Obama Fail Blog

President Obama loves to waste money. Take a look at all of the many failures of the Obama stimulus plan for proof.

But when it comes to protecting American cities from terrorist attacks, the Obama administration is surprisingly frugal. The recent attempted car bombing of Time Square has put this issue in perspective:

A car bomb in Times Square, even a malfunctioning one, is another reminder that New York remains a tempting target for terrorists. It should be a reminder to Congress and the White House of why New York deserves more support for its antiterrorism measures.

Last year, the Obama administration tried to eliminate financing for a “Securing the Cities” program designed in part to help New York City create links with law enforcement agencies nearby to prevent an attack. The administration said the city was not spending its funds quickly enough. Officials here insisted they were moving ahead but also wanted to reserve some of the money to help build up security systems inside the city.

Congress restored some $20 million in financing. And after Saturday’s incident, Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Peter King are now asking for at least $30 million more. That money should allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Chief Raymond Kelly to accelerate their work on two security “rings” — an idea adapted from London’s “Ring of Steel” — that deploy cameras and other surveillance equipment around the city. The first ring would guard the World Trade Center site. The second would be aimed at protecting Times Square.

Source: New York Times

So the Obama administration cut spending anti-terror programs and claims it is because the money wasn't being spend quickly enough. Sounds like the administration is soft on defense AND prone to reckless spending.

And while they were cutting the Securing the Cities program, Eric Holder and the Al Qaeda 7 were (and still are) pushing to move the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York City.

Meanwhile, stimulus money was being wasted on iPods, self-congratulatory roadsigns, Hillary Clinton pollster payoffs, and a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings.

Less than a week after the Obama administration announced it was narrowing the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons - even in self-defense - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is doing damage control for President Bow n' Tax:

The revised nuclear policy says that the United States will not use nuclear weapons to respond to a chemical or biological attack from a non-nuclear country. The policy, however, leaves significant contingencies, said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates…

“We were concerned about the biological weapons,” Gates said, “and that’s why the president was very clear … if we see states developing biological weapons that we begin to think endanger us or create serious concerns, that he reserves the right to revise this policy.”

Clinton added, “If we can prove that a biological attack originated in a country that attacked us, then all bets are off.”

Gates also pointed out that the policy dictates that any country that uses chemical or biological weapons against the U.S. will “suffer a devastating conventional retaliation.”

Source: Hot Air

Yeah, riiiight. This is the same faux-tough talk that Eric Holder used to justify moving the KSM trials to New York City:

“I have every confidence the nation and the world will see him for the coward he is. I’m not scared of what [Mohammed] will have to say at trial—and no one else needs to be either.”

Source: The Daily Beast

Hmm... Holder isn't scared of KSM and if we are hit with a chem/bio attack, "all bets are off." Sounds like a bunch of cowboys are running the show, if you believe the rhetoric...

So, who do you believe? A Secretary of State who nags Canada about its Afghanistan policy while calling for more abortions, or the ideologically-driven president who has been calling for the dismantling of America's military since he was a coke-snorting college radical?

And don't forget this:

In the wake of the Christmas terror attack aboard Delta Flight 253, the Obama administration continues to use the phrase "connect the dots" to explain a massive intelligence failure. In his responsibility-skirting speech last night, President Obama pointed the finger of blame at the intelligence community:

"The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to uncover this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list."

Source: Politico

So President Obama (dba "The U.S. Government") could have solved this caper, if it wasn't for those meddling kids at the CIA? Is that right? Really?

Well, let's "connect" some "dots" of our own, to see if there are any other underwear terrorists out there. (Spoiler Alert: There are more out there!)

Dot #1 - Eric Holder's law firm represents Islamist terrorists

Before being appointed to the post of US Attorney General, Eric Holder was a partner at the law firm Covington and Burling. C & B represented 17 terrorist detainees at Guantanemo Bay.

[Source: Michelle Malkin]

Dot #2 - Eric Holder treats the CIA like it is his enemy

Eric Holder has a long history of attacking the CIA, from blocking the release of a report that proved the agency didn't push narcotics onto young kids in inner cities to hinting that he will prosecute CIA agents for using enhanced interrogation techniques. [Source: Obama Fail Blog, CNN and The Weekly Standard]

Dot #3 - Eric Holder favors granting civilian trials to Islamist terrorists

This "dot" is fairly obvious. Do a Google search for "Eric Holder and KSM civilian trial" and read all about it. Or just click the link.

Dot #4 - Neal Katyal represented Islamist terrorists

Before being appointed as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, Neal Katyal represented Osama bin Laden's chauffer (Salim Ahmed Hamdan) in the landmark legal case Hamden v. Rumsfeld.

[Source: UK Telegraph]

Dot #5 - Neal Katyal worked closely with Covington & Burling to represent terrorists

While working against the US government on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case, Neal Katyal become something of a community organizer for all anti-American leaning lawyers. Take it from David Remes of Covington & Burling:

Covington & Burling partner David Remes, who coordinated the stunning amicus effort in Hamdan-more than three dozen briefs-said, "Without the personal connection that Neal had with so many of these lawyers and amici and without being held by them in such high esteem, I don't think we could have had an amicus effort anywhere near as effective."

Source: National Law Journal

Dot #6 - Meet David Remes - the original underpants terrorist

David Remes was a partner at Covington & Burling with Eric Holder. He is also the lawyer who gushes over Neal Katyal in the quote above (see Dot #5). Remes has a history of representing Islamist terrorists - ranging from one of USS Cole bombers to assorted other Gitmo detainees.

Remes was using his underwear to terrorize Americans long before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In Remes' case, he didn't have a bomb under his slacks, but he dropped his drawers at a press conference in Yemen to further the cause of Islamist terrorism:

David Remes, a Covington & Burling partner who was in Yemen working on his representation of 15 Yemeni detainees at Gitmo, told the journalist that he had “two missions” during the visit: “first to meet the families of the men that I represent in Guantanamo and second, to do what I can to promote the cause of these men.”

It was in the name of this zealous advocacy that Remes (Columbia, Harvard Law) removed his pants at a news conference on Monday.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Dot #7: David Remes has targeted the CIA

David Remes has gone after the CIA many times in the past. Remember the uproar when the CIA allegedly destroyed tapes of enhanced interrogations? Yep, Remes was behind that.

Remes has also been one of the key figures behind the push to cover Islamist enemy combatants under the Geneva Conventions:

The Bush administration has agreed to apply the Geneva Conventions to all terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, bowing to the Supreme Court's recent rejection of policies that have imprisoned hundreds for years without trials.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it has called on military officials to adhere to the conventions in dealing with al-Qaeda detainees. The administration also has decided that even prisoners held by the CIA in secret prisons abroad must be treated in accordance with international standards, an interpretation that would prohibit prisoners from being subjected to harsh treatment in interrogations, several U.S. officials said.

...

"At a symbolic level, it is a huge moral triumph that the administration has acknowledged that it must, under the Supreme Court ruling, adhere to the Geneva Conventions," said David Remes, a lawyer who represents 17 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay. "The legal architecture of the war on terror was built on a foundation of unlimited and unaccountable presidential power, including the power to decide unilaterally whether, when and to whom to apply the Geneva Conventions."

Source: Washington Post

Remes' quote begs the question - a huge moral triumph for WHO? Islamist terrorists?

So there are your dots. Connect 'em!

David Remes - who is closely tied to both Neal Katyal and Eric Holder - believes the war on terror was illegitimate. Maybe that is why President Obama has ditched the term "war on terror" in favor of any number of euphemisms for "failure."

The Obama administration has closed the US Embassy in Yemen and handed a major PR victory to Al Qaeda.

A statement on the U.S. Embassy website in Yemen said the closing was "in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen." The embassy notice also warned U.S. citizens in Yemen "of the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against American citizens and interests throughout the world."

...

While no details were given, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said on CNN's State of the Union that there are "indications that al Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sana'a (the capitol), possibly our embassy."

Source: Politics Daily

It may be a good idea to shut down an embassy in Yemen - a country that is generally considered little more than a haven for terrorism. However, blaming the embassy closing on fears of a terrorist attack will read as a defeat for the US, at least in Yemen and in Islamist terrorist circles.

Making it worse, the US not only cited TERRORIST threats, but they specifically cited AL QAEDA threats. For an administration that goes through pains to avoid phrases like "war on terror" and "Islamic terrorism," they sure are quick to hand a major PR victory to a specific terrorist network.

Keep in mind that the Obama administration has been hinting at some sort of action in Yemen - following three Yemeni-backed terrorist attacks on US soil in the past year. If we eventually do send in special ops forces or back a local Yemeni terrorism task force, those forces will be going up against a network of terrorists that have been emboldened by a major victory over the US.

Back on November 18, 2009, we wrote about Obama's admission that he would fail to close Guantanemo Bay before his self-imposed deadline of January 2010. The admission came during an interview in Beijing, while Americans were still getting over the shock that Eric Holder (dba President Obama) was going to grant civilian trials to Islamist terrorists. It was all about confusion and diffusion:

It would seem that these factors are not coincidental. With Obama out of the country and the focus still on Holder's press conference, it definitely diffuses any discussion of Guantanamo Bay. The administration began diffusing this issue months ago by leaking hints that Obama may miss his deadline and then blaming it on White House legal counsel Greg Craig, who has since been forced to resign.

By the time January rolls around, the administration will almost surely diffuse any further mention of this issue with a roll of the eyes and a comment by Robert Gibbs to the effect of, "That's old news."

Well it ain't... It's a FAILURE.

Source: Obama Fail Blog

Well, January is upon us, but the administration's problem with Guantanemo Bay has grown exponentially - far beyond failing to meet a self-imposed deadline. In December, the US released six detainees back to Yemen and there were plans for additional Yemeni releases, but the Christmas attack by a Nigerian-born, Yemeni-trained Islamist terrorist has kind of put the damper on all that hopenchange:

"A senior administration official said Thursday that Mr. Obama’s interagency team had already decided quietly several weeks ago that the security situation in Yemen was too volatile to transfer any more detainees beyond six who were sent home in December. The government concluded it had to release those six because it was about to lose habeas corpus hearings in court that would order them freed.

As for the rest, 'we all agreed we couldn’t send people back because of the security situation,' said the official, who like others requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The administration will re-examine the question in late 2010, when an Illinois prison is ready to take remaining Guantánamo detainees, the official said."

Source: New York Times via Politico

Hey! That sounds like a leak of sensitive information! Where are Janet Napolitano and her TSA agents when you need them?

As usual, Ed Morrissey of Hot Air puts it all in perspective:

At least the White House has finally come to the correct conclusion, albeit tardy indeed. However, the subsequent admissions of intel connected to Abdulmutallab’s near-miss makes one wonder why it took the failed attack to reach it. American intel heard plenty of chatter about Yemeni efforts to conduct terrorist attacks on the US; they just didn’t get specific enough to pinpoint the actual attack. Just a a few days before Christmas, Barack Obama gave the green light to a mission assisting Yemen in conducting airstrikes on AQ targets. That decision didn’t come because Yemen is secure against terrorists, or because Yemen wasn’t a big threat.

It seems that everyone knew that Yemen has a big, big problem with al-Qaeda, but for some reason, Obama thought dumping almost a hundred hardened terrorists into Yemen would … what? Improve the situation? Make the Yemeni AQ networks suddenly love America? The question isn’t so much the reversal — which is just common sense after the attack and its pedigree became known — but why anyone thought releasing the 95 Yemeni detainees in Gitmo back into a near-failed state was a laudatory goal at all.

Source: Hot Air

The Department of Homeland Security is leaking like a sieve:

As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

Source: Associated Press

The fact that the TSA - which operates as part of the DHS - can't keep a secret for more than a few hours is bad news, no matter how you slice it. What is even more troubling is the zeal with which the TSA/DHS is going after these bloggers:

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

Source: Associated Press

It remains to be seen if Frishling was reporting classified information and if he knew the information was classified. But it is telling that the TSA special agents immediately threatened the bloggers' free speech and business agreements in exchange for cooperation. This tactic is straight out of the Saul Alinsky rules for Chicago thug politicians.

Keep in mind, the attempted bombing of the airliner - the incident that set off this entire chain of events - took place on Friday, December 25. The TSA agents arrived at Frishling's house and made threats on Tuesday, December 29. It took roughly the same amount of time for President Obama to stop golfing and make his first statement about the terrorist incident. This administration certainly has its priorities...

Remember when Janet Napolitano announced - on behalf of President Obama - that commercial aviation security procedures "worked" when the procedures in question allowed an Islamist terrorist to board a plane carrying explosives?

Yeah, that was YESTERDAY.

Today, Napolitano is backpeddling furiously:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday the aviation security system failed miserably in the foiled Christmas bombing, a stark reversal after claiming the system worked "like clockwork."

"Our system did not work in this instance," Napolitano said on NBC's "Today" show. "No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."

Source: NY Daily News

Now, it would be foolish to blame the failure of aviation security on President Obama or his administration. If the administration was at fault for the security lapse, that information is not known at this time. For the moment, it has to be assumed that this was an unfortunate error and the system needs to be reassessed and strengthened.

Although they can't be faulted for the situation itself, the Obama administration still managed to fail miserably in the aftermath. Here's why:

• President Obama was not notified of the terrorist attack until three hours after the plane landed.
• President Obama declined to issue a statement or appear on camera to reassure the nation in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack. As of this writing, it has been over 72 hours since the incident and still no word from the president...
• The administration dispatched DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to speak on behalf of President Obama on Sunday - two days after the attack. Instead of allaying the fears of the nation, Napolitano proudly declared that the "system worked."
• On Monday morning, Napolitano backtracked on her statement - personally taking the heat for a statement that was made on behalf of President Obama because he couldn't be bothered to do it.
• Still no word from the president...
  

Janet Napolitano (dba President Obama) has announced that the commercial aviation security system "worked," when it allowed an Islamist terrorist carrying explosives to board a passenger jet on Christmas Day.

Napolitano has also announced that there is no indication of a wider terrorist threat:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that there is no indication that a self-proclaimed Al Qaeda suicide bomber who allegedly tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas was part of a broader international effort to attack U.S. targets.

Napolitano, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," said it was too early to speculate on the claims of Al Qaeda connections made by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian held in connection with the incident.

After his arrest in Detroit, Abdulmutallab said he had obtained a specialized explosive chemical compound and a syringe sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with the terror network, according to authorities.

However, Napolitano said that "right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger."

Source: LA Times

Must be like that Fort Hood thing... No rush to judgement, not really terrorism, we need to focus on healthcare and global warming, yada yada yada.

Apparently, no one told the Islamist terrorists:

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God."

Source: ABC News

Er, maybe President Obama could act presidential by cutting short today's round of smoking golf and make a statement. You know, if it's not too much to ask?

While President Obama vacations in Hawaii, Americans are contemplating the following questions:

• How did Nigerian-born Islamic terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab board a Delta flight bound for Detroit?
• How did Islamic terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggle an explosive device on board the plane?
• Why did it take three hours for the president to be informed of the terrorist incident?
  
• Why has President Obama refused to speak or issue a statement?

As usual, President Obama is cold, distant and detached from the reality of the situation. Instead of making a statement, he has chosen instead to smoke cigarettes play golf.

Instead of acting presidential, Obama has dispatched Janet Napolitano - the political hack with a lunch lady haircut - to speak on behalf of the administration. And of course, Napolitano did what she usually does - she inserted her foot directly into her mouth:

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that “the system worked.”

Asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: “We’re asking the same questions.”
Source: Hot Air

Absolutely brilliant! Somehow, the system worked, even though the system allowed a known Islamic radical to board a plane with an explosive device attached to his body.

Here is Ed Morrissey's take:

I suppose one can make that argument — if one assumes that the system includes allowing a man included on a watch list onto an airplane, allowing his visa to remain in force even after his own father informs the US that he’s become a radical jihadi, assuming that any explosive said terrorist will smuggle onto the plane will fizzle out, and that only quick thinking by the other passengers on the plane kept the jihadi from trying it again while he barbecued his crotch.

Is that the actual system we put in place after 9/11? Because if it is, a lot of heads need to roll, starting with the woman who believes that this near-miss represents a validation of the system. Most of us would prefer to keep the known radical Islamist terrorists off the plane in the first place.

Source: Hot Air

Janet Napolitano - the hapless Secretary of Homeland Security with a lunch lady haircut - has interfered with the FBI's investigation of terrorist suspect Najibullah Zazi:

In mid-September, the FBI arrested the Afghan-born Zazi after he allegedly tried to build bombs with "large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide purchased at beauty shops in the Denver area.

Days earlier, media reports had disclosed that Zazi, 24, and others were allegedly planning to hide the bombs in backpacks and detonate them in New York City.

On a Friday night, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter joined Brennan, Mueller, Napolitano and Holder for a two-hour meeting, which turned into an "excited" back-and-forth over information sharing, officials familiar with the meeting said.

Mueller was "angry" and "upset" over leaks to the media, while Napolitano expressed dismay that DHS was not more involved in the Zazi case, and she relayed concerns that only limited information was being offered to local authorities through joint FBI-DHS intelligence bulletins, according to the officials.

"It was very clear that the FBI's position was: The investigation is what's important, and you can't do anything to compromise the investigation ... because it is only through these investigations that we can stop attacks," one official said.

Source: FoxNews

It isn't surprising that Napolitano would favor the dissemination of information - thereby risking and encouraging leaks - over the successful completion of the Zazi investigation. She is, after all, a political hack and a clown.

However, here is the most interesting part of the story:

Throughout the meeting, Leiter tended to side with Napolitano, and Holder often aligned with Mueller, the official said.

Source: FoxNews

That is big news. Attorney General Eric Holder is responsible for granting civilian trials to 9-11 conspirators. - a move that will almost certainly compromise current and future investigations into domestic and international terrorist threats. Yet, in this instance, Holder seems to be siding with the FBI.

Holder's actions in the Zazi case can be taken one of three ways:

1.) Even Eric Holder can't deny that Janet Napolitano is a dangerous clown...

or

2.) Eric Holder is just as incompetent as Janet Napolitano and his contradictory positions on terror investigations should come as no surprise.
or

3.) President Obama was behind the KSM/9-11 show trial idea and he is also behind Napolitano's efforts to thwart the Zazi investigation through dissemenation and leaks.

That's right... Obama is reaching out to THIS GUY

After a week of bowing to world leaders in Asia, President Obama is now reaching out to radical Islamic terrorists:

US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to the leader of the main Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, a guerrilla official said Saturday.

The letter to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ibrahim was delivered to rebel peace negotiators by Deputy Assistant State Secretary Scot Marciel, according to Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the MILF secretariat.

Source: Deutsche Press-Agenteur via Monsters and Critics and JihadWatch

Attorney General Eric Holder has a history of helping terrorists - just ask the FALN. In fact, Holder was a partner in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP - a firm that represents 17 terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay. Given his soft spot for America's enemies and the financial windfall that is sure to benefit his buddies at Covington & Burling during a show trial, this should come as no surprise:

President Obama has made his most outrageous move to date. Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement this morning that some admitted terrorists including the self declared mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be brought to New York City for trial.

Yes, you are reading this correctly. Our president is bringing terrorists, confessed terrorists, from Guantanamo Bay to New York where they will be tried near what used to be the shadow of the twin towers.

They will have lawyers that will use every means possible to get these terrorists acquitted on technicalities. All it will take is one liberal judge and KSM or one of the others could go free. Think about that. Can you imagine?

Source: Ross Balano, Kansas City Star

The Wall Street Journal agrees:

Attorney General Eric Holder, who dropped this legal bomb on New York yesterday, called his decision to move their trial on war crimes from a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay to American soil "the toughest" he has had to make. Other words come to mind. For starters, intellectually and morally confused, dangerous and political to a fault.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Right on, right on, right on!

Terrorists also love a big stage, and none come bigger than New York. Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, made his civilian trial a spectacle. Not even the best judge can entirely stop KSM and others from doing the same. And Mr. Holder has invited grave and needless security risks by tempting jihadists the world over to strike Manhattan while the trial is in session.

Source: Wall Street Journal

And to deliver the finishing logical blow, the America's Truth Hammer, Charles Krauthammer:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is contradicting claims by Pentagon officials that terrorist detainees will receive H1N1 flu vaccines before many American citizens:

Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said concern that terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were receiving vaccines was misplaced. Gibbs says no vaccines are at the naval base and none are on the way. A spokesman for the U.S. jail facility a day earlier said guards and then inmates were scheduled for inoculations. Critics were fast to object, saying U.S. civilians were waiting for vaccines while suspected terrorists were being given injections.

Source: Associated Press

Well, that settles that. Or DOES IT?

Guantanamo Bay detainees will be receiving the H1N1 vaccine, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday, even though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said minutes earlier that the vaccine is not "on the way."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Gibbs was correct in saying the vaccine is not currently on its way, but clarified that it will be at the naval base on Cuba by the end of November.

Gibbs was less forthcoming when asked about earlier reports in which military officials said the vaccine would soon be on its way. Following some complaints that the detainees could be receiving the treatment before other Americans, Gibbs seemed to suggest that there were no plans to vaccinate the 215 detainees remaining in the facility.

"There is no vaccine in Guantanamo. There is no vaccine on the way to Guantanamo," Gibbs said. "I don't know what the Pentagon said. ... There wasn't any there and there wasn't any on the way."

Source: FoxNews

And these are the people who want to take over the entire healthcare system...

According to the Associated Press, detainees at Guantanamo Bay will receive H1N1 flu vaccinations. Meanwhile, scenes like this are playing out across America:



Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday.

Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations.

He acknowledged there may be an "emotional response" from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage.

Source: Associated Press

Here's another video of Americans waiting in long lines for the vaccine at Oklahoma City Community College:

Poor Robert Gibbs. The guy does a halfway decent job of spinning BS for the Obama administration and then he accidentally refers to the "War on Terror." You will remember that the "War on Terror" is now known as the "Overseas Contingency Operation."

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Source: Washington Times via RealClearPolitics

It's official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war."

President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

"The President does not describe this as a 'war on terrorism,'" said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a "new way of seeing" the fight against terrorism.

Source: Politico

President Barack Obama’s attempt to project legal and moral clarity on coercive CIA interrogation methods has instead done the opposite — creating confusion and political vulnerability over an issue that has inflamed both the left and right.

In the most recent instance, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a memo to the intelligence community that Bush-era interrogation practices yielded had "high-value information,” then omitted that admission from a public version of his assessment.

That leaves a top Obama administration official appearing to validate claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney that waterboarding and other techniques the White House regards as torture were effective in preventing terrorist attacks. And the press release created the impression the administration was trying to suppress this conclusion.

The president, who has said he wants to focus on the future rather than litigate the past, also opened himself to distraction and attack by retracting the earlier assurance by top officials that they had no plans to prosecute lawyers for former President George W. Bush who approved the “enhanced interrogation” program.

A Democratic strategist close to the White House said: “The president looked resolute, and like he had threaded the needle perfectly on the substance: The heat from the right was preposterous, and the heat from the left was manageable. But now they look like the scarecrow, pointing in both directions. They got the policy right, but they look confused and beaten down by critics."

Source: World Net Daily

Officials in Jerusalem are quietly scratching their heads in wonderment as to why the White House did not release an official statement condemning yesterday's tractor terrorist rampage here, the third attack of its kind in recent months.

Usually, following any terrorist attack in Israel, the White House like clockwork immediately releases an official statement condemning the attack. But this time, no statement was forthcoming from either the White House or Clinton's State Department.

Source: Little Green Footballs via AP

The Pentagon’s senior judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay dropped charges Thursday against an al-Qaida suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, upholding President Barack Obama’s order to freeze military tribunals there.

The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.

The legal move by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, brings all cases into compliance with Obama’s Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.