Gibbs Shouldn't Hold His Breath

The Politico quoted Gibbs telling reporters today: "I still think the senator owes law enforcement and people in this building" an apology.& Gibbs shouldn’t hold his breath; instead he should get his facts straight:

White House Irony: It’s ironic that a White House which stood by Democrat leaders in Congress last spring as they repeatedly threw the men and women of the nation’s intelligence community under the bus, would have the gall to claim Senator Bond – who has been one of our terror-fighters’ greatest defenders – now owes these same professionals an apology, particularly since Senator Bond’s letter was critical of the White House, not the Intelligence Community.

White House ‘Contextualizes’ Vital National Security Information: During yesterday’s briefing, Gibbs said: “Soon after that -- soon after that media reported, we felt it important to contextualize -- because many of you were e-mailing us --what this testimony meant.”

Here's some context - we are in a war that terrorists have declared on Americans at home and abroad; divulging the details of an interrogation to al Qaeda is not an effective terror-fighting strategy.

Mirandizing Christmas Day Bomber Gave Terrorists Time to Cover Tracks: I'm not sure if Gibbs misunderstood this point or if it was just conveniently ignored, but the hearing transcript shows that when Senator Kit Bond asked about the Christmas Day bomber not talking, he was referring to the five weeks the terrorist was silent after being Mirandized. As Bond has repeatedly pointed out, that's five weeks where terrorists got a free pass and a head start to cover their tracks.  Bond took Director Mueller at his word that this should not be disclosed and therefore referred to lost “timely leads” rather than openly disclose the fact Abdulmutallab was now cooperating.

FBI Director Stressed Keeping Cooperation Secret Vital to Preventing Attacks: Sen. Bond spoke to and was briefed personally on the phone by Director Mueller and was told that the fact that he was cooperating should not be disclosed. In fact, Mueller told Bond keeping this information secret was vital to preventing future attacks against the United States. Bond’s staff was told the same thing by other high-ranking FBI officials. Also, if, as the Administration is now claiming, the information was not really sensitive, why was the briefing about Abdulmutallab’s renewed cooperation limited to the SSCI leadership. That would be an abuse of congressional notification processes.

White House Politicizing Intelligence: The only one making this political is the White House; Sen. Bond was not the one disclosing sensitive information to the press for political gain. Bond has one objective: preventing another terrorist attack on Americans here at home and our troops overseas.

White House Forgets to Read Letter Before Attacking: Before Gibbs questioned Vice Chairman Bond’s motives or demanded an apology he should have taken the time to read Bond’s letter and hearing statement. Bond criticized the disclosure of sensitive national security information, not classified information. White House officials themselves acknowledged in the briefing to reporters that the information was “exceptionally sensitive.” Also, after being briefed on Monday that Abdulmutallab had just started cooperating again, Bond remained critical of the fact that there was a lack of timely intelligence, something Bond believes is key to preventing future attacks. The Administration can’t have it both ways; it can’t tell Members not to discuss these things publicly and then cry foul because Members honor that request.

Who Should Apologize? Senator Bond-On-the-Record – “After telling me to keep my mouth shut, the White House discloses sensitive information in an effort to defend a dangerous and unpopular decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and I’m supposed to apologize?”

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Tags: bomber, Islamic terrorist, Kit Bond, Robert Gibbs, White House To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!