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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (76565)	1/10/2010 5:27:58 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

How Obama is failing to keep us safe By: Michael Barone Senior Political Analyst beltway-confidential 01/09/10 2:00 PM EST A hot story in today’s Daily Telegraph of London on the Christmas bomber. Check out this quote from 9/11 Commission member and former Senator Slade Gorton: <<< He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph. "I find it incomprehensible that this administration is treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue. The president has finally said that we are at war with al-Qaeda. Well, if this is a war, then Abdulmutallab should be treated as a combatant not a criminal." >>> And check out this quote on the effect of Attorney General Eric Holder’s consideration of criminal charges against CIA personnel: <<< And after Mr Obama entered the White House, his Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans to investigate CIA agents involved in waterboarding interrogations of captured al-Qaeda chiefs. That move was greeted with a mixture of dismay and anger in at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia. "People in Langley got the message and a lot of them are just hunkering down and watching their backs," said a retired intelligence official. "The atmosphere is not really conducive to good intelligence work." >>> Mr Obama and his intelligence chiefs have at least insisted that the old rivalries and lack of communication between agencies that predated the 9/11 attacks have been largely overcome. But privately, US intelligence officers last week described tensions between agencies that continue to hamper operations. In particular, some CIA agents are scornful of law enforcement officers at the FBI whose role in intelligence gathering has been increased under the Mr Holder. "Rivalry between the CIA and NSA remains intense, the CIA still does not fully respect the FBI, the 16 separate intelligence agencies in general do not trust the NCTC and the CIA leadership does not have good relations with the DNI," said a veteran intelligence officer, deploying the alphabet soup of agency acronyms. In his brief statement on January 7, Barack Obama said he would protect the nation. But his administration’s decisions to put the Christmas bomber in the civilian courts and to consider criminal charges against CIA personnel are making us less safe. And it’s no good saying that those decisions were made by Eric Holder and not Obama. The attorney general works for the president. The president can give him orders and can fire him, as President Harry Truman fired Attorney General J. Howard McGrath. washingtonexaminer.com