The Obama administration’s policy of treating terrorist attacks as a law enforcement matter rather than as acts of war has emboldened terrorists, helped al Qaeda’s resurgence and hindered the intelligence gathering needed to thwart attacks, according to a top Republican lawmaker.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking Republican on the Committee on Homeland Security, said the administration’s policies have weakened the U.S. position to aggressively go after terror networks. While King praised the administration for its recent handling with the Yemen bomb plot, he said he’s “very much concerned” about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s push to try terrorists as criminals in U.S. courts.
King, who is expected take over the chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee if the GOP regains control of the House, said if that happens he’ll move to stop the administration’s plan to transfer detainees from Guantanamo to the United States for civilian trials. He said his first priority is to hold hearings on that topic, as well as the Fort Hood shooting incident.
“I’m concerned about soldiers in the battlefield,” King added. “I’m concerned about CIA interrogators. I’m concerned about the people in the joint terrorism task forces. I’m concerned that they fear they are going to be investigated, that they’re going to lose their jobs, that they’re going to lose their pensions” over making tough choices in combat.
King’s concerns aligned with the views of dozens of U.S. troops interviewed last month in Afghanistan who felt frustrated by what they saw as misguided rules of engagement and the policy of releasing known Taliban detainees for political reasons.
“You can’t send people off whether it’s overseas or right here at home with one hand tied behind their back or with them being afraid they’re going to violate some technicality. That they’re going to get indicted for information that they believe is going to save human life and perhaps head off a major catastrophe,” King said.
A U.S. official stationed in Afghanistan told The Examiner that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees “are wise to the fact that we have lost an enormous amount of power on what we can and can’t do with them. It’s as if we’ve given them the war book and they, terrorists, have more protection than we do.”
“We don’t know our enemy,” the U.S. official said. “But it seems our enemy knows us.”
U.S. authorities admitted Monday that the terrorists in Yemen came close to getting bombs through elaborate airport defenses. They believe there may well be more bombs that have not been located.
King said that some policies initiated by Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan have plagued the intelligence community.
“He, more than any homeland security adviser or national security adviser, runs policy,” King said. “I know people in the intelligence community believe that he is making the decisions and has influence over the president and, of course, Congress. Because he is a White House employee I can’t call him out for questioning or bring him before a congressional committee. He’s running homeland security policy and is beyond the jurisdiction of Congress.”
A White House spokesman declined to discuss King’s remarks Monday.
Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that authorities are still investigating the Yemeni bomb plot. “At this point we, I think, would agree with the British that it looks as though they were designed to be detonated in flight,” he said.
The plot is no surprise to intelligence officials, who recalled a similar terrorist plot in 1995 known as Project Bojinka. It was meant to be a large-scale attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, by al Qaeda affiliates in the Philippines, to blow up 12 airliners carrying a combined 4,000 passengers en route from Asia to the United States.
The plot was uncovered “by luck,” a U.S. official said. “We think we’re going to keep getting lucky. We need our administration to treat this war like a war. We have an enemy that is and will plan a major attack on the homeland. That is one fact we can’t ignore.”
Apologizing for protecting our nation and creating policies that give terrorists the upper hand only “weakens our position,” King said. “When Holder was going to criminally investigate the CIA interrogators, that set a tone for domestic and overseas operations. That became the fear that is becoming the mind-set of the people whose job is to fight the war on terror.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
