And Now They're Disclaiming Responsibility for their Briefings
Surprise, surprise. Just days after Crazy Pete Hoekstra did what Crazy Pete Hoekstra attacked Nancy Pelosi for last year–accused the CIA of lying–he’s now caught in another position he has criticized Pelosi for–not objecting in a briefing to an Administration policy he subsequently claimed to be vehemently opposed to. On Meet the Press this morning, John Brennan revealed that he briefed the Republican members of the Gang of Eight about the treatment of underwear bomber Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab (this is already an improvement on Bush policy, since they usually only briefed the Gang of Four). And they didn’t raise any objections to the planned treatment of him.
The Obama administration briefed four senior Republican congressional leaders on Christmas about the attempted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound flight.
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) did not raise any objections to bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being held in FBI custody.
“They knew that in FBI custody there is a process that you follow. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at this point,” Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They were very appreciative of the information.”
The Republicans are, predictably, claiming they didn’t know that normal FBI procedure includes mirandizing suspects, claiming that it wasn’t a real briefing–anything to sustain their efforts to politicize national security.
Meanwhile, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the press to call these Republicans on their excuses about the briefing or, more importantly, on their raging hypocrisy. After all, last year the press was able to sustain itself for several months over Crazy Pete’s attack on Nancy Pelosi for this (even while Crazy Pete’s attack was factually wrong). But somehow they seem to lose interest when someone like Crazy Pete gets exposed, for the second time in a week, as a raging hypocrite.
Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/core-chicago-team-sinking_b_452664.html
In dozens of interviews with his closest allies and friends in Washington each observes that the president draws on the advice of a very tight circle. The inner core consists of just four people – Rahm Emanuel, the pugnacious chief of staff; David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, his senior advisers; and Robert Gibbs, his communications chief.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6b4700a-10fb-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
I just posted a Seminal diary on this see:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/?p=28646&akst_action=share-this&oxdown_publish=true
Great post, but you gave the wrong link (was to your post confirmation).
Try this one. http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/28646
This amounts to Bond and Hoekstra proclaiming their sheer fucking ignorance of FBI procedure. Everyone knows the FBI Mirandizes people in their custody.
Also means that Bond and Crazy Pete, after all these years, still don’t have a fucking clue as to what the Miranda warnings do, and do not, mean. Ignorant pricks.
I guess that means they’re dumber than the average dumb crook, who probably does know that much.
You mean when they watch the cop shows on TeeVee, they don’t understand why the warning is always in the script? Come on, it is the most predictable line in a Television Cops and Robbers drama.
Republicans like Palin don’t want Justice, they want a lynch mob.
Unfortunately, Obama’s administration sometimes seems to play right along, by guaranteeing a conviction and lengthy sentence. Even Obama’s DOJ seems to have forgotten about the “innocent until proven guilty” thing.
Bob in AZ
Ah, but they don’t watch those — they watch 24, so they can see brown people get tortured to find the mythical ticking time bomb.
Republicans tap into white prejudice against brown people.
“The Republicans are, predictably, claiming they didn’t know that normal FBI procedure includes mirandizing suspects, claiming that it wasn’t a real briefing–anything to sustain their efforts to politicize national security.”
Well they might be claiming that but when the FBI came to talk to Ted Stevens, do you suppose he knew anything about Miranda?
Just asking, as if they really are claiming this then…
We should send a myriad emails to every newspaper and TV station we are watching every time the Fascists continue their march on Washington with lies, distortions and organizing storm troupers who drink tea, telling them that they are falling on the job, that they are destroying the country, that they better shape up because we’ll organize a boycott on they products. We constitute large numbers with a lot buying power.
Talking amongst ourself and making fun of the Fascists makes their work easier. They are public figures we can shout openly anything we want about them. We shouldn’t sit on our hand like Obama.
You could start by using the Spotlight feature at the end of the top post. But be careful what you say.
Bob in AZ
A-yep.
All the more reason to completely ignore the right-wing media ! Call them out, Marcy!
I’m hoping this is true.
Holder shows no interest in justifying ‘preventive detention’
Link.
Thanks for this link. Good on Holder, for once.
Bob in AZ
“for holding terrorism suspects arrested on U.S. soil” means we’re good to go for holding terror SUSPECTS indefinitely on US soil as long as they weren’t arrested on US soil.
Wow like we have a right ,here in these United States,not to be subject to indefinite detention without due process, still. Just wow!
Brennan said that the Republican congressmen”were very appreciative”. Appreciative, as in, “Gosh thanks; we’re not used to being told anything, let alone soon, and voluntarily”.
Or appreciative, as in, “Thanks for the info we can now somehow use against you”.
They shit in their pants whenever they get to talk with a bigwig cop or military or intel person. It makes them feel very important. They’re too busy nodding their heads and admiring themselves sitting in the room with the big FBI or CIA man, they aren’t really listening anyway. And they couldn’t be like their enemy Pelosi, because they are self-satisfied seat holders, comfortable in their view of themselves as saviors of the nation. They don’t really think. They merely react, like wind-up toy soldiers.
Re Holder. He is not trustworthy, imho. Maybe he will follow his word, maybe not. He’s a made man.
Absolutely. That has been my take on politicians since I first started watching politics.
Down here in the third world of FL, it is a regular clown show. Corruption is built into the system and conflicts of interest are a requirement for public office.
Words that should be carved into his office door.
Boxturtle (Jeff’s being nice. Holder is flat out lying for the purpose of delay)
Bond was Missouri’s Assistant AG when Jack Danforth was the AG. Obviously he’s conveniently forgotten just what the FBI does.
Either that, or he was from the same school of AG-ship that Alberto “I do not recall” Gonzales attended.
You would have to actually have two parties to develop any kind of discourse about Hoekstra. The cards are stacked against uncovering the truth given that the media is in the tank ever so much as the republicans to the corporate control of America. Unfortunately, so are the Democrats, and their role requires that they acquiesce and be good little citizens of the Reich. In spite of just how hopeless our current political system has become, I enjoy reading the underground critiques that emerge from the left-wing bloggosphere, the last bastion of freedom and reason in the country. Keep the dream alive, because someday we may be able to convince people to think again. Marcy, you do great and important work.
Re Hoekstra: Isn’t being a raging hypocrite required before the Rs give you your membership card?
Exactly. This is why I call it “the GOP/Media Complex”, because America’s biggest traditional-media news outlets are objectively pro-Republican.
I.E. sympathetic media such as the Fox News Channel.
the goopers have learned that the first lie lives and the dimocrats havent figured out how to tag them with the flip-flop badge.
i keep remembering the purple-heart band-aids at the 2004 gooper hate fest in NYC. turning strength into weakness.
So all the GOP indignation is phony, and they’re just using national security to score political points?
Say it isn’t so!
DNI Dennis Blair, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and others in the counterterrorist chain of command have already testified that they didn’t get briefed on the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab until it was made. If the White House didn’t consult Mueller or Blair, is it truly credible to believe that Bond & Hoekstra were FULLY briefed? Brennan’s claim is ridiculous, and self-serving. It’s almost as bad as Janet Napolitano’s “the system worked” spin on the Sunday after Christmas.
…and you know because you were there.
WHAT?? Ya mean all this shrieking about the undies bomber is just a Kabuki show? Why, why, why… I’m so not surprised.
Good to get the info. Not even disgusted anymore. Our gov’t’s a joke; solely owned by the corporations. Lemming-like teabaggers worship at the shrines of grifting con-artists and give lefties the finger when we uncover the truth and bring up facts.
Sigh… good post. Thanks.
That is funny, because I actually watched Napolitano in the actual aftermath of the event, and she did EXACTLY what she was supposed to do. Her job was to go out and sell that it was an isolated event, the guy had been caught, no one was hurt and that the system was working so that it was safe to fly and travel. This, you might remember was right during the holiday travel season; Napolitano had a job to do and she did it. The “bomber” was a joke, it was isolated, the country did make a conscious tact of telling passengers that they too had to help themselves in the sky and – gasp! – they did. What has come to be the conventional wisdom of Napolitano as some giant personal failure there is bunk. She did exactly what she was asked to do.
Soooooooo……Rethuglicans are more informed than they let on? Would that be like all the Dem apologists saying that none of the Dems KNEW of the fake crap leading up to Iraq? Or they didn’t know how bad the economy was? Or, or, or, or………seems to me, BOTH parties know EXACTLY what is going on in Washington all the time but their partisan supporters can’t grasp that reality. Starting to think that to be a politician in Washington, one has to take acting courses. No wonder Arnie and Jesse Ventura fit in perfectly in the political world.
This is the real story.
Shame.
And c’mon, folks: donate to the Marcy Fund. Even if it’s just a few bucks. That damn thermometer’s been stuck at the same number for quite a while.
Nobody in the United States, and much of the rest of the world, doesn’t know the FBI advises arrestees of their rights.
I’ve heard stories of criminals being arrested in Europe complaining that they didn’t get Mirandized, and the cops having to tell them, in essence, “you watch too much American tv.”
The Brits, of course, have a very “caution” very similar to Miranda, “anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence against you,” etc. That fact alone ought to give the rightwinger rights deniers pause – as has been pointed out many times, the Brits have been dealing with terrorism for a very long time.