

Now the world must watch out for name changes and identity alterations, like the scenario in adventure novelist Clive Cussler’s plane hijack story; the hijacker impostor pilot had only a knapsack on his person at check-in. It is outrageous that the US authorities lowered the threshold for getting potential terrorists onto no-fly lists, for getting on a plane at all.

Luckily for us, the present cannon fodder stopped from igniting may have been a blundering operative; the next in tow will not tout a spurious reason for visit as ‘a religious seminar’ (another red flag, sans profiling). Next could be a bespectacled ‘Dogara Gambo’, clutching a copy of his self-published book, billed to address a literary conference in the US.

That UF Abdulmutallab boarded his flight in Amsterdam to frigid Detroit with no coat has been admitted as the final warning sign that went unnoticed. He also showed up at the Amsterdam airport without any luggage--another sign that should have prompted more scrutiny.

There had been critical warning signs since way back in mid-October. A US National Security Agency wiretap picked up discussion out of Yemen that referred to a Nigerian being trained for a special mission.

The misspelling of Abdulmutallab’s name at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that initially made the State Department believe he did not have a U.S. visa and therefore was “less of an immediate concern” is a lame duck excuse. “A system shouldn’t get stymied by a single misspelling,” as a US official has admitted. “If you mistype something in Google, Google comes back and says maybe you want to look at this other spelling.”

We cannot afford to put our faith in technology to stop the terrorists from getting on planes and trains, among other terrorist attractions. The glaring need is to understand that it is a human intervention situation. More time need to be spent on putting boots on the ground, along with people behind the lines, who understand what’s going on and can get into the mind of the enemy to read what he (or she) is intent on doing.

As a final gate-keeping measure, airlines should be required to provide passenger lists, or manifests, to relevant agencies 24 hours in advance for the action of behavioural experts, like situational psychologists, to spot potential terrorists before they get onboard. Inherent in all these is a price we all must be willing to pay to guarantee safety with our freedom of movement across borders.

Only humble ‘collabo intel’ will preempt other wannabe bombers sure to follow with greater assurance of success in the footsteps of the botched Christmas Day bomber.