Photo: Mike Leiter, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center.3 Ways The Underwear Bomber Changed Counterterrorism -- Popular Mechanics
December 25, 2009 was a pivotal day for U.S. counterterrorism. Although the airline bombing failed, the reverberations from the attempt are still being felt. Here’s how this incident changed U.S. counterterrorism policy, as told by Mike Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Last Christmas, while on a flight to Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate an explosive device smuggled in his underwear. Scrutinizing the intelligence agencies after the incident, a bipartisan chorus of complaints rose from Capitol Hill, asking why a known radical like Abdulmutallab was absent from the federal no-fly list.
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My Comment: What is my take .... saving the counter terrorism department's budget is probably the biggest changed that happened after the capture of the underwear bomber.