Detainee Language In Defense Bill Irks Pentagon's Top Lawyer

By Lisa Kellman

Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson spoke out Tuesday against provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act’s (NDAA) that would force give the military full control of handling suspected terrorists.

The Senate and House have each drafted versions of the 2012 NDAA, the primary funding bill for the Department of Defense, and while there is broad agreement on the major issues, the detainee-related provisions inserted by Republicans are a point of contempt.

The provisions would amend the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) Act that gave the president increased authority to capture and prosecute suspected terrorists. The new policies proposed would restrict transfer of detainees out of U.S military prisons and force civilian governments to turn over terror suspects to the U.S. military.

Johnson, who spoke at The Heritage Foundation, argued that pending legislation from Congress will “limit the executive branch’s and military’s counterterrorism options, complicate our efforts to achieve continued success and will make military detention more controversial, not less.”

Johnson recommended a “less controversial, more credible and sustainable legal framework” similar to that afforded by the AUMF.

The Washington Post has more on the story…

Panel Declares European Terror Plots 'Business As Usual' For Al Qaeda

by Kyle LaFleur - Talk Radio News Service

Maltese Ambassador Mark Miceli-Farrugia joined other diplomats from the United States and Europe Friday to hear warnings from an expert panel that groups associated with Al-Qaeda may still be attempting to use urban warfare style terrorist attacks against civilians, much like the attack in Mumbai, India in 2008.

“One thing that’s clear is that there was meat to this, that this was a real plot or perhaps it is more accurate to that that these were real plots,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization. 

The panel, put together by the FDD, was comprised of senior members at the FDD as well as an Associate Vice President at George Washington University.

“Late last night I saw a report that the Taliban looking to make up for the Time Square bombing may have a new operative inside the US and as far as I’m aware, we may get an update on this in a moment, European police are continuing to search for hit teams plotting attacks against civilians in Britain, France, German, Sweden and perhaps elsewhere,” said Cliff May, President of the FDD.  

Recent commentary from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN regarding a September 11 conspiracy and recent arrests made in Europe of Al Qaeda recruits like Germany’s Ahmed Siddiqui were among the controversial issues the panel tackled.

“I was on a radio show a few days ago and the first question I was asked was why would Al Qaeda plan such strikes now,” May said. “My reaction was to say well that’s like asking why do dogs bark, it’s what they do.  This is the business that Al-Qaeda is in.” 

Four Al Qaeda Prisoners Escape U.S. Forces In Iraq

U.S. and Iraqi officials announced Thursday that four prisoners being guarded by American troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad.

According to a military statement, U.S. troops patrolling the prison found two detainees attempting to escape but when they conducted a sweep of the entire facility, four prisoners remained unaccounted for. The four fugitives, with ties to al Qaeda, remain at large after a breaking out of Karkh Prison, formerly called Camp Cropper. 

“U.S. Forces-Iraq, Iraqi Security Forces and the [Ministry of Justice] are working to apprehend these individuals,” said Maj. Gen. Jerry Cannon, head of American detainee operations in Iraq. “This event is under investigation.

The Associated Press reports that the breakout is an “embarrassment” for the U.S. military after it handed over control of all detention facilities they ran to the Iraqi government. At the request of the Iraqi government, American forces retained control of the most dangerous prisoners, including those with ties to terrorist groups or Sadaam Husein’s former regime.

This event marks the second escape since the U.S. handed custody of the detention facility to Iraq. Just seven days after the transfer, four other al Qaeda linked prisoners escaped.

Miranda Rights Did Not Affect Times Square Interrogation Says Senator

By Chingyu Wang-Talk Radio News Service

Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) said that the method the Obama administration is handling terrorist attacks is "exactly the same way as the prior administration regarding miranda rights."

Reed pointed out that when the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, was mirandized, there was no criticism on how that was handled.

"The fact is that Mr. Shahzad cooperated both before and after he was mirandized and there was no hint that those warnings hampered investigations in anyway," said Senator Kaufman.

Kaufman also said that the United States can not solely rely on the federal government to fight against terrorism, the key "is everybody has got to be in the program."

The Senator said that private citizens, along with federal and local law enforcement, played a crucial role in preventing the Times Square attack. He added that there is more the U.S. needs to do to disrupt attacks in the future.

"The key to success in the long run, to frustrate any of these massive attacks is we got to go to the enemy where they are and right now the enemy, as we know, is in the hills of Pakistan," said Kaufman. "This is not something that can be done in some office in Washington."

Petraeus, Eikenberry Testify Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

A day after U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Eikenberry joined General David H. Petraeus and Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew to discuss the civilian efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The three testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Committee, chaired by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Aside from reiterating U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s acknowledgment that U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan would be difficult “but possible,” the three witnesses asserted that the United States would not abandon civilian efforts to stabilize the region, if and when U.S. troops remove the threat of al-Qaeda and the various Taliban networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Many Pakistanis believe that America will once again abandon the region,” Kerry said in his opening statements. “Let me be clear: It would be a mistake for anyone in Pakistan or elsewhere to believe that the President’s words about drawing down troops from Afghanistan mean an end to our involvement in the region.”

President Barack Obama committed 30,000 additional troops to the region, in response to McChrystal’s request for 40,000. Unlike the McChrystal hearings, war protestors were not present in the Dirksen building hallways during Eikenberry, Patraeus and Lew’s testimonies.

None of the three witnesses could confirm Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s estimation that the country would not be able to pay for its own security until 2024. Nor could they provide an estimate to the cost of training and deporting civilian troops to the region for another 15 years. However, Eikenberry said there will be almost 1,000 civilians from “numerous government departments and agencies on the ground in Afghanistan” by early 2010, tripling the total number of civilians from early 2009.

“The integration of civilian and military effort has greatly improved over the last year, a process that will deepen as additional troops arrive and our civilian effort expands,” he said.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the committee, suggested that the witnesses’ testimonies made him believe that after $13 billion dollars given to Afghanistan for development and infrastructure efforts, “we are basically starting from scratch as it relates to development efforts.”

“We hope that Karzai will do everything right,” he said. “But, you know, we may prod and poke but at the end of the day, this depends on an Afghan government that can ultimately sustain itself.

“At some point we need to get the price tag here,” Menendez continued.

Lew disagreed with Menendez’s notion.

“Before the development assistance that you're describing, there was virtually no access to health care in Afghanistan,” Lew said. “[Now] there’s very substantial access to health care, in the 80-percent range. There were virtually no girls in schools, there are a lot of girls enrolled in schools - more every day, every week, every month. It’s fair to say we have an awful lot of work ahead of us. [But] I don’t think it’s quite the same as starting from scratch.”