The Obama administration has been excoriated by Democrats, Republicans, and the media for their myopic, irresponsible, potentially dangerous, and amateur handling of Failed Flight 253 Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of their failure, the Obama administration has instead chosen to make a series of fantastic claims that have no basis in reality. In a letter dated February 3, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder writes: “Across many Administrations, both before and after 9/11, the consistent, well-known, lawful, and publicly-stated policy of the FBI has been to provide …
Following weeks of strong bipartisan criticism of their handling of terror trials and detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder released a letter yesterday defending the Obama administration’s criminal justice system approach to prosecuting the war against al-Qaeda. Defending his administration’s handling of the Flight 253 terrorist, Holder wrote: “I made the decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab with federal crimes, and to seek his detention in connection with those charges, wtih the knowledge of, and with no objection from, all other relevant departments of the government.” First, this statement directly contradicts the sworn Congressional …
Yesterday, the White House ordered the Department of Justice to begin considering places other than New York City to host the civilian criminal trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorists. The New York Times describes a decision to move the trials out of New York as “a retreat by the administration” and reported that the Obama administration “was scrambling” to find a new way forward. This latest bit of self-inflicted national security chaos comes after Obama ally New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that he did …
“We slipped up.” That’s what Patrick F. Kennedy the Undersecretary of State for Management said at a Senate hearing last week about the Christmas Day bomb plot and the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He has a gift for understatement. But the real question isn’t whether we “slipped up” – everyone knows we did. It’s rather how and why we did? The truth is that this was a failure of policy, not of law. We did it to ourselves. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the Defense Advanced Research Projects …
Senate Cloakroom: Analysis: The Senate returns this week after a three-week absence. In the wake of passing an unpopular health care bill, the Senators must now contend with another unpopular issue – increasing the nation’s debt limit by nearly $1 trillion. The debate, which is expected to last into next week, will highlight our looming entitlement crisis, excessive spending and the increasingly aggressive involvement of government in our economy. Major Floor Action: A vote on Beverly Martin to be a US Circuit Court judge will kick off what is likely …
There are links between terrorist attacks, job losses, and the health care legislation that is being completed behind closed doors: 1) A massive failed bureaucracy didn’t protect Flight 253 from a would-be bomber, so why expect that an even-larger bureaucracy can protect our health? 2)With 10% unemployment and 85,000 more jobs lost during the Christmas buying season, why pass a health care bill that promises to be a huge job-killer? The common factor is that big government cannot efficiently guarantee homeland security or job security, much less health security. Big …
The attempt by a 23-year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on December 25 starkly reminds us that the roots of terror run deep into Africa as they do into the Middle East or AfPak. For two decades terrorists like Osama bin Laden, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the mastermind of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a major al-Qaeda terrorist killed in a commando raid in Somalia in September 2009 have …
Earlier today the White House promised a “shocking” report on the intelligence failures leading up to the aborted Christmas Day bombing and an address by the President directly from the White House. Neither the report nor the President’s remarks told us much new nor anything particularly shocking. It was pretty clear from the outset that government screwed up big time. It is hard to be in awe of an administration that seems to behind the rest of us. Likewise, the President’s laundry list of remedies seem like cold comfort. Trying …
“I just think what’s pervasive through the country, and has been now for a number of years, is a complacency, an inertia, a business-as-usual. You ask anyone, is this an important problem? They say yes of course it is, then they stack it up with 150 other priorities. You either have to give this top priority or not. We have not given it sufficient priority. And as a result, there is a complacency, there is a business-as-usual attitude that I think is harmful … including the president, including the leaders …
In this week’s Video of the Week, President Bush is asked in 2006 if his administration was complacent to the threat of terrorism in the first eight months of 2001, specifically in regards to Osama Bin Laden. When given the opportunity to finger point, he declines. President Bush discusses the need to be on the offense, and the need for the tools necessary to protect our nation. President Obama faces similar criticisms today, despite 9/11, two wars to serve as constant reminders, and a beefed up federal security apparatus. It is important to …
