Monday
Feb082010
Republican Hoekstra Strikes Back At Counter-Terrorism Adviser
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 11:30AM
Hours after John Brennan, the President's top counter-terrorism adviser, lashed out at Republicans for playing "political football" over the handling of Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee accused the Obama administration of trying to "deflect blame."
"The mishandling of this case is the Obama administration's failure, and they have no one to blame but themselves. President Obama failed to respond after the terrorist attack at Fort Hood, and failed to respond immediately after the terrorist attack in Detroit," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) in a statement released by his office.
"Instead of lashing out politically and attempting to deflect blame, Obama and his advisers need to settle on a coherent and rational national security strategy to help secure our homeland," Hoekstra added.
"Quite frankly I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as political football," said Brennan during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. "They're going out there, they're unknowing of the facts, and they're making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality."
Brennan was referring to arguments made by Republicans that charging Abdulmutallab in a criminal court and giving him legal rights had prevented the intelligence community from obtaining information from him on al-Qaeda and possible future U.S. terrorist attacks. The White House responded to those allegations last week by briefing reporters about how Abdulmutallab has so far cooperated with U.S. intelligence officials.
"They were told about the fact of that cooperation as well as some information he was sharing," Brennan said. "None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point. They didn't say, is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?"
In Hoekstra's view, Brennan should have taken it upon himself to divulge such information when he spoke to the Congressman shortly after the failed attack.
"Contrary to what [Brennan] attempts to imply, he at no time informed Hoekstra that Abdulmutallab had been Mirandized nor did he seek Hoekstra's consultation or provide any sort of meaningful briefing," said the statement.
"The mishandling of this case is the Obama administration's failure, and they have no one to blame but themselves. President Obama failed to respond after the terrorist attack at Fort Hood, and failed to respond immediately after the terrorist attack in Detroit," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) in a statement released by his office.
"Instead of lashing out politically and attempting to deflect blame, Obama and his advisers need to settle on a coherent and rational national security strategy to help secure our homeland," Hoekstra added.
"Quite frankly I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as political football," said Brennan during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. "They're going out there, they're unknowing of the facts, and they're making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality."
Brennan was referring to arguments made by Republicans that charging Abdulmutallab in a criminal court and giving him legal rights had prevented the intelligence community from obtaining information from him on al-Qaeda and possible future U.S. terrorist attacks. The White House responded to those allegations last week by briefing reporters about how Abdulmutallab has so far cooperated with U.S. intelligence officials.
"They were told about the fact of that cooperation as well as some information he was sharing," Brennan said. "None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point. They didn't say, is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?"
In Hoekstra's view, Brennan should have taken it upon himself to divulge such information when he spoke to the Congressman shortly after the failed attack.
"Contrary to what [Brennan] attempts to imply, he at no time informed Hoekstra that Abdulmutallab had been Mirandized nor did he seek Hoekstra's consultation or provide any sort of meaningful briefing," said the statement.
McCain And Lieberman Propose Legislation For Indefinite Detention
Legislation to hold “high value detainees” for a indefinite amount of time was introduced Thursday by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
“This legislation seeks to ensure that the mistakes made during the apprehension of the Christmas Day bomber, such as reading him his Miranda warning, will never happen again and put Americans’ security at risk,” said McCain, referencing the attempted bombing aboard a commercial aircraft by a young Nigerian man last December.
The introduction of the bill has sparked controversy among numerous human rights organizations, with many claiming that the legislation undermines the constitution.
“Our criminal justice system has proved repeatedly that it is capable of obtaining reliable intelligence from terrorism suspects, while that has not always been the case when we throw detainees into secret detentions and discard all the rules,” said Christopher Anders, the American Civil Liberties Union's Senior Legislative Counsel. “The Constitution is not optional despite the efforts of these senators to render it so.”
If enacted, the bill would ask the president to create a interagency task force to examine the suspect and decide within 48 hours if they are ‘unprivileged.' If the suspect is found to be ‘unprivileged,’ they would be held regardless of whether or not criminal charges are filed.
The task force would meet with the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General and the directors of the FBI and CIA to make final determinations as to the detainees' status.
“Under these circumstances, actionable intelligence must be our highest priority and criminal prosecution must be secondary,” according to a statement released by McCain.