The System ‘Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly’ in Detroit?

Exclusive: The System Failed...Miserably Presidential Policy: Does It Make the Grade?, James Carafano, PhD The administration has a lot to do. Let's hope they get it right before the jihadists get lucky.

Rash of 2009 Homegrown Terror Plots Ends ‘Denial' Steve Emerson How did homegrown radicalization develop? And will the flurry of terror cases in 2009 force the issue?

The System ‘Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly' in Detroit? Daniel Pipes Eight and a half years after 9/11, our counterterrorism apparatus still appears to be in catch-up mode. What needs to be done to bring security in line with 2010 threats?

Homeland Security 101 Frank Gaffney, Jr. Napolitano told CNN that, "Right now, we have no indication [that Abdulmutallab's actions were] part of anything larger." Not "part of anything larger"? Is she serious? Does she take us for fools?

Tightening the Noose on Foreign Policy Herbert London As the plans for American foreign policy are being debated in the White House and the corridors of Congress, it is increasingly apparent that the options are limited.

Video: ‘Underwear Bomb' Packed Enough Explosive to Bring Down Flight 253 Radio Interview: Witness Says Terrorist Suspect Aided Onto Northwest Flight Sans Passport Video: Janet Napolitano gets grilled by Matt Lauer about her statement that "the system worked." Video: President's Statement on Terror Plot "this was an isolated terrorist incident" Video: Krauthammer and Stephen Hayes Blast President's Statement on Iran Al Qaeda Leaders Behind Christmas Day Attack Were Released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 Video: Flight 253 Terrorist Warns ‘More Like Me' Are Coming to America The Imprudent Tyranny of Harry Reid - writes legislation that 'cannot be repealed!' Why Was Umar AbdulMutallab in Houston? Whom Did He Visit There? What Did He Plan? Hail 2010! The year of the American Citizen! Detroit terror attack: Yemen is the true home of Al-Qaeda. America's Latest Wake-Up Call Came on Flight 253 It looks like Sarah Palin is right again, this time on the issue of profiling. Exclusive: Why Worry about a Muslim Center at Ground Zero? Rachel Lipsky Serious questions must be asked of the Imam behind the mosque planned at Ground Zero and essential, unambiguous answers should be demanded, before we engage in self destructive deeds which undermine our own freedom and security.

Health Care Reform: A Modest (Hippocratic) Proposal Paula D. Gordon, Ph.D. Congress has a choice: Pass the proposed legislation and risk repeal by those voted into office in 2010 or begin anew with some realistic, low cost, clearly stated initiatives. Which will they choose?

Exclusive: You Can't Make This Stuff Up! (12/29/09) The Editors A daily roundup of idiocy, buffoonery and incompetence - courtesy of your government and its enablers.

We choose, you peruse.

1. Underwear Bomb Revealed as Terror Suspect Warns More Attacks Coming (FOX)
2. Al Qaeda takes credit for plot to down plane (WT)
3. Illinois Congressman Says Obama Official Agreed That Moving Terrorists to U.S. Prison Would Increase Risk (CNS)
4. Homeland Security Touts 2009 Accomplishments, Including ‘Secure Flight' Program (CNS)
5. Al Qaeda's Clear Message - The U.S. has to rethink jihad's global recruitment of terrorists. (WSJ)
6. Six Uncomfortable Answers
7. Preventing the Next Terrorist Attack - by Andrew Cline
8. Cyber-security chief resigns in protest - Calls consolidation of power in National Security Agency 'bad strategy'
9. States Draft Bills Regarding State Sovereignty
10. Key security agencies lack permanent leaders (WT)
11. Putin: U.S. Missile Shield Holding Up Nuke Deal (FOX)
12. Cross the River, Burn the Bridge - Obamacare is the fast-track to a permanent left-of-center political culture. By Mark Steyn
13. The Tipping Point in Iran (WSJ)
14. ‘No Place in Constitution' Gives Congress Authority to Mandate Health Insurance - Is Trampling on Individual Rights (CNS)
15. Justice transfers Panthers pursuer out of D.C. office (WT)
16. Letting The Cat Out of the Bag
17. Forget Supreme Court Challenges to this Monstrosity!
18. Shameless Islamist Doublespeak Rages On (PAJAMAS)
19. How the West Rejuvenated Pan-Islamism and the Global Jihad
20. The Open Hand, Slapped (Richard Perle)
21. Family of Kidnapped U.S. Soldier Urges Taliban to Send Son Home (FOX)
22. Analysis: Detroit terror attack is a major intelligence and security failure (TELEGRAPH UK)
23. Let's Roll 2 [Mark Steyn]
24. Janet Napolitano Made A Fool Of Herself On TV Talkshows
25. Let My Terrorists Go
26. Lying to Ourselves
27. On Planet Janet
28. Obama Acknowledges Flaws in Security, Vows Fixes… But Blames Bush (Again)
29. So What? Why Don’t We Profile? (FOX)
30. What? Nigerian Suspect Given Lawyers, Civilian Trial, Constitutional Rights
31. Republican Congressman Calls on Napolitano to Resign
32. Ooops! Freed Gitmo Alumni Plotted Airline Bombing
33. Lawmakers Spar Over Obama’s Decision to Transfer Gitmo Detainees to Illinois Prison
34. Ivana Trump Escorted Off Plane: Napolitano Declares 'The System Worked'

Thanks To Family Security Matters and Warbird

O’s Gitmo Decison and Why He Nixed Ft. Hood Probe

Obama's reckless GITMO decision

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Conservatives Fund, made the following statement Friday after learning of President Obama's plan to bring GITMO terrorists to the U.S.

"This senseless decision puts more Americans at risk for future terrorist attacks and is completely unnecessary. Americans have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Guantanamo Bay where these violent radicals can be detained and safely tried by military commissions away from our communities.
"Why would our President send terrorist masterminds away from an island fortress off our shores to trials in American courtrooms that will now become targets for enemy combatants?... The President's decision is naïve and reckless."

DeMint has proposed legislation to extend the ban on moving terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to U.S. soil, but Senate Democrats have blocked it from receiving debate and a vote.

Senator Jim DeMint

WHY O NIXED FT. HOOD PROBE

As he flew to Asia on Saturday, President Obama told the media in Alaska that he opposes a congressional investigation into the Fort Hood massacre, saying that we must "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into political theater." Yet, even as he was posturing against political theatrics, he had just decided that the prosecution of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would proceed on the greatest of public stages -- New York City.
With the strict evidentiary rules in force in federal civilian courts, it is easy to see how the prosecution of Mohammed could morph into an indictment of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques and waterboarding. As in rape trials, the magnitude of the underlying crime (masterminding the 9/11 attacks) might well be lost as the defense puts the victim (in this case, the government) on trial.

It is not political theater itself to which Obama objects -- but theater that highlights issues that liberals would rather forget. He is quite content to let the Mohammed trial become the theater of the left. Perhaps even eager.

Obama and his handlers know that the key to building favorable ratings is to control the agenda. And the more the national discussion centers on national security and terrorism, the more Republicans gain. So the Fort Hood terror attack comes at an awful time for an administration trying to turn the nation's attention away from the terrorist threat.

As soon as the killing spree was over, Obama hastened to call it "an act of violence" -- obscuring the obvious fact that it was the most serious terror attack on US soil since 9/11. And, as evidence mounts that the FBI was on to Major Nidal Malik Hasan for years, the president is doing his best to stop Congress from finding out why these warnings went unheeded.

Even as Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee confirmed that the government knew of 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam in Yemen -- who was urging the killing of American troops -- starting last December, Obama hastened to urge Congress to refrain from investigating why the danger signs were ignored.

The Obama administration has a clear agenda here:

1) Stop people from focusing in how his administration permitted the worst domestic terror attack in eight years.
2) Avoid a national airing of how liberal policies -- restraints on the intelligence community, political correctness in the armed forces -- might have inhibited the military from reining in Hasan.
3) Re-ignite a firestorm on the left and abroad against the aggressive anti-terror policies of the Bush administration.
Making all this particularly important for Obama are his other political needs.

As he likely decides to send more troops to Afghanistan and eyes abandoning the "public option" to secure Senate passage of his health-care plan, Obama has to rebuild his credibility on the left. A public circus that focuses on waterboarding and interrogations could be just what he wants and needs.

Dick Morris

Governor Changes His Mind: Sept 11Trial in NY a Bad Idea

Palin: On 9/11 Defendants: 'Hang 'em High'

Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman… I Had To Post This…

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman are out for a stroll in town one day…

 

As they walk, they come across a sign:
"Beauty contest for the most beautiful woman in the world."

"I am entering!" said Snow White.   After half an hour she comes out and they ask her, "Well, how'd you do?"

"First Place!," said Snow White.
 

They continue walking and they see a sign:
"Contest for the strongest man in the world."

"I'm entering," says Superman.  After half an hour, he returns and they ask him, "How did you make out?"

"First Place," answers Superman. "Did you ever doubt?"
 

They continue walking when they see a sign:
"Contest! Who is the greatest liar in the world?"
 

"I'm entering," says Pinocchio.  After half an hour he returns with tears in his eyes.  "What happened?" they asked.

"Who the hell is Nancy Pelosi?" asked Pinocchio.

Posted: Ask Marion – Knowledge Creates Power

White House: Closing Gitmo a 'Hasty Decision' - Updated

Updated: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was a “hasty decision,” in his daily press briefing with reporters. But he later backtracked in the briefing and clarified that he was referring to decisions made under George W. Bush.

The White house spokesman was asked whether it was a "mistake" to request the resources to close Guantanamo Bay without a plan.

"It was a mistake to set up something that became a rallying cry for enemies around the world and to hope for so long that we could simply continue to perpetuate the theory of keeping detainees there while the courts ruled otherwise," Gibbs responded.

"I don't doubt that the President--and I think he'll say this tomorrow--that we've made some hasty decisions that are now going to take some time to unwind. And closing Guantanamo Bay obviously is one of those decisions," he added.

But later in the briefing Gibbs was asked a follow up question on what looked like a startling admission. Gibbs said that he meant that the "hasty decisions" were made by the previous administration.

"And you said hasty," a reporter asked, “you talked about hasty decisions tomorrow, that it's going to take some time to unwind. Are you talking about the President's hasty decisions or the previous administration's hasty decision as it regards Guantanamo?”

"No, no, no, I'm sorry," Gibbs said. "My boss might want to know the answer to that. No, no, I'm discussing decisions that were made in the previous administration."

The reporter asked again, “You were not referring to the executive order?”

“No, no, no,” Gibbs said.

So either the White House spokesman misspoke or said too much. That’s for the public to decide. To some critics, Gibbs comment might evoke Michael Kinsley's famous political adage. Kinsley defined a gaffe in Washington as a moment when someone tells the truth. 

Guantanamo Bay has become a political minefield for the president. President Obama’s decision to close the controversial detention center in the early days of his presidency was met with adulation on the political left and earned headlines in newspapers across the world. It was seen as a clear break from Bush-era national security policy.

But recently Obama has broken with liberals over his decision to continue Bush-era military commissions to try Guantanamo Bay prisoners and his decision not to release photographs allegedly depicting U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. To an extent, this split with the political left is indicative of the difference between campaigning and governing.

Gibbs’ gaffe Wednesday (Click here to see video) may have only further aggravated large portions of Obama's political base. Liberals rallied to Obama during the campaign in part because of his strong criticism of George W. Bush's "war on terror."

White House critics have long argued that closing Guantanamo Bay was one policy shift easier said than done.

Gibbs reversal, on what looked like a mega reversal, comes on the eve of a major national security speech by Obama. Obama is expected to address, in part, Senate Democrats' opposition to funding the closure of Gitmo. Democrats have withheld funding closure until the White House offers a clear plan on how the detention center will be shut down and importantly, where detainees will be sent.

The closure of Guantanamo Bay has quickly turned into a "not in my backyard" issue. No U.S. representative wants to explain why a Gitmo detainee was allowed to live in his or her district. In the same vein, Obama has found U.S. allies no more willing to accept detainees. France and Britain each accepted one former detainee. There are about 240 detainees at Guantánamo Bay and 30 are clear for release.

David Paul Kuhn is the Chief Political Correspondent for RealClearPolitics and the author of The Neglected Voter

By: David Paul Kuhn

President Obama decided to wedge himself in before a planned speech by former Vice President Cheney on Guantanamo Bay, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, CIA Memos and American Safety.  Obama had not definitive plan, came across as narcissistic kid or like he was still campaigning and attacked the Bush-Cheney White House no less than 28-times.  This after he keeps saying that we (he) aren’t going to point fingers… HMMM… wonder when that is going to happen?  Obama’s Speech came across as a pre-emptive unprepared rebuttal to Vice President Cheney’s Speech.  He was talking from an 9/10 perspective… as if there were no danger.

Vice President Cheney, who would rather be fishing and hunting and has no political ambition or anything to gain from his president campaign, except to protect the American People came across as prepared and sincere.  His speech was very informative, reminding us of the stakes and threats that the Bush White House was operating under after 9/11.  He took responsibility, let us know that there were only 3-people water-boarded… one the engineer of 9/11, and reminded us that the results of the water-boarding saved us from an attack on Los Angeles.

After President Obama’s and Dick Cheney’s speeches today the work on Capital Hill continued unaffected.  There was no additional discussion of funds to close Guantanamo Bay~

• Comments have poured in from 9/11 families and survivors thanking Vice President Cheney.
• CNN, a liberal network, just did a poll showing that President Cheney’s approval rating has increased by 8% since he has been speaking out over the past month.
• Vice President Cheney is still asking to have CIA Memos declassified to support his position.  Obama refuses…  The memos that were released were redacted and left out the results of the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.

Also released today… 

• 1 out of 7 released Guantanamo Bay releasees goes back to anti-American terrorist activities
• Under the Clinton Administration and others, torture was outsourced to Egypt and other countries… and it wasn’t water-boarding.

Related Resources:

• Obama vs. Cheney...
• Click here to read the transcript of Dick Cheney's national security speech at the American Enterprise Institute.
• CIA denies Cheney request to declassify memos
• Cheney Says: Obama Endangers the Nation
• Obama Defends Reversal on Releasing Detainee Photos

Posted:  Knowledge Creates Power