Car 54, Where Are You?

Just had to blog the Dennis Blair's admission that he wasn't consulted on the interrogation of the Underbomber according to testimony in Congressional hearings taking place this week. Debbie at Right Truth is following and she's having trouble with the word 'alleged':

Both Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Homeland Security Secretary Jane Napolitano admitted in prepared statements that the alleged bomber "should not have stepped on that plane. The counterterrorism system failed and they were working to make sure this never happens again.

Alleged? Alleged???? Can they not even admit that he is the bomber? His burned sexual organs and legs should testify to the fact that he is the terrorist.

Yes, there does seem to be some rather distinguishable physical evidence but remember, KSM is now also an alleged terrorist along with bin Laden, no matter what many stories they tell. Bush is the only person they've found guilty in any of this. Meanwhile, the irreplaceable Tom Maguire adds this:

If this had broken earlier Coakley would have been toast. Obama's team is so intent on coddling terrorists that they won't even follow their own procedures and get the right people involved? Oh, well, there is always November.

Especially since voters showed a concern over trying terrorists in court after the December debacle. Giuliani went to Boston to stump for Brown, and Brown was in favor of enhanced interrogation. As to their "own procedures", anyone remember the blue ribbon panel Obama formed to study innovative interrogation techniques in his post-enhanced interrogation world? Whatever they decided (HIG?) obviously failed after Christmas and the media has been completely silent on it until now.

MORE 1/21/10

I realize some might be wondering about the title of this post. It's an old TV show from the 50s and 60s, which actually outdates me because I can only vaguely remember my parents watching it. But it seemed appropriate for a keystone cops caper such as this.

Now, this is what has some people in a state of shock, from yesterday's testimony:



Duh. Nice answer. I have an opinion beyond this, but it will take a little set up so please bear with me..

It starts with Obama's Executive Order banning enhanced interrogation on January 22, 2009. Here's the first paragraph establishing the panel to determine future interrogation:

Sec. 5. Special Interagency Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies.

(a) Establishment of Special Interagency Task Force. There shall be established a Special Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies (Special Task Force) to review interrogation and transfer policies.

(b) Membership. The Special Task Force shall consist of the following members, or their designees:

(i) the Attorney General, who shall serve as Chair;

(ii) the Director of National Intelligence, who shall serve as Co-Vice-Chair;

(iii) the Secretary of Defense, who shall serve as Co-Vice-Chair;

(iv) the Secretary of State;

(v) the Secretary of Homeland Security;

(vi) the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency;

(vii) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;

As Blair noted, that included him, along with Napolitano and Holder. Here's part of the mission statement:

(e) Mission. The mission of the Special Task Force shall be:

(i) to study and evaluate whether the interrogation practices and techniques in Army Field Manual 2 22.3, when employed by departments or agencies outside the military, provide an appropriate means of acquiring the intelligence necessary to protect the Nation, and, if warranted, to recommend any additional or different guidance for other departments or agencies; and

OK, and here is the 'recommendations' section:

(g) Recommendations. The Special Task Force shall provide a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, on the matters set forth in subsection (d) within 180 days of the date of this order, unless the Chair determines that an extension is necessary.

That should have been a cue for the media to report on this task force but in looking around on the tubes all I could find was this:

.

Not to say the task force didn't report back in 180 days, it's just not easy to Googlefind. If they didn't report back in 180 days why didn't the press report about it? The NRO says this sounds like a fairly important story should anyone decide to investigate. Perhaps someone can find out how much Christmas vacation played into this failure. I would guess a lot more than is being admitted, but they simply can't admit it because the left spent years harping on Bush for taking vacations.

Blair's Duh moment makes further investigation a must, actually. Are we going to allow people in the top spots to get away with saying they weren't focused on domestic threats after two previous domestic threats related to Yemen this past year, and with the benefit of 9/11 in the rear view mirror?

Good grief, the left spent years asking why Bush didn't connect dots before 9/11 and Condi Rice was blasted when she told the Commission the Bush folks considered the threats as more towards US interests overseas, not domestically. And some of this criticism was even deserved in light of previous intelligence captured from Yousef's notebook computer about crashing planes into buildings. But few remember that Rice also said the following:

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the threat information we received was focused overseas, I was concerned about possible threats inside the United States. On July 5, chief of staff Andy Card and I met with Dick Clarke, and I asked Dick to make sure that domestic agencies were aware of the heightened threat period and were taking appropriate steps to respond, even though we did not have specific threats to the homeland.

Later that same day, Clarke convened a special meeting of his CSG, as well as representatives from the FAA, the INS, Customs, and the Coast Guard. At that meeting, these agencies were asked to take additional measures to increase security and surveillance.

They got non-actionable threats, they asked agencies to beef up security in relation to the non-actionable threats, and the agencies did. We got attacked anyway. Then she got attacked. But before 9/11 the Bush folks were operating from a different mindset. Afterwords, they kicked ass for seven straight years. Now with the changing of guard the new kids revert to a 9/10 mindset and the reality-based community goes into radio silence. Are you shocked? I know I am.

MORE 1/21/10

The crux here is really Blair's admission that despite the 180 day deadline to report back to the White House on the task force's ideas of how to administer interrogation of terrorists sans Bush's enhanced interrogation program, there is no program yet in existence. Here's Stephen Hayes:

With surprising candor, Blair, the nation's top intelligence official, explained that these officials were not deliberately excluded from the decisionmaking process in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Rather, he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, there was no process at all.

"I've been a part of the discussions which established this high-value interrogation unit, [HIG] which we started as part of the executive order after the decision to close Guantanamo. That unit was created for exactly 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," he said. "We should have."

Because there is no HIG. This is yet another reason Obama's actions shortly after inauguration have left America less safe, just as Dick Cheney said. We eagerly await the 60 Minutes investigation followed by a Pulitzer Prize winning expose by a Times or Post writer, or Seymour Hersch, whichever comes first.