More head-slapping fallout from the Underwear Bomber fiasco on Christmas Day. From Time:
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to bring down a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day has helped to ignite a political battle over how best to handle and question detained terrorist suspects. The debate has brought attention to a specialized interrogation unit that the Obama Administration announced with great fanfare last August but that was not used in the "Undie-bomber" case — a situation that has become additional fuel for criticism.
The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) was intended to replace the Bush Administration's intelligence-gathering procedures for captured terrorist suspects. One of President Obama's first acts after taking office was to suspend his predecessor's controversial detention and interrogation practices, and convene a task force to recommend new ones. When the Department of Justice announced its findings on Aug. 24, among the proposals was the creation of HIG, a mobile team of experienced interrogators, linguists, al-Qaeda experts and others would swing into action to question captured suspects. Intended for deployment overseas, according to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, HIG's purpose is to help higher-ups decide whether or not a detainee should be treated as a case for prosecution in federal courts, as well as to extract useful intelligence.
However, HIG was not activated when Abdulmutallab was taken into custody, as Blair admitted at a Senate hearing in January. He said he was never consulted about deploying the interrogation unit when the young Nigerian was arrested in Detroit; the team of intelligence experts was never summoned. "We should have automatically deployed the HIG," he said. "We will now." More confusion followed: the next day, Blair issued a clarifying statement revealing that the unit wasn't even fully operational.
Not fully operational? Wait a minute: given that we are in an existential struggle against Islamic jihadists, why the heck not?
...HIG was not activated when Abdulmutallab was taken into custody, as Blair admitted at a Senate hearing in January. He said he was never consulted about deploying the interrogation unit when the young Nigerian was arrested in Detroit; the team of intelligence experts was never summoned. "We should have automatically deployed the HIG," he said. "We will now." More confusion followed: the next day, Blair issued a clarifying statement revealing that the unit wasn't even fully operational.
In other words, there's always next time! Is anyone else out there disgusted and infuriated by that feeble response? Heads should have rolled weeks ago over this case and the Fort Hood travesty, in which the shooter did everything but parade around base wearing an "I'm an Islamic Terrorist t-shirt" in the runup to the attack. But to date, the Obama administration has sat on its hands.
But wait: it gets worse.
When committee vice-chair Christopher "Kit" Bond, the Missouri Republican, asked whether HIG would be deployed if Osama Bin Laden were captured, Blair responded. "I would very much hope that the HIG would interrogate him and squeeze all the information out of him." Before reading Miranda rights to bin Laden? Bond asked. "I'm not going to talk about that," Blair said.
Translation: "under the guidance of Attorney General/left wing ideologue Eric Holder, yes, Senator, we would mirandize Osama bin Laden."
You know, it's scheduled to snow some two feet in DC this weekend. I think I'll go bury myself under an avalance. Someone thaw me out in 2012.
Actually, thaw me out in time for Sunday night, February 7, when 'llI appear on the Aaron Klein Show on WABC Radio at 8 pm discussing my recent trip to London. While there, I interviewed Islamic terrorists linked to Al Qaeda,
I'll also be on the Sean Hannity Show on Fox News (tentatively) Monday night, February 8th discussing London jihad and my rather unconventional recent "European Vacation."
And look for my feature story including my interviews with terrorists in London on Tuesday's edition of the 700 Club.