Janet Napolitano

New York Terror Trial Follies

Bill Burck and Dana Perino write on the Corner at the National Review Online:

No one yet knows for sure who is responsible for the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square last night. It could be al-Qaeda or some other Islamist terrorist group, or some other group, or an individual acting on his or her own. Initial reports are that it may have been a crude bomb and a relatively amateur attack. Of course, homicide bombers are not known for their smarts, nor is the technology they use particularly sophisticated in most cases. But don’t be fooled by claims in the press that this was an amateur attack. Whoever tried to kill innocents in midtown Manhattan last night knew exactly what they were doing. They targeted Times Square in Manhattan not as a random act, but as a message that Americans remain vulnerable to indiscriminate murder for fanatical religious or political reasons, and that our most significant landmarks are not safe from attack. Whoever did this, we can be sure, is in league with the underwear bomber, Major Hasan, and other terrorists either in fact or in spirit.

I fully agree with their bottom line; you can read it here. A civilian trial in New York of the 9/11 conspirators needs removed from “the table” and, instead, conducted by military commission at the most secure detention facility in the world, the U.S. Navy facility at Guantanamo Bay.

While DHS Secretary was flying back from flying over an oil spill she could have seen via a live feed to her office, a terrorist was preparing to drive to Times Square with a bomb. AG Eric Holder sent attorneys, including American Taliban John Walker Lindh lawyer turned Assistant Attorney General Tony West, to Louisiana to ramp up civil suit action instead of working on a foreign policy that interrogates terrorists first and foremost for intelligence and figures out in what venue to prosecute them later. While SEAL teams would have been the wiser choice to defend offshore oils rigs, President Obama sent Interior Department SWAT teams that would better serve to defend the porous Mexico-U.S. border in Arizona. Is there anyone in this administration who puts common sense and the nation’s common defense ahead of politics?

DHS to Interrogate U.S. Intelligence Agents

The Department of Homeland Security will brutally question CIA and perhaps other agents using interrogation techniques developed during the previous administration.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated the program is necessary to ensure that intelligence is shared one last time with the FBI’s Criminal Division investigators, in the interest of national security.

When asked if the move was in response to claims by some on both sides of the political aisle that Barack Obama’s evolving views about prosecuting former Bush administration officials has created widespread risk-aversion within our intelligence agencies, Gibbs replied, “President Obama wants those who acted within the four corners of his many statements to know what he thinks about their being prosecuted.”