Terrorism

Liz Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter and a former Bush administration official, on Monday accused Vice President Biden of downplaying the threat from Al Qaeda and suggested the Obama administration isn't doing everything in its power to stop terror.

Cheney came to her father's defense Monday after Biden said the former vice president is "misinformed or is misinforming" the country about the Obama administration's unnamed War on Terror.

Liz Cheney repeated her father's contention -- backed up by a study issued last week by Harvard's Kennedy school of Government -- that Al Qaeda is trying "very hard" to get and use a weapon of mass destruction...

Republicans aren't the only ones opposed to a civilian trial for Sept. 11 conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his alleged four accomplices.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision not to use a military commission to bring them to justice has driven a wedge between him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whose opposition is grounded in politics, according to the New Yorker.

Emanuel feared that a fight over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could alienate key Republicans whom he argued the administration needed to help close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

"There was a lot of drama," a source told the magazine, explaining that Emanuel wanted to placate Sen. Lindsey Graham, a leading advocate of military commissions, who had helped Obama on other issues, such as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he did not “have the timeline” and therefore did not know at Thursday's press briefing whether President Barack Obama knew in advance on Christmas Day that Miranda rights were going to be read that day to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who tried to detonate a bomb on Northwest Flight 253.

Gibbs, however, said he would check to find out. "I'll go back and look at the timeline," he said.

FBI agents told Abdulmutallab he had the right to remain silent and consult a lawyer only about ten hours after he was arrested. Up until that point, the terrorist had only been interrogated for about 50 minutes. After he was Mirandized, Abdulmutallab initially stopped talking to federal investigators.  read more »

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the attempt by an al-Qaeda-trained Nigerian to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day is just the latest in a series of failures by the Obama administration to protect U.S. citizens from terrorist attacks.

“Unfortunately, there are all too many signs that the current administration has a blind spot when it comes to prosecuting this war,” McConnell said at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. “Its handling of the Christmas Day bomber may have been the most egregious example, but it was no isolated case.”

McConnell said that eight years after the September 11 attacks, the nation is continually reminded of the need to remain vigilant...

The Obama administration is looking for other options than New York City for the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-conspirators while refusing to say that the Big Apple is off-limits.

Administration officials say no decision has been made on where the trail would be held though New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has switched his position from supporting holding the trial in a federal courtroom near the World Trade Center site to calling the plan a logistical and security nightmare.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said the White House and Justice Department are considering reservations from Bloomberg and others about logistics and the cost of holding the trial in Manhattan...

As the Justice Department searches for a new venue to hold the trial of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, critics are pouncing on the Obama administration's steadfast refusal to consider a military tribunal to bring the terror suspect and his four alleged accomplices to justice.

The administration's critics say moving the trial to a different venue isn't the solution. They maintain that the terror suspects, who were captured on foreign soil and are being held at the military prison in Guantanamo, shouldn't be brought to the U.S. at all.

"They belong in a military installation -- Guantanamo would be an ideal location," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. said of Mohammed and his four alleged accomplices...

In a 19-page report card being published Tuesday, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism gives the Obama administration an "F" for failing to take key steps the commission outlined just over a year ago in its initial report.

A bipartisan, independent commission on stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction says that the Obama administration has failed in its first year in office to do enough to prevent a germ weapons attack on America or to respond quickly and effectively should such an attack occur.

In a 19-page report card being published Tuesday, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by former Senators Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, and Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican, gives the new administration the grade of "F" for failing to take key steps the commission outlined just over a year ago in its initial report...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' views of Barack Obama's handling of terrorism remain closely divided, but mark a slight improvement from before the Christmas Day bombing attempt, with more Americans now approving than disapproving of how he is handling the issue.

Prior to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight headed for Detroit on Christmas Day, 45% of Americans approved and 47% disapproved of Obama's handling of terrorism. Now those who approve outnumber those who disapprove by 49% to 46%, according to the Jan. 8-10 USA Today/Gallup poll.

Both recent ratings are down from Gallup's initial reading of Obama's handling of terrorism from May, when 55% of Americans approved.  read more »

The Obama administration is pushing back against calls to halt or delay closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in light of the failed Christmas Day terror attack, suggesting that shutting down the prison will undermine terrorist recruitment in the very network that claimed responsibility for last week's plot.

Administration officials also assured lawmakers that they will use the utmost caution in transferring any detainees to other countries, following concerns that it's unsafe to send the dozens of Yemenis held there back to their home country -- which has emerged as a tinderbox of extremist activity.

Seniors officials told Fox News that nobody in the administration is reconsidering President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay. Though the closure probably will not occur until 2011 due to a series of setbacks, officials said locking down Guantanamo is still in the "national security interest"...

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) said last week he was “shocked” to hear a senior Department of Defense official agree with him that the administration’s plan to move detainees of Guantanamo Bay to Thomson, Ill., would pose an increased security risk.

At a press conference in the House of Representatives, Manzullo said the official “agreed with me there would be an increased security risk to northwest Illinois, but he had no way of estimating the extent of this threat.”

Manzullo told reporters he was “shocked” at the admission and later told CNSNews.com he was confused about how the administration could manage a risk it could not quantify...