Shoe-Bomber Reid Was Read His Rights ‘Within 5 Minutes of Being Removed from the Aircraft’: Obama Administration Continues Pushback on National Security Criticism

Yeah, let’s continue that theme: Bush’s stupid mistakes in counter-terrorism totally excuse Obama’s stupid mistakes.

As our esteemed colleague Ryan C would say:
“The stupid, it burns.”

“As our esteemed colleague Ryan C would say:
“The stupid, it burns.”
In reference to right wingers angry we did not torture this guy?
Of course.

By the way how much did the building of GITMO cost and how about the albatross that is supposed to be the Embassy in Iraq and the GOP and press said nothing.
Now that spending is to help U.S. citizens the GOP says NO when they didn’t question Billions for a useless war??

====was read his Miranda writes,====
Proofread on aisle one…

“Part of an apparent campaign to combat criticism…this administration is more combative against critics than it is terrorists.”
Yeah.
Perhaps Obama should have waited until a major terrorist strike with thousands of dead Americans to actually become concerned about terrorism.
Ya know like the Bush administration.
Instead Obama has made put forth an aggressive war plan to actually attack Al Queda instead of countries that have very little to do with Al Queda.
This upset right wingers greatly.
Some right wingers even hope for a terrorist attack believing it will reflect badly on Obama.
Are you one of those right wingers, axey?

===Posted by: Ryan C | Feb 3, 2010 5:42:45 PM===
And some people are just nuts.
“An aggressive war plan?” I’m sorry, you’ll have to tell me what Obama’s aggressive war plan is. That is different than the one in place when he arrived at the WH.

“BMT = Before Military Tribunals were set up at GITMO.”
Posted by: The Audacity of JOBS | Feb 3, 2010 5:31:49 PM
Great point! Before the Military Tribunal system that was passed by a bipartisan majority in Congress, then modifed to satisfy a Supreme Court ruling–and then passed AGAIN by a bipartisan majority in Congress.

Does anyone else notice the double standard that the conservatives are being accused is totally assinine? Barack Obama came in on his magic carpet, claiming to be “the new face of Washington…open, transparent, different, the ONE we’ve been waiting for”. Yet, each and every time he does something that is criticized, what is the push back of choice? BUSH DID IT. Isn’t that exactly what he said he was NOT going to do? The same ol’ stuff? Didn’t he get elected because he ran on the anti-Bush platform? If he continues on the path he’s on, how will the liberals tell the difference? Should the American public refer to him as “Obamush” or “Bushama”? Is he really that different than Bush or is it just that HIS plans and agenda, even though they mirror some of Bush’s, are better? If two people put two oranges on the table, slightly different in size and appearance, is one better than the other? Or could we just agree that they ARE both oranges?

Eric Holder needs to be fired.

In a statement, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said that Holder’s “letter misses the entire point. At issue is the mishandling of this terrorist detention in the critical early hours, which likely resulted in the loss of valuable intelligence.”
Holder’s response: Ya’ but…

The right’s sole goal in this constant torrent of personalized “soft on terror” criticism is not to protect America but, simply, to damage Obama politically. They will do anything to regain power. Sadly, they don’t care that such baseless attacks against the commander in chief of a nation in two wars might give aid and comfort to the enemy.

Yet, each and every time he does something that is criticized, what is the push back of choice? BUSH DID IT.
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Why not? It points out precisely the hypocrisy and the sleazy tactics of the Republican right. You don’t expect him to just let that crap stand do you?

Both Collins’ original gaffe and her retraction today show two things:
1) She has no clue about the law
2) Without Steve Abbott, she has no clue about politics

In 2003, the Bush Administration was still in denial about the fact that the group had declared war on America, and had to be fought against as a war. Bush made many mistakes with detainees, the biggest one being to allow the ACLU and other groups to interrupt the legal process with a never ending series of appeals and delays. Bush allowed the military process to be bullied by these groups and lawyers to the point where dangerous people had to be released.
That included the lawyers in Eric Holder’s law firm who defended some detainees. They threw a monkey wrench into detainee proceedings with endless demands and appeals at every opportunity, and now complain that the process under Bush took too long.
Tragically for the future victims, whatever intelligence may have been acquired from the underwear bomber in the hours and days after his capture has been rendered moot by the passage of time, even if he is now talking.
He’s given his buddies the time to roll up their plans and move elsewhere, and assume they were compromised with his capture. Therefore, he can talk now, confident that his pals have had enough time to cover their tracks and scatter. It’s very interesting how all this is turning out.
Several released detainees have returned to the battlefield to kill again. When that happens, the ACLU and other lawyers who agitated so fiercely for their release are no where to be found.

In 2003, the Bush Administration was still in denial about the fact that the group had declared war on America, and had to be fought against as a war.
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Tragically in 2003 the Republican administration under Bush turned its attention away from terrorists and al Qaeda to their neo-con pet project – attacking Iraq – and we are still paying for that today.
The Bush administration allowed Bin Laden and al Qaeda to escape in Afghanistan. For that too we are still paying.

Posted by: Mary | Feb 3, 2010 10:08:24 PM
We’ve all seen those incomplete and out-of-context quotes before Mary and they do nothing to distract from the fact the Bush administration let Bin Laden and al Qaeda escape in Afghanistan.
Also that it was Bush’s decision to attack Iraq – and that the Republican administration skewed information and lied to the American people in order to gain public support for an attack.

Posted by: Mary | Feb 3, 2010 10:08:24 PM
We’ve all seen those incomplete and out-of-context quotes before Mary and they do nothing to distract from the fact the Bush administration let Bin Laden and al Qaeda escape in Afghanistan.
Also that it was Bush’s decision to attack Iraq – and that the Republican administration skewed information and lied to the American people in order to gain public support for an attack.

Tierra: “We’ve all seen those incomplete and out-of-context quotes before Mary and they do nothing to distract from the fact the Bush administration let Bin Laden and al Qaeda escape in Afghanistan.”
From the Washington Post, October 3, 2001:
The government of Sudan, employing a back channel direct from its president to the Central Intelligence Agency, offered in the early spring of 1996 to arrest Osama bin Laden and place him in Saudi custody, according to officials and former officials in all three countries.
The Clinton administration struggled to find a way to accept the offer in secret contacts that stretched from a meeting at a Rosslyn hotel on March 3, 1996, to a fax that closed the door on the effort 10 weeks later. Unable to persuade the Saudis to accept bin Laden, and lacking a case to indict him in U.S. courts at the time, the Clinton administration finally gave up on the capture.
Sudan expelled bin Laden on May 18, 1996, to Afghanistan. From there, he is thought to have planned and financed the twin embassy bombings of 1998, the near-destruction of the USS Cole a year ago and last month’s devastation in New York and Washington.
Bin Laden’s good fortune in slipping through U.S. fingers torments some former officials with the thought that the subsequent attacks might have been averted. Though far from the central figure he is now, bin Laden had a high and rising place on the U.S. counterterrorism agenda. Internal State Department talking points at the time described him as “one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today” and blamed him for planning a failed attempt to blow up the hotel used by U.S. troops in Yemen in 1992.
“Had we been able to roll up bin Laden then, it would have made a significant difference,” said a U.S. government official with responsibilities, then and now, in counterterrorism. “We probably never would have seen a September 11th. We would still have had networks of Sunni Islamic extremists of the sort we’re dealing with here, and there would still have been terrorist attacks fomented by those folks. But there would not have been as many resources devoted to their activities, and there would not have been a single voice that so effectively articulated grievances and won support for violence.”

Posted by: Mary | Feb 3, 2010 10:49:32 PM
Bush and Cheney allowed Bin Laden and al Qaeda to escape in Afghanistan and then diverted American forces to Iraq. As you know, none of the promised weapons of mass destruction were found, no ‘mushroom cloud’ and tens of thousands of people were killed or maimed.
Bush and Cheney putting Afghanistan on the back burner allowed the Taliban and al Qaeda to regroup – and now the situation has dragged on for an additional 7 years – and is again a major drain on the budget and our young people serving in the military.

tierra wrote: “Bush and Cheney putting Afghanistan on the back burner allowed the Taliban and al Qaeda to regroup ”
.
But just a few posts earlier you said they were allowed to escape from Afghanistan. So which is it? Be careful cutting and pasting talking points from your ACORN guide to sowing confusion, its easy to get them mixed up.

Bush and Cheney allowed the Taliban and al Qaeda to escape in Afghanistan.
And history repeats itself. Al Qaeda and the Taliban were so happy about escaping they shot up the mall in Kabul in celebration!

The Professor-in-Chief is rapidly turning into the Whiner-in-Chief, and now the Attorney-General of the U.S. is acting literally like a child.
“Why punish me? Georgie did it first.”

“Bush did it.”
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The truth hurts. Iran develops a secret nuclear facility on the Republican president’s watch. North Korea tests its first nuclear weapon on the Republican president’s watch. Bin Laden and al Qaeda escape on the Republican president’s watch. The national debt gets doubled on the Republican president’s watch. No weapons of mass destruction on the Republican president’s watch. Tens of thousands of Iraqi’s killed and maimed on Bush’s watch. Katrina disaster on the Republican president’s watch. The economy crashes on the Republican president’s watch.

Wow, am I to believe that the state trooper that mirandized the underpants bomber was fully briefed on all international polices and procedures, as defined at the federal level, OR was s/he simply following the longstanding policy of every police department to read everyone they take into custody the now famous ‘Miranda Quote’ to ensure any possible charges won’t be dropped on appeal later for failing to mirandize a suspect?
Nice how we get the oft-promised transparency from this administration not on HCR, not on TARP, or automaker bailout, but instead we get transparency of our interrogation techniques, allowing our enemies to train their operatives to counter these measures…
Anyone else find it interesting how much the Bush’43 admin got right by Obama’44 admin defenses of their actions? Who knew the bufoon from TX that Obama mocked and complained about for two years on the campaign trail got the handling of terrorists correct!?
I’m reminded of the old joke “When I was 18 I was convinced my parents didn’t know anything, at 30 I was suprised how much they learned since then”. I can picture this administration saying “On the campaign trail I was convinced the sitting administration got everything wrong, but once I got into office I was suprised how much they got right”.

Tuesday night, a senior administration official described in detail how the administration, working with Abdulmutallab’s family, had been able to get him to start cooperating and sharing intelligence.
Wow that’s some quick work and the people he worked with in Yemen are probably completely unaware we’ve caught him and now have that info to use against them. I’m going with Collins on this one. Also I should hope our policies have grown a little since Richard Reid I mean we didn’t even have military tribunals set up when he was arrested. ALso did anyone hear in the testimony before Congress that no other terrorist of homeland security officials were even aware of this guy’s capture and that the HIG promised to be the replacement for Bush’s policies is not even up and running after a year! Mr. HOlder the point is not what did Bush do it’s what are YOU and your boss now doing.

The fact of the matter is if it was a good enough policy for one and the other is staying the course of what “appeared” to work with the republcians all in agreement with the other one…..why is it So Wrong Now! There’s a motive. And it should be pointed out and Questioned.

“Bush did it.”
Sad, pathetic and childish excuse for every failure this administration encounters.

We didn’t have military tribunals set up yet. That option wasn’t available for Reid. You can’t rewrite history.

The fact of the matter is if it was a good enough policy for one and the other is staying the course of what “appeared” to work with the republcians all in agreement with the other one…..why is it So Wrong Now! There’s a motive. And it should be pointed out and Questioned.
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You’ve actually made the point. They did it then finished setting up military tribunals and didn’t continue in th esame way. Reid by the way was a US citizen the Chrismas day guy is not. Also I think most people if it came out that Bush’s admin had handled this as incompetently as this admin has most people (I suspect even you) would by poointing out the lame response. So could we please stop justifying old ideas and look to make it better. Instead of playing protect our image sould we please work on on addressing how this system clearly did not work. I think about 300 people from that plane would agree.

So could we please stop justifying old ideas and look to make it better
Posted by: GO
you should be writing to the republicans and their leadership

Wow, as I said sad, childish and pathetic.

thanks for the correction about Reid’s citizenship my bad I had read it and should have checked(your snarky right comment unnecessary and inaccurate try indy). Now, about miltiary tribunals and ongoing terror policy which was my main point -they were not up and running before Reid right. Didn’t they set those up because they felt going right to criminal justice was not always best option right. SO my point even in 01-02 they were learning to change and adapt policy and now in the wake if this (2010) Holder is pointing back to policies in 01/02 rather than addressing the gross mishandling and lack of readiness of what is supposede to be available (the HIG). Enough Bush/Obama what about is it beneficial & working.

A lot of reading between the lines….

Jan 22, 2010- President’s task force recommends 35 Gitmo detainees for military tribunals.
DoD also recommended tribunals earlier in Jan 2010.
A few other articles refer to military commissions and tribunals interchangeably. SO it doesn’t seem military tribunals are just limited to the gitmo tribunals case (which limited current tribunals) before the Supreme court in 2006.