Attorney General Eric Holder failed to tell the Senate about seven legal briefs he signed when lawmakers considered his nomination to his current job, according to a letter released on Friday. Two of the briefs involved appeals to the Supreme Court for Jose Padilla, who sought release from a military prison in South Carolina where he was being held after then-President George W. Bush designated him... 

By Fred Lucas White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he did not “have the timeline” and therefore did not know at Thurday’s press briefing whether President Barack Obama knew in advance on Christmas Day that Miranda rights were going to be read that day to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who tried to detonate a bomb on Northwest Flight 253. Gibbs, however, said he would check... 

By Stephen Hayes At the White House briefing Thursday afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Bond for politicizing intelligence and haughtily demanded an apology: “No briefing is done here or anywhere in this administration where classified information is used in a place where it shouldn’t be,” Gibbs said. “And I would suggest that somebody that alleges that, when they know it doesn’t... 

Washington Times Editorial The U.S. attorney general should read up on the history of terrorism. He might learn something. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sent a five-page letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, detailing his rationale for treating purported Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal suspect rather than a terrorist detainee. The attorney... 

By Josh Gerstein Scott Brown’s stunning victory in Massachusetts Tuesday triggered a wave of dire predictions about health reform, but Brown’s win also could pose a threat to a less obvious aspect of President Barack Obama’s agenda – his anti-terror policies and plans to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison. During the campaign, Brown repeatedly railed against criminal trials for... 

By Bruce Hoffman In the wake of the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing and the killing a few days later of seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan, Washington is, as it was after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, obsessed with “dots” — and our inability to connect them. “The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas... 

By Maureen Dowd Our president came down from the mountaintop. He had applied the freshness of his independent thought to the critical matters at hand. He had convened his seminar, reviewed the reviews, analyzed the intelligence every which way, thought anew about everything, and lo and behold, he finally emerged to tell us some stuff we already knew. (Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com … Share/Save Read More →

He says “the buck stops with me,” but nearly a year into office, President Barack Obama is still blaming a lot of the nation’s troubles — the economy, terrorism, health care — on George W. Bush. Over and over, Obama keeps reminding Americans of the mess he inherited and all he’s doing to fix it. A sharper, give-me-some-credit tone has emerged in his language as he bemoans... 

By Fred Lucas President Obama and his White House counterterrorism adviser on Thursday accepted responsibility for attempted terror attack on Christmas Day that could have knocked an airliner out of the sky over Michigan. Although Obama called for increased accountability, no one was fired: “I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make... 

This employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover “we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have... 

National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter didn’t cut his holiday ski trip short upon learning of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner Christmas Day, the New York Daily News reports. Leiter, who is in charge of analyzing terror threats, reportedly didn’t return to his office post in McLean, Va., until several days after the holiday, and his decision to do so has...