It's been fun to see the Democrats push back at the GOP over national security issues, even going on the offensive against Evan Bayh's potential opponent, Dan Coats, by pointing out that he once questioned whether Bill Clinton was using Osama bin Laden to distract everyone from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Yesterday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said that all the former Guantanamo Bay inmates suspected of engaging in terrorist activity were released by the prior administration. Top law enforcement and intelligence officials also told the Senate yesterday that Umar Abdulmutallab was providing valuable intelligence, despite having been read his rights after he initially stopped talking. This afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder blasted Republican hypocrisy over the administration's handling of Abdulmutallab, pointing out that the procedure that had been followed was "[T]he practice of the U.S. government, followed by prior and current Administrations without a single exception."
At the press briefing today, Michael Scherer reports that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was equally punchy:
[T]he Federal Bureau of Investigation is part of the intelligence community. Since 9/11, the FBI has made preventing terrorism its principal mission. The men and women of the FBI have disrupted plots, saved American lives, and acquired intelligence that has allowed us to take the fight to terrorists overseas. That includes the counter-terrorism professionals who were on the scene in Detroit, and those who continue to gather critical intelligence from Abdulmutallab while politicians in Washington second-guess their work.
More of this, please. The GOP doesn't have a leg to stand on here.
-- A. Serwer
