House intel chair: We knew “something big” was coming before Algerian hostage crisis
posted at 12:01 pm on January 21, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
Did the US get caught by surprise by the al-Qaeda attack on an Algerian natural-gas facility? Not entirely, as ABC News reports. While the US government insisted that AQ has been “decimated,” the House Intelligence Committee had been alerted to “lots of threat streams” about pending attacks in the North Africa region. Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough intel to connect the dots, says Rep. Mike Rogers, the committee chair:
The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said that before the deadly Algerian hostage crisis, the U.S. had several reports that “something big” was coming against a Western target — but not the details the government needed to prevent it.
“Just like the Benghazi event, we had lots of threat streams… There are reports coming in from all different types of sources saying, ‘Something big is going to happen,’” Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.) told ABC News Sunday. “We didn’t know for sure, for certain it would be this particular place under those circumstances, but we knew that they were trying to find a… Western target, which this clearly was.”
Roger’s comments came a day after the Algerian military forced a bloody end to the four-day hostage crisis at a BP joint-venture facility in the Sahara Saturday. Twenty-nine hostage-takers were killed and three arrested in that operation, according to Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal. One of the hostage takers was Canadian, he said.
Sellal also said 37 hostages of many nationalities died in the incident, some executed by the terrorists with shots to the head. U.S. officials said At least one American hostage was among the dead. Several others managed to escape the facility, but the fate of two remains unknown.
Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case:
Two additional Americans were killed in last week’s hostage standoff at a natural gas complex in Algeria, bringing the final U.S. death toll to three, an Obama administration official said Monday.
Seven Americans made it out safely.
The deceased Americans were identified as Victor Lynn Lovelady and Gordon Lee Rowan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The official had no details on how the Americans died, and their hometowns were not released. The FBI has recovered the bodies of and notified the families.
A report from the London Telegraph makes it clear how the threat evolved into an attack, or at least how the terrorists managed to arm themselves for their mission:
Many of the Islamist terrorists shot their way into the In Amenas compound on Thursday using the AK104 model of Kalashnikov, which was typically used by Libyan rebels in the war against Muammar Gaddafi.
They brought F5 rockets that also surfaced in the Libyan war, said the security source.
The Islamists wore the same type of outfits that Qatar provided to Libyan National Transitional Council rebels by Qatar – yellow flak jackets with brown patches, known as “chocolate chip” camouflage. The garments are copies of ones worn by Americans in the Gulf war.
The terrorists also employed 60mm gun-mortars used by France and Libyan rebels.
That Libyan intervention in 2011 just keeps paying dividends, doesn’t it? Instead of focusing on terrorist threats and keeping the lid on North Africa, the US and NATO managed to destabilize Libya and provide arms and operational freedom to the very terrorist networks that want to attack Western targets. And now we don’t have the capability to see those attacks coming, either.
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To be fair, “attacking” a reservoir is massive undertaking…It’s not exactly like you are putting cyan!de into Aunt Esther’s lemonade. Any adulteration involves a massive volume of chemicals and an equally complex means to mix those chemicals into a fairly substantial volume of water.
JFKY on May 16, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Obama said today that he does NOT support an Independet Counsel being appointed for ANY of the scandals….
The bottom line is if Holder des not call for an Independent Counsel it will NOT HAPPEN, they will be able to get away with all of it, & there is nothing anyone can do about it.
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:01 PM
:) not yours as in ‘you voted for him’ :), of course not… ‘your preezy’ (and mine too, I suspect, but then I’m in denial :) as in your (and our) collective curse…but only for 2 more years or so…I’m looking fwd to the last two lame duck years of his preezydency…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:04 PM
I think Jon Stewart needs to add to that skit decrying government incompetence highlighted on the Internet a day or two ago.
This is the stuff government needs to be worrying about. Not people wearing “Don’t Tread on Me” shirts.
WTH is going on in this administration.
BuckeyeSam on May 16, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Obama’s administration / term in office so far:
FAILURE & SCANDAL!
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:09 PM
Brat, great find. Thanks.
Schadenfreude on May 16, 2013 at 2:10 PM
INCOMPETENCE is the hallmark of this administration. Starting in the Oval Office.
GarandFan on May 16, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Only credible option: crowdsource.
Names, photos, known acquaintences and known addresses.
Time to take your lumps with the rest of them, US Marshalls.
socalcon on May 16, 2013 at 2:12 PM
I hope and pray, most earnestly, that the last years are mired in controversy and scandal….and a painful inability to accomplish much of anything, I prepare for a “good” 2014.
JFKY on May 16, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Well why not? It’s not like they were planning on praying the rosary in front of a Planned Parenthood Clinic or something terroristy like that.
Lily on May 16, 2013 at 2:14 PM
Hmmm, scandal has been a feature of many a president’s second term, even if it boiled over from the first.
Maybe a president should only serve one term. That makes for more than enough potential scandal.
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM
{facepalm}
socalcon on May 16, 2013 at 2:16 PM
I didn’t know about the IG REPORT…(of course, knowing about what the IRS was doing is another story…)
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:18 PM
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM
MAYBE we just shouldn’t elect inexperienced Communist-tutored (Frank Marshall Davis) hate-spewing racist Communist-based Black Liberation theology pastor-mentored (Wright), Socialist Ideologist-quoting (Saul Alinsky) Community Organizers as President, especially one who plans to put a scndal-plagued Eric Holder in charge of the DOJ & a tax cheat in charge of the Treasury?! Just saying…
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Same here…methinks we are getting a preview of how his last two tears in office will look like…good news is that by then his political capital would have been spent and exhausted, so that his lame duck years will be even lamer…all these scandals will take a toll which makes me really optimistic about 2014…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:29 PM
No we shouldn’t have. But Barry was the perfect stooge at the perfect time for this job. His election was carefully coordinated by a crafty organization and abetted by the LSM. It was certainly an effort he could have never have hoped to coordinate on his own.
A mastermind he is not.
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:30 PM
And don’t they perform daily water test/analysis anyways? you’d think that a basic test would reveal the chemicals that are not supposed to be in there, especially if they are in lethal quantities…it’s not quite the Middle Age with the Borgias or the Medicis poisoning the water wells of their enemies :)…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Probably placed them in a munitions factory…no one would ever look there…
right2bright on May 16, 2013 at 2:51 PM
government is good for you! let’s make it bigger!!
Sachiko on May 16, 2013 at 3:22 PM
Isn’t keeping track of terrorists racist or something?
We’ll have to wait till they join a tea party. Then they’ll find them for sure.
PattyJ on May 16, 2013 at 4:17 PM
Which name: their original one, or the one they use in the WPP?
Or the false one they are going to use once they get fake documents?
AesopFan on May 16, 2013 at 4:21 PM
It’s all a conspiracy to deny Hillary her turn at the wheel. Dirty Mysogynysts.
abobo on May 16, 2013 at 5:47 PM
The problem is that any highly-public “attack” would close smaller/on-site reservoirs until they could be tested, drained, cleaned, tested again, verified, etc. Then the equipment. Then the distribution system (the comical part is realizing where the water from the flushed lines would go.)
The country re-elected Obama. It’s not a stretch that many or most of them would think one gallon of ________ in a 100 million gallon tank would kill them.
rogerb on May 16, 2013 at 8:46 PM
There are two ways to go after a reservoir.
First is the water, but that hasn’t been treated yet so you are unlikely to do much there.
Second is the dam, which is an earthen dike for the Quabbin Reservoir.
I have a t-shirt around here someplace that says: ‘There is no problem that can’t be solved with the suitable application of high explosives.’
ajacksonian on May 16, 2013 at 9:06 PM
“Man arrested at Boise Bench home on terrorism charges…
BOISE — Federal agents have arrested 30-year-old Fazliddin Kurbanov, who was living at a Boise Bench home, as part of a federal terrorism investigation.
The U.S. Attorney says federal terrorism charges were filed Thursday afternoon in Boise and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Kurbanov is an Uzbekistan national and is legally in the United States.
Kurbanov has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boise on three counts; one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device.
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City also returned an indictment charging Kurbanov with one count of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction.
Government officials say this arrest was the culmination of an investigation by the FBI’s Salt Lake Division, which covers Idaho and Utah; and Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Idaho and Utah, which include a number of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents have been closely monitoring Kurbanov’s activities for any potential threat….
KTVB has learned that Kurbanov has a police record here in Idaho. He was pulled over for traffic violations in three different Idaho counties over the past two years.”
http://www.ktvb.com/news/FBI-conducts-investigation-on-Boise-bench-207753341.html
workingclass artist on May 16, 2013 at 9:08 PM
Large amounts of ricin can be fairly easily made, radioactive isotopes in even modest amounts can be detected, and botulin is extremely toxic in small amounts. The entire reservoir need not be made highly lethal; detections of toxicity need only be high enough to close down the reservoir for some time and cause fear or even panic. That’s what terror is about.
Of course, these foreign Muslims from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore were trespassing in the middle of the night only for the purposes of making observations of the water supply for their “education and career interests” , and they are not (as the media is making a point of) known to be connected to criminal groups. So nothing to worry about, move along unless you’re a greasy racist Islamophobe.
Chessplayer on May 17, 2013 at 11:21 AM
The picture in the caption is priceless and says it all!
rjoco1 on May 17, 2013 at 11:28 AM
Just as Ed used the word “unexpected” for months (years?) regarding the growth in unemployment, perhaps the word “Incompetent” should be used with this administration every time one of these incredible messups occurs. It’s time that the truth be told – either this administration is really into “changing America as we know it” – that is, changing America to a hunting ground against decent Americans or it is incredibly incompetent and the word must be used.
Who else is getting their phone tapped?
MN J on May 19, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Hello all
can someone tell me what this triple face palm photo is from. I just noticed it reoccurs, anyone?
Thanks in advance.
Observation on May 19, 2013 at 3:53 PM
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