Thursday, January 21, 2010

Attorney General Eric Holder has failed America


Yesterday the U.S. top intelligence leaders suggested that FBI agents on the scene in Detroit made the decision to treat the underwear bomber as a criminal suspect.  I and most thinking Americans were skeptical.  Today Wendell Goler from the Fox News Channel asked the question of Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs:
Q … who made the decision to try Abdulmutallab in federal court? Was the president aware of this decision when he began being processed in the legal system?



MR. GIBBS: Well, again, understand that the decision to try him was handed down in an indictment that I think took place many days afterward. So, yes, all the team was involved in that.


Q So the decision was made over a period of days. I mean, there was a time between which he was taken into custody on Christmas Day and a time in which the decision was made that –


MR. GIBBS: Well, understand this, there was a period of time in which he was taken into custody, a period of time in which experienced FBI agents interrogated him, received valuable intelligence from him. He was arraigned at a later period of time, and later than that was indicted.


Q And who made the decision to try him in federal court? Did the president make that call?


MR. GIBBS: I believe that decision is made by the Attorney General.
The despicable truth is, no one at the press briefing at the White House, nor arguably anyone in the television viewing audience was really surprised by the answer, despite the fact that its revelation took almost a month.  It is crystal clear from recent events (e.g., the firing of Americorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin; the dismissal of a default judgment against the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation at a voting precinct in Philadelphia in November, 2008; the subsequent reassignment of Christopher Coates, the veteran Justice Department voting-rights section chief  who signed off on that AG-dismissed complaint against the Black Panthers to South Carolina; the decision to try 9/11 mastermind terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed in criminal court in NYC; just to name a few) that Attorney General Eric Holder is running the national security show.

It's an unacceptable, terrifying and outrageous truth.  I believe Attorney General Holder must go.

No comments:

Post a Comment