Video- Kit Bond regurgitates Cheney talking points on mirandizing

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Savannah and Chuck tried, but from what I heard they couldn't get him to make sense. Oh and Bond calls for Brennan to resign. As if.

VIDEO: Undermining Republicans on terrorists and Miranda rights

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

D'oh! Now what will the Rushpublic do? They really need to read their TelePalmer notes more carefully:

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan revealed Sunday that he briefed four Republican congressional leaders on Christmas night about the arrest and subsequent handling of the suspect in an attempted sky bombing. "None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point," Brennan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." The revelation could undermine Republican complaints about the reading of Miranda rights to the Nigerian suspect.

For more information...http://www.politico.com

VIDEO- Helen Thomas: What's Al Qaeda's motivation?

By GottaLaff

Helen's like a little bulldog. She won't let go until she gets an answer... or until they move on, which is how it usually ends. From yesterday:



It's amusing how such a tiny, frail person can make so many people in power blink.

Of course, it goes without saying, there's nothing tiny and frail about her mind or her vocal chords.

VIDEOS- Brennan: Cheney is wrong

By GottaLaff

Dickless McHeartStent gets officially slapped by an official Obama administration counterterrorism official:

An Obama administration official says former Vice President Dick Cheney is intentionally misstating President Barack Obama's terrorism-fighting policies or is ignorant of the facts when he criticizes the White House.

John Brennan said that the president is committed to keeping us safe, as committed as any other president, or anyone else, for that matter.

Now that's committed. It's hard to be more committed than that.

How pathetic that a former vice president of the United States is so unpatriotic, so unAmerican, so... despicable.

Brennan calls Cheney's comments disappointing and says they do not speak well of the former vice president.

Shorter version: Hey Puny, Impotent Little Dick, you lie!

UPDATE (blog title amended to reflect update):

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Brennan: Some Guantanamo detainees will go to Yemen

By GottaLaff

Cue the Panicky Rushpublic fearmongers (and by Rushpublic, I mean Joe Lieberman):

The United States still intends to send some Yemeni detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility back to Yemen despite a terrorist threat there, President Barack Obama's terrorism czar said Sunday.

John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the failed Christmas Day terror attack on a U.S. airliner doesn't change the plan to close the Guantanamo facility. [...]

Brennan called the failed attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan a "unique incident" that won't affect the process of closing the Guantanamo facility.

Traitor Joe:

"It would be irresponsible to take any of the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo and send them back to Yemen."

::waving arms wildly:: I called it!

US, UK close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threats

By GottaLaff

What wonderful news to wake up to... not:

The U.S. and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen on Sunday in the face of al-Qaida threats, after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas. [...]

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said the American Embassy, which was attacked twice in 2008, was shut Sunday because of "indications al-Qaida is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of San'a, possibly our embassy."

Much more here.

Brennan, Harding Slated For Top Intelligence Jobs

By GottaLaff

Via Ambinder:

Democratic and national security sources say that former National Counterrorism Center head John Brennan [a lifelong Republican who converted to Obama last year] remains the favorite to be nominated director of the Central Intelligence Agency even as his pending appointment raises the hackles of some Obama advisers because of his ties to George Tenet and controversial programs.

The sources say that Brennan has begun to recruit a team he hopes to bring with him to the agency, and that he has been vetted. [...]

Also being vetted for a key intelligence job is Maj. Gen. Robert Harding (Ret)., formerly director of operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency and a former head of the army's intelligence operations. [see below] [...]

A career CIA officer, Brennan favors a holistic and systematic approach to intelligence gathering, and earned the respect of Democrats as the founding director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, now the National Counterrorism Center. On terrorism, as he told National Journal's Shane Harris, United States foreign policy should be more proactive.

I am a strong proponent of trying to focus more of our efforts on the upstream phenomenon of terrorism. I make the analogy to pollution. We learned that pollutants kill us when they get into the water we drink or the fish we eat or the air we breathe. But I think we also learned that we have to go upstream to identify and eliminate those sources of pollution. Terrorism is a tactic, and we have to be more focused upstream. Since 9/11, understandably we've focused downstream, on those terrorists who might be in our midst or trying to kill us, the operators. I think there needs to be much more attention paid to those upstream factors and conditions that spawn terrorists.

That last part sounds pretty good.

In interviews since leaving the government, Brennan has expressed support for the government's rendition policy, calling it effective, "enhanced" interrogation techniques and immunity for telecommunications companies involved in government spying efforts.

That part sounds horrendous.

Obama takes an opposite position on all three subjects.

I'm back to that part sounding pretty good.

His widely reported choice of former deputy attorney Eric Holder as attorney general may help mollify critics of the Brennan pick, as Holder and White House counsel Gregory Craig, along with Obama's national security adviser and director of national intelligence, will set policy, not Brennan.

Let's hope so. Here is more on Harding:

Major General Robert Harding, USA (Ret.), Chief Executive Officer: General Harding’s 33 years of military service included assignments as the deputy to the Army's Chief of Intelligence, as the director for operations in the Defense Intelligence Agency-where he was responsible for the Department of Defense Attaché System and the Defense Human Intelligence Service (DHS)-and as the commander of the Army's only organization focused on homeland security. He most recently served as the executive vice president for operations at a medium-sized logistics and supply-chain security company. He has extensive experience running global operations as well as providing security for sensitive national programs, facilities and technologies.

There you go. Any thoughts?