Despite warning signs, and in some cases an outright attack, individuals are reviewed before being added to U.S. terrorism "watch lists." Such is the case with Muhidin Gelle, a Kenyan man who is accused of trying to kill Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard on New Year's Day, and later threatened police with his axe. An anonymous official said that before Gelle was placed on the U.S. no-fly list, joining around 4,000 others banned from boarding planes flying into the States, American officials had to make sure his behavior met "the appropriate standard," even though he was previously linked to a plot to attack Secretary of State Hilary Clinton when she was in Africa. "The information has to meet certain standards. You can’t just say, ‘Hey, put this clown on the no-fly list.’ You have to make a case. And that’s just as it should be," argued a U.S. intelligence official. The standards the government uses, however, are expected to come under review by the Obama administration and Congress, since they failed in the case of the Christmas Day bomber.
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