Posted on 01/23/2010 2:51:19 PM PST by reaganaut1
In congressional testimony on January 20, the nation’s top intelligence official, Dennis Blair, acknowledged that the U.S. government mishandled the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day. Specifically, Blair was not happy that Abdulmutallab was charged as a common criminal and read his rights, rather than being questioned by the elite interrogation unit announced by President Obama as a replacement for the CIA teams used by the Bush administration.
“I’d been a part of the deliberations which established this high-value interrogation unit [HIG],” Blair explained at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “That unit was created exactly for this purpose—to make a decision on whether a certain person who’s detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means. We did not invoke the HIG in this case. We should have.”
The candor is admirable. Blair did not make excuses, but he did offer an explanation.
Frankly, we were thinking more of overseas people and—duh! [here Blair theatrically slaps palm to forehead]—we didn’t put it [into effect] then. That’s what we will do now. . . .I was not consulted; the decision was made on the scene. It seemed logical to the people there, but it should have been taken using this HIG format at a higher level.
It turns out Blair was just one of several top counterterrorism officials who were not consulted on the very important decision as to how to question Abdulmutallab. Also on the list: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter, and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Obama administration officials were not happy with Blair’s sudden outbreak of transparency.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
I can't believe he was elected. This must be a dream.
Do you realize how lucky we were on December 25th.
The message: Don't be transparent in this Administration or you will be hung out to dry.
OMG!!!!
You understand it right.
There are even more questions that will have scandalous answers:
1. Who specifically authorized the Mirandizing of the bomber. The odds on favorite is Eric Holder. What did the President know about this decision...and when did he know it?
2. Why, after almost a year, is the so-called High-Value Interrogation Group "not operational"? Was it not a priority?
3. Just how important is national security to this administration...???
And another question:
Since Obama shut down the CIA Terrorist Interrogation unit without having its replacement - and still doesn’t have its replacement, how are they prepared for the next terrorists?
Here's a wild-assed guess: Not at all.
And there is the real scandal. In an interview with 60 Minutes last spring, President Obama discussed the handling of captured terrorists. “Do these folks deserve Miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a shoplifter—down the block? Of course not.”
I thought Clinton was the most dishonest President in my lifetime, but obama has taken his place. The obama/Holder/Napolitano anti-terror plan appears to be more crisis creation than terror avoidance. The people on that plane and underneath it were the luckiest people of 2009.
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