Bond angrily blasts attorney general for withholding intel on Times Square attack

The Hill ^ | May 8, 2010 | Michael O'Brien

[jazusamo]

The top GOP member of the Senate Intelligence Committee blasted Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday for having allegedly refused to brief senators on last weekend's attempted Times Square bombing.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the intelligence panel, accused Holder of obstructing congressional inquiries into the attempted attack.

"It seems Attorney General Holder is only interested in looking tough on terrorism on TV since he’s now told the intelligence community to skirt the national security law and give only the details he wants and when to Congress," Bond said Saturday.

Both Bond and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Intelligence committee, said earlier this week that the administration had not made clear to them how Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the attempted attack in New York, was interrogated and handled after having been arrested late Monday night.

A Bond spokesperson said the senator had a ten-minute phone conversation with an intelligence official about the issue on Tuesday following Holder's press conference to announce Shahzad's arrest. But since then, the spokesperson said, Bond has been unable to get additional briefings or details.

Bond had specifically been looking for information on whether a special interrogation team, the High-Value Interrogation Group (HIG), was brought in to question Shahzad following his arrest. The Department of Justice, Bond's spokesperson said, has so far refused to turn over the charter and activities of the HIG, as well as information on the intelligence used to determine the release of terror suspects from the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The Department of Justice continues to play political games with national security - withholding information on this terrorist to Congressional intell leaders is just the latest obstruction," Bond said Saturday.

Holder will make the administration's case for handling terror suspects during appearances on ABC and NBC on Sunday morning.

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I still contend that ()bama knew this kid’s family from when he was visiting Pakistan on his Indonesian Passport while attending Occidental College. I have no documented proof. It just seems too convenient that he’s being shielded by both ()bama AND Holder.

Yes, some G-man had better bring this to light now and become a hero, because the truth WILL COME OUT, AND SOON !

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pinging you on this ongoing travesty

[jazusamo]

A good possibility, there’s a lot more to this than has already come out.

[YHAOS]

Secretiveness and information control. Welcome to the USSA . . . Comrade.

[Sacajaweau]

I knew that...I'm looking for a letter that says...this guy is a little nuts...and another that says he was associated with Obama so tread carefully....

My gut tells me there was real communication associated with Obama and it's why he got the promotion.

[Oldpuppymax]

Well after all, the terrorist was a MUSLIM! Now had it been Bloomberg’s “tea Party, white guy”, Holder would be CAMPED OUT at CNN with a live feed to MSNBC!

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[EDINVA]

And, in a maybe not totally unrelated case ... has the PanAm/Lockerbie bomber who was released from the Scottish prison last year because of a terminal illness actually died, or is he living in the lap of Middle Eastern luxury? As I recall he was only weeks to live, but was quite alive a few months later.

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B U M P

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ping

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pinging

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