Posted on 12/14/2009 4:07:55 AM PST by Man50D
Rest of Title: Says Hoekstra
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says the Obama administration is stalling in providing information to the leaders of the House and Senate and the congressional intelligence committees on the multiple murders allegedly committed by a radical Muslim Army officer at Fort Hood more than a month ago.
So far, the committee chairman and congressional leaders have received no detailed, substantive briefing on the event and what is known about its perpetrator.
“You know, they’re playing out the string,” Hoekstra said Thursday. “We’re going home next week, (and) they will have effectively made it through three months with giving no substantive briefings on Fort Hood.”
CNSNews.com asked Hoekstra whether it was “a constitutional affront not to have the Gang of 8 briefed on this?”
“Oh yeah, sure, absolutely,” said Hoekstra.
The Gang of 8 is a group of leaders from the House and Senate who by law are supposed to be briefed on U.S. intelligence activities when the matter is too sensitive to share with the full intelligence committees. The group includes the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the majority and minority leaders of each chamber.
Additionally, the law holds that the administration must “ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States.”
When a reporter said he thought the Gang of 8 had been briefed on the intelligence report regarding the attack, Hoekstra said the committees had been given a preliminary briefing a few weeks ago that lacked substantive information.
“The committees were briefed on I believe it would be November 18, 19, preliminarily. It was a scripted presentation where most of the questions were answered with, ‘We don’t know,’ ‘We’re checking into that,’ ‘We’ll get back to you,’ ‘Let us finish our initial investigation here.’…‘We don’t want to jeopardize any criminal prosecutions,’ and all those kinds of things,” said Hoekstra.
On November 5, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist in the Army Medical Corps, allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire in a facility on the Fort Hood military base in Texas, killing 13, including one civilian, and injuring 30 more. It was later reported that U.S. intelligence agencies knew Hasan had been communicating with a radical imam, Anwar al-Aulaqi, who had fled the United States and was believed to be operating a radical jihadist website out of Yemen.
Hoekstra, who has been asking for more information on Hasan and the murders at Fort Hood since he wrote a November 9 letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and the heads of each intelligence agency, said the Obama administration was not being transparent.
“It’s now three and a half, four weeks later,” said Hoekstra. “I would assume that in the last four weeks we’ve gathered lots of info that should be shared with the intelligence committees.” There is a “lack of transparency here,” Hoekstra said, and “it is unbelievable the material and the information that they’re withholding from us, from the American people.”
Hoekstra said that a report on the Fort Hood incident had been delivered to President Obama two weeks ago.
“I know that the (Fort Hood) report was delivered to the President on November 30, so I talked to Director Blair last week and said, ‘Hey, I’d just like an update,’ you know? There are a lot—potentially lots—of areas that have ties to foreign intelligence and foreign threats-- international threats. Give us an update,” said Hoekstra.
“I’d like to know who Hasan was in contact with, what happened to his money and these types of things. Who else he might have been talking to in the United States? All of this kind of information. Supposedly we got access to his computers, supposedly we got access to his email, his phone records, financial records, all of these kinds of things,” said Hoekstra.
Hoekstra said Blair has been putting off a meeting. “So I asked for a briefing last week,” said Hoekstra. “Mr. Blair thought he’d be able to give me one. He was told, ‘No,’ and then he said, ‘I’m not going to make a commitment, but I think that we’ll be able to give you one next week,’ which would be this week. Well, he’s out of the country until late tomorrow (Friday).”
“I talked to his (Blair’s) office yesterday (Wednesday), and you know the answer is now, ‘No briefing this week.’ It’s unbelievable,” said Hoekstra.
When Hoekstra was asked if he wanted to be briefed on the President’s report or on the Fort Hood incident in general, he said: “On anything--on any intelligence that they’ve gathered! They are not willing to share it with the intelligence committee. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what his—shouldn’t the intelligence committee know what his relationship was to Aulaqi, what other foreign people he would be talking to? No briefing.”
Hoekstra said the Obama administration was stalling on giving out the information. “You know, they’re playing out the string,” said Hoekstra. “We’re going home next week, (and) they will have effectively made it through three months with giving no substantive briefings on Fort Hood.”
Hoekstra said Democrats had their priorities out of order by focusing on salacious news instead of the incident. “And at the same time, we are subpoenaing the people who crashed the India state dinner,” he said, referring to Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the couple who attended President Obama’s first state dinner without an invitation. “I mean, it is like, there’s something wrong here.
“We’re looking at a homegrown radicalized jihadist and Congress and the President are unwilling to do anything and we’re looking at the people who gate-crashed the party, and (I) guess I read this morning that subpoenas are going to be issued. So, hey, we’re—I guess we’re working on the things that are important.”
CNSNews.com asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence whether DNI Blair intended to brief Congress this week or at all. His spokesperson asked for additional time to provide an answer, but did not respond by press time.
That would spoil the charade of there’s no war on terrorism. After all, terrorists are now our friends. Chamberlain thought Hitler was his friend too!
Definitely what's important to Bambi.
What is so sensitive about infomation, about a Muslim Jihadist in the military who goes suicidal against our own troops?
Probably the fact that there are more just like him sleeping until the call comes.
Ping
If he had been a white redneck shooter, we’d know every detail of his life to his birth and beyond.
And the MSM would be running stories about how “right wing hate radio” had driven him homicidally insane.
The silence has been deafening.
It was all a misunderstanding. He didn’t mean it. The people that were killed stepped in front of the bullets. You see? Case solved.
Are there more ties to the WH?
We’re being treated like mushrooms....once again.
Just another example of Congress giving up their Constitutional duties. A sad state we have come to.
Yet another TERRORIST attack on Nobama’s watch. There is no cover from the truth.
Once again the kenyan protects his brother muslims.
LLS
Right! And the cry “Allahu akbar!,” was a prayer for their safety!!!
The kenyan’s ‘inner muslim’ cannot be denied-!! One Big Ass Mistake America
Travis, I think like the Tim McVeigh case there is more to the story than we are being told.
Like the Govt. Knew before hand this guy was going to go postal and he was an operative and we did nothing to stop it.
Never ever underestimate the risk from simple incompetence coupled to raging political correctness. No dark consiracy is needed.
For example, the “20th hijacker” who paid cash for lessons on the very best flight simulator in MN. Even the employees knew he was a terrorist, and called the FBI immediately. But the FBI’s own lawyers said their was not sufficient cause to look into his laptop computer......where the plans for 9-11 could be found.
Stupidity plus political correctness is all that is needed.
He has to protect his fellow Muslims.
Hell, if he'd been Joe the Plumber...
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