Free Republic

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...