Flip/Flop, Obama now pulling rug from under Holder's feet, no to courts, yes to military tribunals

Obama is caving on this issue. He is. One thing I like about our president is that he understands the LAW. Instead, again, of going out and explaining to the American public why trials is the road we should walk, he caves to the continued whine of the right and now it looks like tribunals for KSM. Sigh, the Obama White House communication is one of the worse that I can remember. For such a prolific orator, his White House surely is not.



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President Obama's Full Remarks on the airline security report (Video)

Transcript

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President Obama said airline attack should have been preventable (Video)

President Obama need to performs "sweepers" as we called it in the military. Until he starts getting rid of inept folks, this is going to continue. And sabotaging the President? Yes, that is a valid question, is this happening?



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The United States Intelligence is a JOKE

I don't blame President Obama for being angry at this country's intelligence. Period. When you have the terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father walk into the United States Embassy and TELL personnel about his son and what he is up to, but this intelligence is not noted, moved on, even LOOKED at but this individual is on the many lists of "terrorists" and he almost blows up a U.S. aircraft, how would you feel.

I don't know if the CIA and all these other agencies are politicizing terrorists, terrorism, etc., but if they are anyone with this information and was not acted on should be FIRED.

What happened to all these agencies sharing information? Actionable information is gotten from HUMANS, not drones, not chatter, but humans with specifics. Abdulmatallab's father had actionable information, he knew that his son was coercing with potential terrorists and he did the right thing, he reported it.

What did we do? Not a damn thing.

This needs to STOP and the Republicans, "shame on you" for trying to politicize something like this. Much of what is in place and still going on was on YOUR WATCH and the same measures that President Obama is currently using were the same measures from President Bush. And of course, there was NO criticism then but now. Republicans your argument does not hold up, period. What about trying to help this President and our country instead of continuously pointing the "fucking finger"?

From Keith Olbermann's Countdown:





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President Obama was slow on the move in regards to the attempted airline terrorist attack

I have not written much because I am taking some holiday time off, but I have watched this airline incident unfold and this is my take.

The incident with the Nigerian individual, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was serious enough for the Obama Administration to make a statement within 24 hours and they did not. This incident happened on Christmas Day, December 25, 2009 but by the time President Obama took the microphone we all ready KNEW much of what happened which was failure in communication from all of these government agencies. Is anyone surprised at this? When the microphone was taken by President Obama, Monday, December 28, 2009, he was behind the eight ball.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano made a major snafu on the Sunday talk shows by actually stating, "the system worked", but immediately walked back this statement on Monday. Why? The system did not work and we all know this.



The system did not work. It is not the passengers’ responsibility to intervene in any terror plot; it is the government's responsibility to make sure this does not happen period. To hear that this individual's name was on a list, that his father went to the American Embassy in Nigeria that he was just out in the open is outrage. Now, what should happen to this "underwear bomber"? We already take our shoes off at airports, what is next; full body search as in the strip down type? At this point, what is the point in even flying now? Not for this, I hope.

The one word I remember from the Bush Administration was incompetence. President Obama was subdued on Monday, but became angered by the time Tuesday came and took responsibility. As he should.

The Obama White House is very cautious and that is OK, on some levels, but when something like this happens when a bomb could have potentially gone off, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Head of State needs to be in front of a camera with a statement, IMMEDIATELY, like within 24 hours. It took this White House 72 hours before President Obama made his first remarks, by then we knew everything from the reporting about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a wealthy banker’s son, a prestigious London college grad and now an accused terrorist.

Incompetence can happen easily, as we have seen revealed by these government agencies, but I don't ever want President Obama making a statement on a serious event 72 hours later, I don't care if he is on vacation, the public needs to be informed and it should come from HIM. Will this be a big deal? Short term, No. Why? Folks are on holiday, vacation and not paying attention. But long term, this should be fixed within these agencies and it better not take President Obama 72 hours to address the country again regarding an incident like this. Did you get that White House?

From morning joe:



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President Obama on the systematic failure of air travel security (Video)

From Hawaii:


Transcript

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President Obama addressses the U.S. airline attack (Video)

From his vacation in Hawaii:



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Illinois to hold some Gitmo detainees per White House

The Republican Party is trying to make this a campaign issue, but when was the last time someone broke out of a maximum security facility?

Enough on that one.

The White House plans to announce Tuesday that a rural Illinois prison will be acquired by the federal government to become the new home for a limited number of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn will make the official announcement on Tuesday at the White House.

Officials at both the White House and in Durbin's office confirmed the news Tuesday night.

They said President Barack Obama has directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago. A spokesman for Durbin's office said the facility would house federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees.

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Attorney General Eric Holder's Press Conference on the decisions for 10 Guantanamo Bay detainees. (video/transcript)

Prepared Remarks
Transcript with Q&A

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Obama says, "Terrorists are still plotting...." (Video)

Well, this is all about the bad news out of Afghanistan. For me, terrorists will ALWAYS BE PLOTTING, the thing for the United States is to thwart it so it is not able to magnify. Continuing a war in Afghanistan, eventually, is a no win situation for this President. The domestic front is riddled with problems, people see the government continuing to spend money on wars that are becoming a vapor for some, unemployment has magnified but the real scare is that there are NO JOBS out here. For many Afghanistan is just more money being spent for what? Oh, yes, Osama bin Laden. If found, or if he is alive, would be a physical win and we can shut all this down. But if we never find him, are we going to continue on this course and continue to spend, as Barack Obama has said, "10 billion dollars a month?"

Eventually, all this needs to END.

President Obama at the National Counter Terrorism Center outside of Washington, D.C.



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Video found of GOP Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA) praising "right-wing terrorist"

an incident broke out at a town hall at Simpson University in Redding [Northern California] on Tuesday when Herger signaled encouragement to a 67-year-old town hall attendee, Bert Stead, who called himself a "proud right-wing terrorist."

"Amen, God bless you," Herger reportedly replied to the comment. "There is a great American."

And we are supposed to praise THAT? This is despicable and this congressman should be ASHAMED and REMOVED.

Congressman Herger spends the entire time watching the guy rant with a wry smile. And given the fact that most of the crowd appears to be terrorist sympathizers, there's nothing he can really do without incurring the wrath of his constituency. Just watch as Congressman Herger--who no longer deserves that title, if he ever did--chooses demagoguery over loyalty to American values and ideals.

Read it all here

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Calls mounting for investigation of secret CIA program (Video)

Led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, the cat is now out of the bag about how Cheney told the CIA not to let congress know about this particular secret CIA program.

I think no one should be in shock or in awe. We are talking about Dick Cheney one of the biggest liars walking around here, coupled with the CIA, a recipe for disaster.

Congressional demands for an investigation grew on Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for eight years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The program, which never got off the ground and remains shrouded in mystery, was designed to target leaders of the terrorism network at close range, rather than with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The program was canceled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it. ,read more here....

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Dick Cheney ordered CIA to hide counterterrorism program from congress

Remember when REPUBLICANS went after Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her comments that the CIA has not been forthcoming and honest with congress? Well, the Republicans have nothing to say now. Not when former Vice-President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to hide a counterterrorism program from congress. Sigh. Are you shocked? You should not be. Remember, the CIA are professional LIARS, that is what they do. Now what? Justice Department?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to inform Congress about a nascent counterterrorism program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated in June, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

Subsequent CIA directors did not inform Congress because the intelligence-gathering effort had not developed to the point that they believed merited a congressional briefing, said a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's June 24 briefing to the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Panetta did not agree.

Upon learning of the program June 23 from within the CIA, Panetta terminated it and the next day called an emergency meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence committees to inform them of the program and that it was canceled.

Cheney played a central role in overseeing the Bush administration's surveillance program that was the subject of an inspectors general report this past week. That report noted that Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, personally decided who in Bush's inner circle could even know about the secret program.

But revelations about Cheney's role in making decisions for the CIA on whether to notify Congress came as a surprise to some on the committees, said another government official. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program publicly. read more here....

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project"
Read Jesselyn Radack here

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Secretary Janet Napolitano and DHS was right about the growing RIGHT WINGED HOME GROWN TERRORISM

Remember when DHS put out a report on the rise of right winged home grown terrorism? Remember? And remember it was the Republicans who were angry about that report and slammed Secretary Napolitano and DHS? The push back made DHS retract some of the intial findings, remember?

Well, DHS was RIGHT.

Since the planned, blantant murder of Dr. Tiller in Witchita, Kansas and now the event today with an elderly white supremist shooting and killing at least one guard at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, brings everything to the front.

These are domestic terrorist acts. Purposefully planned, scripted to get the maximum effect by killing large number of persons or famous/controversial individuals.

Republicans and all the Republican chatter boxes, shut the f*ck up on this one, you were wrong. What happened today at the Holocaust Musuem was horrific, plain and simple. Maybe you need to realize that fighting every single thing that the Obama Administration releases is not for your own good, especially information on home grown terrorist groups.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, hate was on the march in St. Louis. About 85 members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the nation’s largest neo-Nazi group, gathered in the shadow of the famed Gateway Arch for a march and rally celebrating its 35th anniversary.

Clad in all black, with their pants tucked into tightly laced combat boots, the group carried swastika flags and signs urging immigrants to leave the country. They chanted “Sieg Heil,” a popular rallying cry in World War II Germany, accompanied by a Nazi salute: one arm outstretched, fingers tightly joined, palms facing down.

Their critics say that groups like NSM are the faces of homegrown hate, something the NSM denies. They instead call themselves a “white civil rights organization.” Its ultimate goal is to whitewash America. If they had their way, U.S. citizenship would be limited to “those of pure white blood”; minorities would live in the country as guests. All Jewish people and gays would be forced to leave and immigration would be prohibited.

As shocking as those views are, groups like this are more popular than ever. read more here...

If the DHS puts a damn report out with information for the public, especially about the influx and increase of domestic terrorist groups, it would be wise to listen and take this information for what it is. The totally irresponsible pushback from the right was not only wrong, but makes them look increasingly out of touch with what is really happening out there. And for that alone, they need to take a swallow of STFU and let DHS do its job.

From FOX NEWS, "Maybe we were wrong to attack DHS extremism report"
The Holocaust White Supremist Killer on Obama, here.
"Rev. Wiley Drake Prays for Obama's Death"
And Free Republic needs to be investigated

What does it take to arrest these people? Another domestic attack?

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Former Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge disagrees with Dick Cheney (Video)

Call it what you want. Dick Cheney does not, in the end, help the Republican Party's argument. The GOP has always been the party of National Security, but under the Bush Administration and their disastrous handling of both wars it became apparent that many were just incompetent and we had a leader that listened to NO ONE. This killed the GOP in the end at the ballot boxes.

As people have listened to both speeches, read transcripts, it is clearly obvious that Dick Cheney wishes this administration to fail. Hopes that another terrorist attack will prevail. Even though all of his arguments have massive holes in them, or just down right lies. I am with Lawrence O'Donnell on this one, if you are using former CIA Director George Tenet as evidence and backup to your claims, the one who manufactured the Iraq evidence, your whole argument has major problems. A must read is from McClatchy Newspapers which dissects and destroys Cheney's argument, definitely worth a read.

From Tom Ridge:

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told CNN Thursday that former Vice President Dick Cheney's repeated charge the Obama administration has made the country less safe is wrong.

"Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney," the Pennsylvania Republican and former Bush administration official told CNN's John King, adding he "does not" think the country is more vulnerable to an attack under President Obama.

Ridge appears to agree with a majority of Americans, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. In that survey, taken last month, 72 percent of registered voters said they did not think the country was less safe under President Obama.

Ridge's comments came the same day both Obama and Cheney gave dueling speeches on national security, during which the president sharply condemned Bush administration interrogation practices while Cheney vigorously defended them.

In the interview with CNN, set to air in full on State of The Union with John King Sunday, Ridge said he disagrees with "the approach both men are taking."

"It's just the whole notion of a Republican vice president giving a speech after the incumbent Democratic president," he said. "It's gotta go beyond the politics of either party."

And from Keith Olbermann's guest, former Colin Powell aide, Ret. Lt. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson:

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Defense Secretary Gates, "....Guantanamo Bay has a taint...." (Video)

He is right. The torture happened there. It ruined our international standing there. It needs to be closed. And he backs up EVERYTHING that has been said about fear mongering and the ridiculous notion that these detainees or terrorists will all of a sudden be released and/or escape. Again, is Charles Manson walking around here? Is Sirhan Sirhan at your neighborhood grocer? Was Timothy McVeigh pumping gas around your corner? The obvious answer is no. This is a fear mongering argument, trumped up by the Republicans and the public knows it, or should know it.

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First Gitmo Detainee Coming to NYC For Trial

And it is starting....

A top al-Qaida suspect held at Guantanamo Bay will be sent to New York for trial, an Obama administration official said Wednesday.

Ahmed Ghailani would be the first Guantanamo detainee brought to the U.S., and the first to face trial in a civilian criminal court.

An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to disclose the decision, told The Associated Press the administration has decided to bring Ghailani to trial in New York. He was indicted there for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa — attacks that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. read more here....

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Well, the Democrats threw a bomb on "GITMO" closing

Yes, our Democrats.

I don't know what the real deal is, but I do agree with morning joke that this was political, especially by Harry Reid. Reid is not looking too good right now, but before morning joke jumps for eternal joy, it is going to be very hard to beat Reid in Nevada.

Anyway, the funds to close Guantanamo Bay were stripped from the bill by the Democrats.

U.S. Senate Democrats stripped from a war spending bill $80 million that was allocated for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison.

The move Tuesday came the same week President Barack Obama was scheduled to outline his plan for the 240 terrorism suspects still detained in the facility, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Pressure from Republicans and concern about relocating terrorism suspects to U.S. soil led the Democrats to remove the funding, part of the emergency Iraq and Afghanistan spending moving through the Senate.The Washington Post reported. The bill cleared the House last week without funding for the Guantanamo shutdown.

"Guantanamo makes us less safe," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told a news conference. "However, this is neither the time nor the bill to deal with this. Democrats under no circumstances will move forward without a comprehensive, responsible plan from the president. We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States."

My thing about these detainees is this, we have mass murders, pedophiles, domestic terrorists, mentally criminally insane folk, gang bangers, drug lords, right here in the United States of America and guess what? They are all on lock down. When was the last time you saw Charles Manson walking around here? Was Timothy McVeigh at your local gas station before he was executed? The answer is NO.

Let me be clear here. One damn good thing that the United States of America does well is lock folks up in maximum security prisons and they don't break out. We have more prisons than any other country, we are experts at this. So the Democrats broke down, again, by the scare tactics of the Republicans? Example, listen to Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) on morning joe:

Did you get all that?

One word for the Democrats: inexcusable.

Guantanamo Bay is the one place where the international community have taken issue with us. Those images of torture coming out of that place have killed our international standing. The movement by Barack Obama to start moving these prisoners and closing Gitmo got standing ovation worldwide. Now, the Democrats who are the majority in the congress strips the money from the bill?

WTF????

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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