Guests: Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Andrew McCarthy, Senior Fellow, National Review Institute

With the Detroit bomber we now have a clear pattern on how the obama administration deals with terrorists – try them in civilian courts with the full rights of American citizens.

When the young Mr. Abdulmutullab got off the plane in Detroit he had started talking to the FBI. He told them there were more like him – Yemeni trained suicide bombers – coming to America. But once we granted him Miranda rights, he got him lawyered up and clammed up. Does he know who the next terrorist attacker is, where he’ll strike, what weapons he will use? Now we’ll never know. Yet homeland Security Secretary Napolitano claimed the system worked.

The Attorney General has decided to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, in public civilian courts – even though the evidence gathered against him might be thrown out of court, his testimony gives Al Qaeda a propaganda platform, and the trial presents a irresistible target for suicide bombers.
The Obama Administration remains committed to closing Gitmo and releasing some of the prisoners to Yemen, though previous Gitmo grads have returned to Al Qaeda, rather than join the Yemen Rotary Club.

And they’re so committed to political correctness that they refuse to use profiling to identify potential terrorists.
Contrast that to the way they’re treating three Navy Seals who captured an Iraqi terrorist. They’ve been court martialed for giving the terrorist a bloody lip.

President Obama believes many of the ills besetting America are the result of the Bush Administration policies and if we reverse course and apologize and are deferential enough, those ills will disappear. So far, it’s not worked. Al Qaeda’s spread to new countries, recruitment is up and they’re sending a new wave of suicide bombers to attack us.

The President is treating terrorists like citizens and citizens like terrorists. It’s not working – it’s not making us safer – and it’s time to stop.

By KT McFarland

Much of our homeland security efforts are being dictated by Attorney General Eric Holder who sees terrorists as isolated extremists and lone wolfs.

When President Obama took office I had high hopes for his national security team – Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and Gen. Jim Jones. But on the homeland security front it’s been one bungled effort after another.

Remember when the president promised to shut Guantanamo within his first year in office? Well, it’s been a lot more difficult than he thought, and Gitmo’s still open.

The Christmas Day bomber saga is like a keystone cops movie. First, he was babbling like a brook. But after a mere 50 minutes, the Justice Department stepped in and read him Miranda rights, including the ‘right to remain silent.’ So he got lawyered up, and shut up.

After withering criticism, the White House sent FBI sent agents to Nigeria to convince the bomber’s parents to come to the US and convince him to start talking again. Never mind that his six weeks of silence has given Al Qaeda plenty of time to cover its tracks.

The New York terror trials? Turns out the Attorney General announced they would be in NYC without bothering to consult the mayor or police chief, who think they will be expensive and cumbersome and, according to some, put New Yorkers in harms way.

These goof-ups are more than a new administration getting its balance. They’re indicative of a bigger problem – that much of our homeland security efforts are being dictated by an attorney general who sees terrorists as isolated extremists and lone wolfs better dealt with in civilian courts with all the rights of citizens –than as enemy combatants who might have valuable intelligence about the next terrorist attack.

Since our two top intelligence officials have now warned there will be another attempted terrorist attack by July, the president needs to remember that his primary responsibility is to protect the American people and tell the attorney general either to get with it or get out.

Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland served in national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. She wrote Secretary of Defense Weinberger’s November 1984 “Principles of War Speech” which laid out the Weinberger Doctrine. She is a senior adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a frequent contributor to the Fox Forum. Watch “K.T.” and Mike Baker every Monday at 10 a.m. on FoxNews.com’s “DefCon3″ already one of the Web’s most watched national security programs.

All KT’s media appearances and columns are under one roof at www.KTMcFarland.com. She is on www.Facebook/KTMcFarland.com, www.YouTube/KTMcFarland.com and www.Twitter/KTMcFarland.com


]]> http://ktmcfarland.com/2009/10/26/holders-homeland-security/feed/ 0 http://ktmcfarland.com/2009/01/20/three-questions-for-obama/ http://ktmcfarland.com/2009/01/20/three-questions-for-obama/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:00:37 +0000 KT http://ktmcfarland.com/?p=1728 What is our goal in Afghanistan, who are we fighting, and who are we supporting?
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