Today in Washington D. C. - Jan 27, 2010 - Senior Republicans Demand Answers, Testimony from AG Holder on Christmas Bomber

The Senate and House will meet together for a joint session of Congress to receive the President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address.  Yesterday, in the Senate, an amendment to the resolution to raise the debt limit (H.J. Res. 45) from Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) to create a bipartisan commission on fiscal reform modeled after BRAC failed to get the 60 votes needed for adoption even though the Senate voted minutes before 97-0 for an amendment from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to exempt Social Security from the scope of that commission.

Also yesterday, an amendment to the resolution from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) was divided into four separate amendments and voted on. The first division, requiring the GAO to report annually on duplicative goals and activities of the government, was adopted 94-0.  The second division, which would have rescinded $245 million in legislative branch appropriations, was rejected 46-48.& The third division, which would have cut around $20 billion in appropriations from the various cabinet agencies, was rejected 31-61. The fourth division, which would have rescinded all unobligated discretionary government funds from fiscal year 2009, was rejected 37-57.

Today, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Kit Bond, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain, and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for the administration to answer new and troubling questions surrounding the decision to treat the Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as a civilian defendant.

They wrote, “It appears that the decision not to thoroughly interrogate Abdulmutallab was made by you or other senior officials in the Department of Justice.  Moreover, those with knowledge of this decision, like FBI Director Robert Mueller, have said they are constrained from discussing important aspects of it without prior approval from your department. It is critical that the American people have a full and timely understanding of the policy and legal rationale upon which this ill-advised decision was made.” Therefore, Republicans are calling on Holder to testify before the Senate about this crucial security issue.

In an excellent editorial yesterday, The Wall Street Journal explained why it’s so important to get answers about why Abdulmutallab was interrogated for a relatively short time and then read his Miranda rights. The WSJ wrote, “This talky terrorist should have been questioned for 50 hours, not 50 minutes. More pointedly, Abdulmutallab should not have been questioned by local G-men concerned principally with getting a conviction in court. He should have been interrogated by agents who know enough about the current state of al Qaeda to know what to ask, what names or locations to listen for, and what answers to follow up. The urgent matter is deterring future plots, not getting Abdulmutallab behind bars.”

Americans need to know why Abdulmutallab was handled this way and who made the decision to do so. As the WSJ editors note, “Ultimately, the national security bureaucracies take their signals from the top. In August [President] Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that their war on terror would be fought inside the framework of Miranda and the civilian justice system.”

That’s precisely the wrong approach to fighting terrorism. In a major security policy speech last week, Sen. McConnell said, “[I]n its eagerness to distinguish its own policies from those of the past, the administration has gone too far. The reaction to the attempted Christmas Day bombing offered conclusive proof: Hoping that terrorists are incompetent is not enough to defeat them; and showing more concern about their Miranda Rights than the right of Americans to be safe suggests a fundamental and dangerous shift in priorities since 9/11.”

Americans need to know, from the Attorney General and others, why when it comes to the war on terror, it appears this administration is more interested in putting symbolism above security and prosecution over prevention. As Sen. McConnell said, “[W]hen a judgment call has to be made, our priorities should be clear: keeping Americans safe should always win out.”

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