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Security Risk: Eric Holder's Latest Folly
· Monday, February 15, 2010
How much time, do you suppose, has Eric Holder spent as attorney general of the United States explaining that he meant no harm by all the harm he's done?
His not very acceptable explanations began even before he was confirmed as attorney general. That's when he was quizzed about his role in approving a pardon for Marc Rich, international fugitive and big giver to various political causes. Mr. Rich was but one of various dubious types Bill Clinton pardoned just before he left the White House, and The Hon. Eric Holder cleared the whole, smelly deal.
Having earned his stripes, Mr. Holder was promoted to attorney general in the next Democratic administration. The other day, he took responsibility for the decision to treat the suspect in the Christmas Day plot to blow up an American airliner as a criminal defendant rather than as an enemy combatant. Even though the president himself has linked the suspect -- one Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab -- to al-Qaida in Yemen.
The attorney general was at pains last week to explain that none of the other federal agencies charged with protecting the national security had objected to his decision. Of course they didn't. The best way to assure that others won't object to a decision is not to ask them about it in the first place.
Dennis Blair, the national intelligence director, let the cats out of the bag in his congressional testimony: Neither the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, nor the head of the national counter-terrorism center, Michael Leiter, was consulted before the suspect was given his Miranda warning and allowed to enter the criminal justice system, effectively shielded from questioning by the CIA and/or military intelligence.
To justify his decision, General Holder points out that Richard Reid, the shoe bomber arrested in December of 2001 after he failed to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight, wasn't turned over to military authorities, either. Instead he was tried in criminal court.
This may be the first time on record that a member of Barack Obama's cabinet has cited the Bush administration as an example to emulate, rather than as an explanation for everything that has gone wrong on its watch. One suspects it won't be the last as this young president and his team continue to learn about the demands of national security on the job. Maybe one day Barack Obama will appoint Dick Cheney his secretary of homeland security and have done with it.
Naturally, the current attorney general felt no need to go into detail, and note that the shoe bomber was taken into custody within a year of the September 11th attacks, well before the current, updated Supreme Court-approved military commissions were in operation. The only sure conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Holder's comparison is that, when desperate for a precedent to justify a hasty decision, even a largely irrelevant one will do.
What a contrast with the sensible position Mr. Holder's boss took when he appeared on "60 Minutes" last spring, when hope in this administration was still high. Here's what Barack Obama said back then about treating terrorists as ordinary criminals: "Do these folks deserve Miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a shoplifter down the block?" The president's response to his own rhetorical question: "Of course not." He needs to tell that to his attorney general.
General Holder seems unaware that his own Justice Department, just days before the plot against Northwest 253 was foiled Christmas Day, had filed a brief justifying the decision to turn another suspected terrorist -- Ahmed Ghailani -- over to the CIA for lengthy interrogation. The aforesaid Mr. Ghailani was arrested in connection with the bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and has been held since his capture in 2004.
As the Justice Department's brief put it, "the interest in national security plainly justified holding the defendant in this case as an enemy combatant, interrogating him and prosecuting him for violations of the laws of war, even if that meant delaying his criminal trial."
General Holder did not explain why he turned this suspect over to the criminal justice system -- with all the rights, privileges and delays appertaining thereto -- after only 50 minutes of questioning by the FBI. Or why, if military commissions aren't the way to try such defendants, he plans to turn a number of our guests at Guantanamo over to military commissions on the mainland.
Among other excuses for his course in this case, the attorney general offered this defense: "There is no court-approved system currently in place in which suspected terrorists captured inside the United States can be detained and held without access to an attorney."
Mr. Holder's predecessor as attorney general, Michael Mukasey, disagrees. "Holding Abdulmutallab for a time in military custody, regardless of where he is ultimately to be charged, would have been entirely lawful," he points out, "even in the view of the current administration, which has taken the position that it needs no further legislative authority to hold dangerous detainees even for a lengthy period in the United States."
In summary, Eric Holder's rationales for his actions in this case are holding up about as well as those he offered for approving a pardon for Marc Rich.
(c) 2010 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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g.wegmann
This was not the first time Holder was soft on "terrorists". Holder was also involved in Clinton's decision to reduce the criminal sentences of 16 members of the Boricua Popular Army, an organization that has been categorized by the FBI as a terrorist organization. The clemency request was initially opposed in 1996 by U.S. Pardons Attorney Margaret Love. When Holder was elevated to Deputy Attorney General in 1997, he was asked to reexamine the issue by three members of Congress. In July 1999, Holder recommended clemency to Clinton with a report from then U.S. Pardons Attorney Roger Adams that neither supported nor opposed clemency. A month later, Clinton granted the clemency. According to The Hartford Courant, the clemency was unusual because it was opposed by the FBI, the federal prosecutor and the victims. According to the newspaper, it was also unusual because, before the commutations, the Boricua Popular Army members were not required to repudiate their actions, and they were not asked to provide any information concerning the whereabouts of Victor Manuel Gerena, a co-conspirator and one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, or the millions of dollars stolen by the group in a 1983 robbery of Wells Fargo in West Hartford, Connecticut. It would seem that Holders opposition to the death penalty has some influence on his decisions. The man is a threat to our National security in my opinion!
Posted February 15, 2010 at 8:33:02 AM
MichaelSSEC
The only possible rationale for coddling terrorists is to give them a platform from which to air their hatreds and anti-American views to a compliant American media. The Obama administration clearly wants to make these trials into showcases for Islamic complaints against the West. Put America on trial. Turn the terrorists into victims of American oppression. Muddy the waters so that more people will be confused about what is the right thing to do. Greater confusion leads to greater paralysis, which weakens the country.
There's just one small problem with this scheme: Americans are not buying it. Obama's softness on terrorism has been a key impetus in his fall from grace. I doubt he realizes it, nor do I think he would care. Obama never accepts responsibility or blame for anything. Even his incredible blunder with Obamacare was blamed on the American people being too stupid to understand its wonderfulness; Obama actually believes the problem was that he didn't explain it enough to the imbecilic voters, a bill about which he spoke roughly 40,000 times.
Obama's goal is not to keep America safe. If he wanted to do that, he would be turning these captured terrorists over to the CIA where they belong. He would be hunting Islamic radicals down and helping them meet Allah. He would not be calling obvious acts of terror by other less-accurate names. He would not be calling obvious terrorists with undeniable ties to al Qaeda "isolated extremists." And he would not have changed our soldiers' rules of engagement to something Code Pink thinks is "fabulous."
Innocent people have already died as a direct result of Obama's policies vis-a-vis the war on terror. Unless he can forced to change his mind, or he can be forced out of office, many more innocents will die in the coming weeks and months. We had three terrorist attacks on US soil in just one year, and we can expect more this year. How many must die before we force Obama to put American security first?
Posted February 15, 2010 at 1:13:18 PM
MelP
Trust
Trust is a two edge sword. We trust you to act on our behalf for the good of the citizenship or we trust you to act on behalf of your personal agenda without regard to the country as a whole.
Faith has three elements......Knowledge of certain facts, belief that those facts are true and "trust" willing to risk something precious.
The current attitude of today's citizen should concern the present administration. We are beginning to believe you will hurt us and need to be replaced. How? November 2010.
Posted February 15, 2010 at 2:56:51 PM
Frank E. Waterstraat
02/16/10
When all the POLITICAL CORRECT ORAL WORSHIPERS
elect a MUSLIM SYMPATHIZER who shows his HATEFUL
disregard for our CONSTITUTION,won't SALUTE our
flag,change freedom to Communism.His NOMINATIONS
to enforce his policies are,THOSE that are TAX
CHEATS,COMMUNIST BACK GROUNDS,no experience for
the office they are in charge of! His CONGRESS is
A PARTY of TREASON!SO WHAT CAN AMERICA EXPECT!!
Posted February 15, 2010 at 3:09:49 PM
J Din
Why are Holder and Obama are so sympathetic to people who LOVE a prophet that is a slaver, approved of rape and the beating of wives and children? Maybe in their hearts the wish the same rights that Mohamad granted his followers? Not only was Mohamad was ok with his cut of the plunder been lower because a pregnant captives price will be lower.(who wants to pay a lot for a atressed out woman who may die of childbirth in a few months), he also eased any guilt about any potential child produced by raping captive women - he said that Allah alone determins pregnancy. He also said a good muslim woman is obedient to her husband and can be beaten by her husband if she persists in disobeying. Mohamad said 7year olds should be told to pray,while 10 year olds should be beaten into praying. Sunni islamic law permits no punishment for Muslims who kill their children and grandchildren. Wow, if those men truely find Islamic values to be wonderful, their families are sure lucky they are American citizens.
Posted February 15, 2010 at 4:38:24 PM
Walter L. Brown Jr.
Mr. Holder needs to find a job more suitable with his capabilities. Walmart greeter comes to mind.
We shouldn't be too hard on him, he's probably searching for the secrets hidden on the back of the Constitution, like the hollywood know it alls. If I might humbly suggest, the secrets to our national treasure are written on the front of the constitution in plain English not on the back in code...
Posted February 16, 2010 at 5:06:44 PM