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Security: Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the attempted destruction of Flight 253 were released from Guantanamo two years ago. The case for indefinite detention has been made once again, and not in Illinois. Sometimes America's chickens do come home to roost. In a statement released Monday, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which counts among its leadership two former Guantanamo detainees, claimed responsibility for the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the crotch bomber, told FBI agents he was trained for his Christmas Day mission in Yemen by top leaders of the group who provided...

A congressman who oversees American intelligence operations, a former CIA operative and an intelligence official agree that Christmas Day's aborted attack on a U.S. airliner proves that the nation's anti-terrorism efforts are flawed. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano praised the nation's aviation-security system Sunday but backtracked Monday, admitting the system "did not work in this instance." "Clearly, the system did not work," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told the Tribune-Review yesterday. Hoekstra is the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "Success is not a person on a plane with an explosive," he said. "That is a failure. The system designed...

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said Sunday that it is fair to blame the Obama administration for the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day. Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee said that the administration has not taken the threat of terrorist threats on the U.S. seriously. Asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace if it is fair to blame the Obama administration for the attacks, the Michigan Republican replied ""Yeah, I think it really is." Hoekstra said that increased domestic threats have made themselves more evidence this year, with...

The Talk Shows Sunday, December 27th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Arlen Specter, D-Pa., Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gibbs; Reps. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Peter King, R-N.Y.THIS WEEK (ABC): Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Gibbs; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Homeland Security...

Top lawmakers, concerned about potential breakdowns in homeland security protections, said Saturday that Congress has scheduled hearings next month to investigate the alleged attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight just before touching down in Detroit on Christmas Day. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which he heads, will hold hearings in January to look into Friday's incident and related security matters, according to The Hill. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told The Hill that the House Homeland Security Committee will also hold hearings to "get to the bottom of what did and did not...

(snipped) Hoekstra says that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab may have a common link with the Fort Hood shooter that shot 13 people in November. AFP, Dec. 26: There was a suggestion of links between Abdulmutallab and radical US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who had contacts with the US army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at a Texas military base last month. "He may have been in contact with the American imam al-Aulaqi," Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Congress for Michigan, told AFP.

Rep. Hoekstra: Attempted airline bombing should 'connect the dots' for Obama By Jordan Fabian - 12/26/09 12:46 PM ET Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) Friday said that the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit should "connect the dots" for the Obama administration. Hoekstra, who is the top Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, told the Detroit Free Press that the attacks are an indication that al Qaeda is beginning to plan more widespread attacks on the United States. “It’s not surprising,” Hoekstra said of the attempt to blow up a Northwest airliner. “People have got to...

Rest of Title: Says Hoekstra Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says the Obama administration is stalling in providing information to the leaders of the House and Senate and the congressional intelligence committees on the multiple murders allegedly committed by a radical Muslim Army officer at Fort Hood more than a month ago. So far, the committee chairman and congressional leaders have received no detailed, substantive briefing on the event and what is known about its perpetrator. “You know, they’re playing out the string,” Hoekstra said Thursday. “We’re going home next week,...

There's nothing like a retiring Representative to hold nothing back. He lays into Holder and the Administration for having no plan, no decision methodology, and no logic for their approaches to the KSM NYC trial, the Ft. Hood terrorist attack, and the closing of Gitmo. Here's the raw audio of the conference call Bill and I just finished. The full interview runs just under 30 minutes:

Bringing those accused in the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial would increase the security threat to the city and give radical Islamists a platform to propagate their ideology, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Sunday. Giuliani's view that the Obama administration is erring in trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others near the site of the World Trade Center was echoed by other Republicans on the Sunday news programs. Democrats defended the decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to try the five in New York where more than 2,000 civilians were killed on Sept. 11. If...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead. On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft. “The stakes are far too high,” Obama said in a video and Internet...

Here is video of the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee - Rep. Pete Hoekstra - reacting to President Obama's decision to bring the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to New York to stand trial before a civilian court. Hoekstra said he cannot understand why in the world Obama is doing this instead of taking the guilty plea of Mohammed and letting his punishment be decided by a Military Tribunal. Hoekstra makes two outstanding comments toward the end of the video. He said he is "not sure he (President Obama)realizes, even after last week, that America...

The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee on Tuesday night accused the White House of withholding information on the Fort Hood attack. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) said administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman, raising "red flags" about what the White House was hiding. "When they withhold information, you always start asking questions," Hoekstra told Fox News. "That's what raises red flags. What do they know that they don't want us to know?" Hoekstra linked President Barack Obama's handling of Fort Hood to a chain of other GOP criticisms of the president, including the administration's...

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, tells Newsmax that the White House intervened to keep him from obtaining critical information regarding the Fort Hood murders.

Intel Committee Republican Says Administration is Withholding Information on Fort Hood Attack, Demands Preservation of Documents for Possible Congressional Probe.CNSNews.com) – Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Monday that the Obama administration has been withholding “critical information” on the Fort Hood murders allegedly committed by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Hoekstra is demanding that the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Director of National Intelligence preserve documents relating to the incident for use in possible future congressional investigation. "President Obama said people...

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that the health care bill pushed by the Democratic House leadership will “shred the Constitution” and that Democrats have not given Republicans “any time to showcase” their ideas on health care reform. When CNSNews.com asked, “Are you satisfied with what the GOP has proposed thus far to counter the Democrats’ plan on health care?” Hoekstra said, “Well, I mean there’s always arguments that could be made: ‘You’ve got to be out there with a more powerful message’ and those types of things, but you know, we’re out there with a message.” “I think people...

U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra talks while U.S. Representative Mike Rogers listens. The pair spoke in Dearborn Monday to a group of business professionals about health care reform. News - Friday, October 9, 2009 23:15 - 0 Comments Hoekstra and Rogers: Democrats idea of health care reform will bring a lot of taxes and uncertainty U.S. Representative Mike Rogers said it’s clear to him how the Democrats will find the $1.8 trillion he says they need to pay for their national health care reform. “They are going to tax you to death,” Rogers told a crowd Friday. Rogers, a Republican from...

Many of the 300 people who attended today's meeting in Standish, Michigan were already against moving Gitmo's detainees there; the rest left with more questions than they came with, according to town hall organizer and long-time Standish resident Dave Munson. I spoke with Mr. Munson this afternoon, after the meeting. He said, "The Department of Defense needs to come up here and be honest with us about how this would effect our community." ...U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland and a candidate of Michigan governor in 2010, took the podium first and urged the people to push for transparency. Hoekstra has...

President Obama released the legal documents that are the underpinning of the enhanced interrogation techniques. He has refused to release the documents that will show whether they worked or not. If they support his decision to end the use of these techniques, why won't Obama release them? Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is joining the call for the release of these documents. (video)

A leading Republican on Thursday said lawmakers should be forced to take lie detector tests before receiving classified briefings, as debate intensified over lying between the intelligence community and Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee and the ranking Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said requiring polygraph tests would safeguard the information and clear up who is being told what. This comes as Democrats have accused the CIA of lying to members of Congress over the years, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has faced her own questions about what she knew about...

Newsmax: Rep. Pete Hoekstra tells Newsmax that the policies of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are putting the United States at "greater risk" and providing our enemies with "a bigger opening to attack" the U.S. again. The Michigan congressmen, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, also said the Democratic leadership is "undermining our intelligence professionals" and that their morale is "collapsing."Newsmax: Hoekstra: U.S. at 'Greater Risk' Under Pelosi, Obama

Democrats are considering punishing Republican members on the Intelligence Committee who openly discussed information that was given to them at a classified briefing on interrogations. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, acknowledged on MSNBC that panel members received a classified briefing on Thursday. And she said Republican members who spoke to the The Hill after the briefing could be sanctioned. “Certainly I think there needs to be accountability,” Schakowsky said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show. “I don’t exactly know if sanctions ought to be given or what...

House Republicans on Friday reacted to Democratic claims that they leaked sensitive information from a closed Intelligence Committee hearing by using the same line of attack they’ve deployed on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.): Prove it. “First you have Speaker Pelosi accusing the CIA of misleading Congress all the time without providing any proof. Now other Democrats are following her lead and making equally false claims without any proof,” Jamal Ware, spokesman for House Intelligence Committee Republicans, said on Friday. “If they believe the classified substance of the meeting was revealed, they should prove it.” Intelligence Committee Democrats on Thursday blasted...

Republicans ignited a firestorm of controversy on Thursday by revealing some of what they had been told at a closed-door Intelligence Committee hearing on the interrogation of terrorism suspects. Democrats immediately blasted the GOP lawmakers for publicly discussing classified information, while Republicans said Democrats are trying to hide the truth that enhanced interrogation of detainees is effective. GOP members on the Intelligence Committee on Thursday told The Hill in on-the-record interviews that they were informed that the controversial methods have led to information that prevented terrorist attacks. When told of the GOP claims, Democrats strongly criticized the members who revealed...

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) on Sunday lashed out at two Democratic senators who tried to use the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee as a new talking point. Democrats struggling to cover for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her conflict with the Central Intelligence Agency have seized on a conflict Hoekstra had with the CIA in 2006. Back then, Hoekstra cited a report from the agency's Inspector General, a report that concluded the CIA lied to Congress and federal officials in the downing of a plane in Peru in 2001. The plane held missionaries from Michigan; a woman...

Washington -- Republicans continued an all-fronts assault today on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing the CIA of lying - even as a key Republican found himself on the defensive to explain why he accused the agency of lying to Congress just months ago. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee who is running for governor in Michigan, in November said of the CIA: "We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress." Hoekstra was reacting to the 2001 downing of a plane carrying Michigan...

In disparaging the CIA and accusing the agency of lying last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become a "wrecking ball" to the morale of officers risking their lives in the field, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee said Tuesday. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, also told The Washington Times he thinks that President Obama will not be able to keep his promise to close the detention facility for terrorism suspects at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January, saying the president has come to realize that other countries won't take the detainees and that the...

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, House Republicans' point man on the burgeoning interrogation controversy, is seeking more documents from the CIA in light of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that the CIA lied to her. Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, is asking the agency for the documents that CIA staffers reviewed to prepare for their congressional briefings on the Bush administration's interrogation program. "I was greatly concerned at allegations made by Speaker Pelosi that intelligence professionals from the CIA 'misled' her and potentially other members of Congress," Hoekstra wrote in a letter sent Friday. "Accordingly I am...

"What I heard her say -- and I was quite taken aback by her when she said -- was that politics are more important than national security."

The noose is getting tighter around Pelosi and the Democrats. For once Republicans are doing something the right way. http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/05/13/top_stories/doc4a0aa84055c46958517408.txt

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) has called on the intelligence community to declassify documents showing what certain members of Congress were told about the harsh interrogation techniques employed in the war on terrorism. In a letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair on Friday, Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, asked that the so-called Memoranda for the Record (MFR) he reviewed last week be released. Memoranda for the Record indicate subjects discussed at the classified briefings, as well as who attended. The request comes after a memo prepared by the CIA listed 40...

 For Democrats pushing an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing in the war on terrorism, the GOP now has a two-word response: Nancy Pelosi. Republicans say new revelations about a CIA briefing Pelosi received in 2002 have given them their best shot yet at blocking a sprawling probe into Bush administration interrogation techniques by allowing them to insist that its targets would include the speaker of the House. “If someone is going to schedule hearings, I believe that the first witness should be Nancy Pelosi,” Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, told POLITICO. “Clearly, she was...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is under renewed fire after the Obama administration released documents that critics say contradict her claim that she was never told that U.S. detainees were being waterboarded. Pelosi's critics had already deemed her answers convoluted when she explained that she'd been briefed in 2002 that waterboarding had been approved but not that it would be used on terrorism suspects. But a 10-page summary of briefings of congressional officials prepared by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) indicates Pelosi, then the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee was briefed with then-Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.) on Sept. 4,...

Congressional Republicans, led by House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), came out swinging against President Barack Obama's apparent new-found willingness to entertain the possibility of prosecuting former Bush Administration officials for decisions made regarding enhanced interrogations. Hoekstra (R-MI), penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring that if Democrats wanted to conduct an investigation, Republicans would make sure Congressional Democrats were the subjects of the probe right along with the Bush Administration. House Minority Leader John Boehner echoed Hokestra's sentiments, saying that there was little that could be learned from any investigation that Congressional leaders did not...

Congress knew about enhanced interrogation techniques.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said she had no recourse to stop the use of enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding after receiving a classified briefing from the CIA in 2002 - an explanation the top Republican on the House intelligence committee called "the lamest of lame excuses." As scrutiny over who knew what about the controversial tactics has turned back to Congress, Mrs. Pelosi sought to distance herself from revelations that she and other key Democrats were kept in the loop by the CIA between 2002 and 2006. "But don't leave anybody with the impression that some of...

...Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said former CIA chief Michael Hayden is right in saying that Obama's treatment of the interrogation programs could have a chilling effect on agents' ability to operate in the field. "It lessens security," Hoekstra told FOXNews.com. "If you've got an intelligence community that's unwilling to take a risk and being very timid ... guess what? You don't have an intelligence community. You've got a bureaucracy." ... Obama often talked during the campaign about how he wanted to "restore America's world standing," which had "suffered" under the Bush administration and...

President Obama says he wants to give America's image abroad a facelift, but Republicans on Capitol Hill say they are worried it will come at the expense of national security. The president over the past few days has warned that his country is losing its "moral bearings" and must deploy the "power of our values" to stay on the "better side of history." He cited these reasons in abolishing the interrogation tactics outlined in Bush-era memos declassified last week and opening the door for prosecutions against the lawyers who wrote those memos. But top Republicans warn that Obama is placing...

Members of both sides of the aisle in Congress are expressing outrage and seeking an investigation into a new Department of Homeland Security report on "extremism" that targets U.S. military veterans, opponents of abortion and supporters of other conservative causes. U.S. Rep Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., was horrified at what he described as a "shoddy, unsubstantiated" document that was delivered to law enforcement across the nation. "I am concerned at what appears to be a shoddy, unsubstantiated, and potentially politicized work product that has been disseminated to the Intelligence Community, and law enforcement as a finished intelligence product," he wrote to...

Hoekstra: Obama deserves credit for rescue Blocked site, link only: http://www.freep.com/article/20090413/NEWS15/90413030/1008/NEWS/Hoekstra++Obama+deserves+credit+for+rescue

It’s official: Rep. Peter Hoekstra declared he is running for governor of Michigan today, entering a crowded field for the GOP nomination. He made his announcement on a Detroit radio station this morning, and will be kicking off his campaign with stops across the state, including in Detroit and Lansing and his hometown of Holland. Hoekstra will have plenty of company in vying for the GOP nomination, Already Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, businessman Rick Snyder and state senator Tom George have announced their candidacies. Two other high-profile Republicans are considering campaigns – Domino’s...

Though efforts to pass a constitutional amendment protecting parental rights have failed in the past, two U.S. legislators are preparing to reintroduce the idea this week; and this time, they say, the effort is backed by more than 60 congressional members. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who introduced a parental rights amendment by himself last year, told the Agence France-Presse that he will be joined by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on Tuesday as they renew the fight. According to a statement released to AFP by Hoekstra's office, the amendment "would clearly outline in the U.S. Constitution that parents, not government or...

The Republicans have taken their share of lumps -- especially during the current presidential campaign -- for not embracing Web 2.0 technologies and tools as warmly as the Democrats. But that perception may be altered sharply after Friday's mini-uprising on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that saw members Twittering, streaming live video and posting video to YouTube to protest the lack of a vote on an offshore drilling bill when the traditional means of communicating with the public, such as C-Span and microphones, were shut down after the House went into adjournment for several weeks of vacation....

<p>And for this August 1, I figured something bizarre might be afoot. Especially on the floor of the House of Representatives.</p> <p>Every morning, I check-in with Sarah Santer, the morning assignment editor in FOX’s Washington bureau.</p> <p>I warned her: be on guard. Prepare to deploy crews around Capitol Hill. Congress was leaving town today for the five-week August recess.</p>

During the past year, several federal agencies – including the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the National Counter Terrorism Center – have declared a war on words. Specifically, these agencies have issued memoranda discouraging their employees from naming the enemy in the War on Terror. The prohibition included words such as “jihad,” “Islamist,” “Islamofascism,” and “caliphate,” among others

HOLLAND, Mich., July 23 (UPI) -- A Republican Michigan congressman is fighting a Bush administration ban on using words offensive to Muslims while describing terrorists. Rep. Peter Hoekstra offered an amendment last week to the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act that would ban financing for any restriction on use of words such as "jihadist" and "Islamist." Fellow Republican Michigan Reps. Joe Knollenberg and Thaddeus McCotter, and Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, supported the amendment which was approved by a 249-180 vote in the House, The Detroit News reported Wednesday. Some analysts say the words inadvertently honor terrorists while they are considered slurs...

Sept. 10th Democrats by Rep. Peter Hoekstra Is it fair to say that Congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have a "September 10th" mindset on U.S. national security? While Democrats vigorously object to this charge, evidence is mounting that this is indeed the case. By a "September 10th" mindset, I mean the naïve national security positions advocated by Democrats until September 10, 2001 that failed to focus on real threats to our nation. These positions included favoring after-the-fact litigation against foreign terrorists, over preventing attacks by maximizing our intelligence and military resources. In the aftermath of the 1993...

House Republicans blast Bush for North Korea decision Several prominent House Republicans blasted the White House Thursday for removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, as some of President Bush’s staunchest supporters in the war on terror publically lambasted Bush for engaging the country once famously branded as part of the "axis of evil." Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed her “profound disappointment” over the decision, while Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, also expressed his outrage. “Lifting sanctions and removing North...

The Netherlands is bracing for a new round of violence at home and against its embassies in the Middle East. The storm would be caused by "Fitna," a short film that is scheduled to be released this week. The film, which reportedly includes images of a Quran being burned, was produced by Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and leader of the Freedom Party. Mr. Wilders has called for banning the Quran -- which he has compared to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- from the Netherlands. After concern about the film led Mr. Wilders's Internet service provider to take...

The focus of the Congressional investigation into the destruction of videotapes at the CIA has tightened on Jose Rodriguez. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) told reporters that Rodriguez had defied orders to preserve the tapes, appearing after a second day of closed-door testimony. The House Intelligence Committee had just heard from John Rizzo, the highest-ranking lawyer at the CIA during that period: A senior House Republican said information gathered by the House Intelligence Committee indicated that a high-ranking CIA official ordered the destruction of videotapes depicting agency interrogation sessions even though he was directed not to do so. The remark by...