Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

Over the obvious objections of thousands, maybe even millions of Americans, Barack Obama decided (though he will soon be forced to change his mind) to risk the safety of American citizens by trying al-Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan.  (Not to mention the cost and inconvenience that he wanted to put New Yorkers through as if they haven’t suffered enough due to KSM.)

Next comes the underwear bomber.  The feds stupidly Mirandized him after less than an hour of interrogation during which it is reported that he was answering questions and providing actionable intelligence.

Obama has tried to say that others, particularly Attorney General Eric Holder, have been responsible for these decisions. But I don’t buy it, particularly for the KSM trial decision. It’s just too big and of too much political import for it to have been left to Holder. And if it was left to Holder, that’s quite stupid of the White House as well. In any case, it’s clear that Eric Holder believes in Obama’s deeply damaging policy to treat terrorists with kid gloves.

But it gets even worse than Mirandizing the panty bomber…

In both cases, the Administration has demonstrated that their interest in “showing the world” how “fair” we are – by which the naifs currently in charge don’t realize they’re just showing weakness and stupidity – and in trying (but failing) to boost their own poll numbers is willingly furthered at the expense of national security.

The Obama Administration was taking a well-deserved beating from Republican politicians about having let panty-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab “lawyer up” and clam up.  However, the bomber’s family appears to have pressured him into speaking again.  And while it’s great news that he’s talking again, it’s a national security disaster that we know he’s talking again.

If I were a Yemeni terrorist who had contact with Abdulmutallab and was wondering when the black helicopter was going to arrive and send me to hell (or to 72 virgins), I would take some comfort (unless I were in a big hurry to meet the 72) in knowing that my former associate, Abdulmutallab, was keeping his secrets to himself.  I might even decide that the cost and effort to move all my operations might not be worth it and I might be a little less cautious, less circumspect, less certain to avoid possible crosshairs than I would be if I knew he was talking.

But the Obama Administration – over the strong and express objections of FBI Director Robert Muller – decided to tell reporters, who then told the world, that the bomber’s lips were moving again.  Human Events’ editor Jed Babbin reports that Muller personally told Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond, the ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the bomber’s cooperation had to be kept secret.

Senator Bond has written a scathing letter to President Obama, including this strong but obviously accurate charge:

It is deeply disturbing to me that the Intelligence Committee would be advised of sensitive information, and told of the vital imperative to keep such information secret for the sake of national security, only to see this information – less than twenty-four hours later – broadcast to the world from the White House.  This distortion of the congressional notification process suggests that other considerations are taking precedence over keeping timely and sensitive information away from our enemies.

It leaves me shaking my head in disgust to know that we have a president who is willing to give such critical information to our nation’s mortal enemies in order to try to improve his own poll numbers.  Truly reprehensible, truly a breach of his most fundamental responsibility as Commander-in-Chief, and truly in character with everything we’ve come to expect from The One, whose ego and single-minded determination to remake America trumps all.