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When President Obama's leading counter-terrorism staff member, John Brennan, says that "politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaida," he has it exactly backward. It is the president's efforts to crow about how effective he is in fighting terrorism that are helping al-Qaida. What kind of policy is it to announce to the world that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the Nigerian terrorist who attempted to blow up a plane as it approached Detroit this past Christmas, is talking to investigators and giving them much valuable information? Obama's people put the story out to counter accusations that...

Two reviews outlining the Obama administration’s defense and security strategy have avoided any mention of anti-Muslim labels, reported the Washington Times on Friday, February 12. "(President Barack Obama) had made it clear as we are looking at counterterrorism that our principal focus is al Qaeda and global violent extremism,” David Heyman, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy, said. “And that is the terminology and language that has been articulated." A 108-page review by the Homeland Security Department has dropped any reference to words such as “Islamists” and “Islamic”. Instead, the document used the terms of “Al-Qaeda”, “terrorist”, “extremist” and “violent...

How much time, do you suppose, has Eric Holder spent as attorney general of the United States explaining that he meant no harm by all the harm he's done? His not very acceptable explanations began even before he was confirmed as attorney general. That's when he was quizzed about his role in approving a pardon for Marc Rich, international fugitive and big giver to various political causes. Mr. Rich was but one of various dubious types Bill Clinton pardoned just before he left the White House, and The Hon. Eric Holder cleared the whole, smelly deal. Having earned his stripes,...

On February 2nd, NBC correspondent Pete Williams announced Breaking News during the 5 PM ET edition of Hardball: the Christmas Day Bomber, Umar Abdul Mutallab, was giving fresh, actionable information to the FBI which the United States is in turn "aggressively chasing down." Less than an hour later, this NewsBuster [AKA FReeper governsleast] blogged on the matter, wondering whether by leaking the news, "the Obama administration compromised national security," in an attempt to deflect the criticism it had been receiving for mirandizing Mutallab rather than treating him like the enemy combatant he is. On today's Fox News Watch, panelist Jim...

There is a saying in police work and in military service that certain very noxious, offensive substances always roll downhill. That is to say, foul-ups instigated by bad policy will always be blamed on the lowest possible links in the chain of command. Such is the case now in Afghanistan. Diana West writes extensively about U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s (pictured above with CIC Obama) “hearts and minds” Afghanistan counter-insurgency campaign: Sacrificing American lives by denying artillery and air support to our ground troops pinned down under heavy enemy fire is acceptable, because artillery and bombs may cause collateral damage...

Holder's decision to Mirandize the Christmas bomber was bad enough. Telling the world he was talking again waseven worse Security: The administration says the Christmas bomber is now cooperating with authorities. We thought they got all the information he had in a 50-minute chat. So just why are we letting our enemies know he's talking? In any war, it's vitally important that you know what your enemy is planning and doing, just as it's important that your actions and plans remain secret. And when you know about your enemy's plans it's important they don't know that you know. We were...

Andrew C. McCarthy February 5, 2010 Holder on Holder AG is unconvincing about ‘his’ decisions on Christmas bomber.  Attorney General Eric Holder has responded to criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with an “all’s well that ends well” letter to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Holder’s missive vigorously defends what he says was his decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant, to impose peacetime law-enforcement protocols on his interrogation, and to charge him in civilian court. He argues that the use of the criminal-justice system has been vindicated because the terrorist is...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES The U.S. attorney general should read up on the history of terrorism. He might learn something. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sent a five-page letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, detailing his rationale for treating purported Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal suspect rather than a terrorist detainee. The attorney general's defense betrays significant misreading of how the United States has dealt with terrorism in recent decades. Mr. Holder incredibly claims that policies treating terrorists as criminals "were not criticized when employed by previous Administrations [and] have been and remain...

When it comes to trying terrorists on American soil since 9/11, let's all work from the same set of facts. This morning we've heard three people in the Sunday shows talking about the "hundreds" of terrorists that we have tried in US courts and hold in US prisons - as if KSM was just some regular Joe terrorist. Some facts: First, the only civilian trial of a 9/11 terrorist was Moussaoui who was arrested before 9/11 had even happened and before the President had authorized detaining terrorists as enemy combatants. Second, Moussaoui had his trial while the entire military commission...

He's the expert's expert on this issue and it's impossible to ignore his reasoning!In an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post Former CIA Director Michael Hayden describes how the political decisions taken by Obama and his Dept. of Justice have undermined our national security. Covering areas like CIA interrogations and the KSM trial, the op-ed deserves to be read in full. The following excerpts deal primarily with the issues raised by the handling of the Christmas Day aka "Underwear" Bomber: Obama administration takes several wrong paths in dealing with terrorism By Michael V. HaydenWashington Post Sunday, January 31, 2010 ...We got...

he real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane -- that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration -- but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government. After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him....

A South Jersey woman got the scare of her life when she tried to report suspicious activity on board a plane Philadelphia International Airport. The woman shared details of her terrifying ordeal only with Fox 29 News on Wednesday. Now, she's wondering if it was some kind of sick joke or a test run for a terrorist. Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser reported that 12 days after her red-eye flight from Los Angeles, the US Airways passenger is still upset over an incident on her flight, the reaction to it by the flight crew, and the lack of reaction from authorities....

Whose side is the Justice Department on: America's -- or the terrorists'? It's just insane that a lawyer who defended Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard -- and who sought constitutional rights for terrorists -- could be one of the Obama administration's top legal officials. But there's Neal Katyal, occupying a top perch at the Justice Department as the principal deputy solicitor general. Then there's Jennifer Daskal -- who just months ago was an anti-Guantanamo activist. Now she's in Justice's National Security Division -- working on detainee issues. Eric Holder Eric Holder Talk about conflicts of interest. All kinds of...

This White House national security adviser James Jones said said this morning that the review would "shock" Americans with the fresh details it provides as to how U.S. security and intelligence systems failed to "connect the dots" leading up to the foiled Christmas Day attack on Northwest Flight 253. I have read the report, and quite frankly I am not shocked, the White House released nothing new, I was also underwhelmed by his comments. I will write about it more later, in the mean time, a transcript of the President's speech is below, along with embedded versions of the Security...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that the “chickens came home to roost” on 9-11. He was wrong. But they have now, indeed, come home to roost as we witness the results of the unilateral disarmament President Obama has practiced in the war on terror. Beset once more by terrorism on our soil and in our airspace, we find ourselves suddenly overmatched by those who the Bush Administration kept away from our shores for seven years. This new onset of terrorism is not the product of any change in the international environment or some new “systemic” flaw in our intelligence operations. It...

Documents produced by the Department of Homeland Security indicate that in fiscal 2010 the department is planning to catch only 26 percent of travelers committing major criminal violations while seeking to enter the United States through international airports. DHS documents also indicate that the department believes it will fail to screen against law enforcement databases 15 percent of travelers entering the United States in 2010 through all official ports of entry. In fiscal 2008, according to DHS, the department caught only 25 percent of those committing “major violations” while entering the U.S. on international flights. It also planned to catch...

The internal threat from Muslim extremists in the military extends to high-level Defense Department aides who have undermined military policy. In fact, one top Muslim adviser pushed out an intelligence analyst who warned of the sudden jihad syndrome that led to the Fort Hood terrorist attack...

Some Democratic lawmakers who support closing Guantanamo Bay say the U.S. should reconsider whether to repatriate suspected terrorists from Yemen, given the al-Qaida activity in the poor Arab nation. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said Sunday the transfers will continue if the administration deems them warranted. Six Yemenis returned last month were released after the government there determined they were not a threat, officials in Yemen told The Associated Press. President Barack Obama has said an al-Qaida group operating in Yemen apparently was behind the plot to bring down a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day. The U.S....

The Obama administration on Sunday acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies missed some red flags that could have helped unravel the plot to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, but said there had been no single "smoking gun" indicating that the attack was coming. John Brennan, the White House's top counterterrorism official, used a round of appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows to defend the administration's handling of the attempted attack. A 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had allegedly tried to set off explosives that he had smuggled underneath his clothing onto a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to...

THERE IS, it seems evident, more than enough blame to go around in the botched handling of the botched Christmas bombing. Not for some Republicans. With former vice president Richard B. Cheney in the lead, they have embarked on an ugly course to use the incident to inflict maximum political damage on President Obama. That's bad enough, but their scurrilous line of attack is even worse. The claim that the incident shows the president's fecklessness in the war on terror is unfounded -- no matter how often it is repeated. These critics have set up a straw Obama, a weak...