Terrorism

A conservative organization is calling on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to apologize for remarks he made shortly after the recent failed terror attack in Times Square.

Less than 24 hours after the failed car bomb attack, CBS anchor Katie Couric asked Mayor Bloomberg about possible suspects...

NEW YORK -- A Pakistani-born U.S. citizen accused of trying to detonate a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square was minutes away from fleeing the U.S. when his Dubai-bound flight was returned to its gate at New York's Kennedy Airport and U.S. officials escorted him from the plane, along with two other men.

The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, will appear in court Tuesday to face charges that he tried to set off a massive fireball and kill Americans after parking his car on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theaters, federal authorities said.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was handling the case against Shahzad, 30, but has not yet made the charges against him public. FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search....

A U.S. lawmaker is seeking to revoke the American citizenship of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is known for his inflammatory anti-American teachings and his communications with Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspected shooter in the Fort Hood rampage in November.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., introduced a resolution Wednesday urging the Obama administration to strip al-Awlaki of his American citizenship, arguing that the cleric voluntarily renounced his citizenship by recruiting terrorists.

"As recent reports highlight, the U.S. government views al-Awlaki as a proven threat, and will take him dead or alive," Dent said in a written statement, referring to Obama's approval of the targeted killing of al-Awlaki. "Being a citizen of the United States of America is more than a right; it's a responsibility"...

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...