[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 13, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H113-H115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BIPARTISAN COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, the co-chairs of the 9/11
Commission, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, in an op-ed for the USA
Today, wrote that ``national security is too important to become a
partisan issue.'' And I could not agree more.
That is why I wrote President Obama yesterday with three specific
actions that I recommended he could take immediately, with strong
bipartisanship support, to help prevent future terrorist attacks
against America. First, I recommended that he immediately bring back
the two co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission for a six-month period to
conduct a formal review and follow-up to the 9/11 report. Mr. Hamilton
and Mr. Kean would be charged with evaluating which of the commission's
original recommendations have been implemented and to what end, and
which have failed to be implemented and at what cost.
Second, I urged the creation of a Team B concept, separate from the
review that would be conducted by the 9/11 Commission co-chairs.
Historically, the phrase Team B refers to a group of outside experts
brought together to analyze the threats posed by the Soviet Union to
the United States and counter the positions of intelligence officials
within the CIA and government, known as Team A. The Team B concept has
been successful in previous administrations when fresh eyes were needed
to provide the commander in chief with objective information to make
informed policy decisions. I believe it can work now.
Third, I urged the President to support the legislation that I
introduced today to establish a 10-year term of office for the
administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, TSA,
similar to what the Congress has done in the past for the appointment
process for the director of the FBI. Bob Mueller has done an
outstanding job, and that process has worked well.
Since TSA's creation following 9/11, TSA has had six administrators,
six, averaging terms of just 1.5 years. The attempted Christmas Day
bombing of a U.S. airliner points to the need for long-term, strong,
and capable leadership that is outside of the political process.
In a separate letter to Deputy National Security Adviser John
Brennan, I posed a series of pointed questions concerning the security
situation in Yemen and the circumstances surrounding the failed
Christmas Day attack. Specifically, I asked the administration how it
plans to deal with the possible radicalization of some 55,000
Americans, 55,000 Americans that are currently visiting, living, or
studying in Yemen, pointing out that these individuals can fly back to
the United States with American passports.
The dangers of radicalization in Yemen are very troubling. The
alleged Fort Hood terrorist, Major Nidal Hasan was radicalized by
Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Aulaqi. The alleged terrorist who
killed a U.S. Army recruiter in Little Rock, Arkansas, was also
radicalized by al Aulaqi. And now we have learned that the alleged
Christmas Day terrorist was reportedly also in contact with al Aulaqi
in Yemen. Convicted terrorist John walker Lindh was radicalized in
Yemen while studying Arabic in 1998 and 2000, leading to his
collaboration with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Last week, President Obama said, ``Now is not the time for
partisanship, it is the time for citizenship--a time to come together,
work together with the seriousness of purpose that our national
security demands.'' However, working together demands that this
administration work with Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, in
good faith to provide information, answer questions, and consider
solutions, and to develop a strategy to defeat al Qaeda, whenever and
however we can.
The administration must live up to the President's challenge to
involve Congress in the active participation on counterterrorism
matters. This can only happen, however, if the legislative branch,
Republicans and Democrats, are included in the process.
In closing, I urge my colleagues in the House to support bringing
back the 9/11 team, Kean and Hamilton, for 6 months, create a Team B to
consider innovative solutions to disrupt and defeat al Qaeda, and to
make the TSA administrator position independent and nonpartisan, that
will go for a long term, similar to what we currently do with regards
to the FBI. These are good bipartisan steps to protect the homeland,
and ultimately to defeat al Qaeda.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your courtesy, and yield back
the balance of my time.
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2010.
Hon. Barack H. Obama,
The President, The White House,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: ``National Security is too important to
become a partisan issue.'' This sentence was the opening line
in a January 11 USA Today op-ed jointly authored by Lee
Hamilton and Thomas Kean, co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission.
Last week, you, too, said, ``Now is not a time for
partisanship, it's a time for citizenship--a time to come
together and work together with the seriousness of purpose
that our national security demands.'' I could not agree more
with this sentiment.
No nation, including America, can hope to win this long
battle against al Qaeda and like foes if the war effort is
marked by partisanship. Sadly, not only has partisanship
infused the rhetoric surrounding national security
discussions, it has actually obstructed the critical role of
congressional oversight. Too often in recent months
partisanship has resulted in withholding of information,
unanswered letters and briefings denied by this
administration.
The stakes are too high and the cost of failure is too
great for petty politics to rule the day. The White House has
a moral obligation to actively and consistently reach out to
the minority party in Congress, to be forthcoming with
information and to provide access to all levels of
government.
Hamilton and Kean go on to write, ``We intend to monitor
the implementation of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations
and report on new national security threats.'' I urge you to
encourage this effort by bringing back these two co-chairs
for a six-month period to conduct a formal review and 9/11
Commission follow-up. They would be charged with evaluating
which of the Commission's original recommendations have been
implemented and to what end, and which have failed to be
implemented and at what cost.
This past weekend, The Washington Post featured an op-ed by
Bruce Hoffman, respected professor of security studies at
Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the U.S.
Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. Hoffman wrote,
``(W)hile al-Qaeda is finding new ways to exploit our
weaknesses, we are stuck in a pattern of belated responses,
rather than anticipating its moves and developing preemptive
strategies. The `systemic failure' of intelligence analysis
and airport security that Obama recently described was not
just the product of a compartmentalized bureaucracy or
analytical inattention, but a failure to recognize al-Qaeda's
new strategy. The national security architecture built in the
aftermath of Sept. 11 addresses yesterday's threats--but not
today's and certainly not tomorrow's. It is superb at
reacting and responding, but not at outsmarting . . . a new
approach to counterterrorism is essential.''
Distinct from temporarily bringing back the two 9/11
Commission co-chairs, I also urge the creation of a ``Team
B.'' As you may know, historically the phrase ``Team B''
refers to a group of outside experts, commissioned by the
Central Intelligence Agency in the 1970's and headed by
Richard Pipes, to analyze the threats posed by the Soviet
Union to the United States and counter the positions of
intelligence officials within the CIA, known as ``Team A.''
In your remarks last week following the review of the
attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack, you rightly
referred to our enemy as ``nimble.'' Too often our response
to the evolving threat posed by al Qaeda, and others
sympathetic to their murderous aims, is anything but.
[[Page H114]]
The Team B concept has been successful in previous
administrations when fresh eyes were needed to provide the
commander-in-chief with objective information to make
informed policy decisions. I believe it can work now, too,
and suggest that among the individuals, but not exclusively,
whose expertise and forward-thinking would be well-suited to
a Team B are: Bruce Hoffman; Andrew McCarthy and Patrick
Fitzgerald, both of whom were involved in the prosecution of
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the first World Trade Center
bombings; Fouad Ajami, professor at the School of Advanced
International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; Jean
Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at
the University of Chicago; economist Judy Shelton, National
Endowment for Democracy board member; foreign policy
columnist and author Anne Applebaum; Andrew F. Krepinevich
Jr., author of Seven Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist
Explores War in the 21st Century; Elliot Cohen, professor of
Strategic Studies at SAIS; Philip D. Zelikow, diplomat and
author who worked as executive director of the 9/11
Commission; and Joshua Muravchik, formerly a scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute and presently a Foreign Policy
Institute fellow at SAIS.
The 9/11 Commission report was issued nearly six years ago.
Even if every recommendation had been implemented, which it
has not, our enemy has evolved since that time. Our current
intelligence infrastructure is at times overwhelmed by data,
information and the urgency of daily events, and as such is
unable to dedicate the time and resources necessary to think
outside the box and better comprehend this multidimensional
threat. ``Team B'' would possess the necessary expertise but
would be free from these daily pressures. The team would
represent a ``new approach to counterterrorism'' which
focuses not just on connecting the dots of intelligence, but
which seeks to stay a step ahead in understanding how to
break the radicalization and recruitment cycle that sustains
our enemy, how to disrupt their network globally and how to
strategically isolate them.
I also believe there is an urgent need to make the
Transportation Security Agency (TSA) administrator a long-
term position. Since TSA's inception following the 9/11
attacks, there have been six Transportation Security Agency
administrators and acting administrators. For a position of
this import to turn over with such frequency and to
automatically change hands with each new administration
simply does not make sense. I am introducing legislation that
mirrors the language used to establish a 10-year term and
Senate confirmation for FBI directors. I am hopeful that
members of both parties will see the merits of this proposal
and I urge your support for this change.
America is a great nation facing an enemy unlike any other
we have ever known. We must steel ourselves for the struggle
ahead, frankly assessing the nature and scope of the threat
we face and guarding against partisanship at all costs. The
people of this country deserve nothing less.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.
____
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2010.
Mr. John Brennan,
Deputy National Security Adviser, The White House,
Washington, DC.
Dear John: I write today in light of the proliferation of
attempted al Qaeda-sponsored attacks against the U.S.
homeland last year to request that you work to engage both
Congress and the administration in the process of making the
prevention of future attacks our nation's paramount priority.
I come to this issue as the author of the language in 1998
creating the National Commission on Terrorism and the ranking
Republican on the House Commerce-Justice-Science
Appropriations Subcommittee that funds key counterterrorism
programs, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
and the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG)--which
was established by your administration to address the
concerns about detainee interrogations in Guantanamo Bay--and
the U.S. Marshals Service. From that experience, I am
concerned that there has been inadequate oversight by this
Congress on federal counterterrorism programs and responses.
I have recently learned from the State Department
legislative affairs office that there are an estimated 55,000
Americans currently visiting, living, or studying in Yemen,
along with other Westerners. As you know, alleged Fort Hood
terrorist Major Nidal Hasan was radicalized by Yemeni-
American cleric Anwar al Aulaqi. The alleged terrorist who
killed the U.S. Army recruiter in Little Rock, Arkansas, was
also reportedly radicalized by al Aulaqi. Now we have learned
that the alleged Christmas Day terrorist, Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab, was also in contact with al Aulaqi in Yemen.
You may also be aware that convicted terrorist John Walker
Lindh was radicalized in Yemen while studying Arabic in 1998
and 2000, leading to his collaboration with the Taliban in
Afghanistan. How many of the 55,000 Americans now in Yemen
are subject to radicalization by al Aulaqi and other al Qaeda
recruiters? How is your administration planning to deal with
the possible radicalization of those who can fly back to the
U.S. with American passports? This is especially troubling in
light of the fact that the Yemeni government does not control
large portions of the country outside the capital city.
In his remarks last week, President Obama said, ``Now is
not a time for partisanship, it's a time for citizenship--a
time to come together and work together with the seriousness
of purpose that our national security demands.'' I could not
agree more. However, working together demands that both the
Congress, including Republicans and Democrats, and the
administration work in good faith to provide information,
answer questions, consider solutions, and to develop a
strategy to defeat al Qaeda wherever it may be active.
It is disappointing that this administration has been, thus
far, unresponsive to my letters and requests for information
as well as letters from other Republican members of the House
and Senate. I have sent six letters to the president and
administration officials since October 1, 2009, expressing
concern over the security situation in Yemen and the efforts
of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack the U.S. I
have read the classified biographies of the Guantanamo Bay
detainees that have been released to Yemen and other unstable
countries and have urged that this information be provided in
unclassified form to the American people. If the American
people could see the backgrounds of some of these detainees
being sent back to these countries, I believe they would be
shocked. For example, Ayman Batarfi, one of the Yemeni
detainees released by this administration on December 19,
2009, has worked closely with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan
and trained with a microbiologist who taught al Qaeda how to
produce anthrax in August 2001, according to unclassified
Pentagon documents from 2004. These detainees are, in many
cases, highly trained terrorists with close ties to al Qaeda.
In December, I offered an amendment to the fiscal year 2010
omnibus appropriations legislation that would have required
unclassified notifications about impending detainee releases.
Unfortunately, my amendment was defeated along party lines.
We can and must do better to end this reflexive partisan
opposition. To this end, I would appreciate your responses to
the following questions relating to Yemen and the recent
terrorist acts committed against the United States:
1. The president has indicated that six Guantanamo
detainees released to Yemen in December remain in government
custody, although other accounts indicate that they may have
been paroled to their families. What is the current custody
status of these former detainees?
2. According an article in today's Washington Post,
``Yemen's fragile government fears that Somali fighters from
al-Shabab will swell the ranks of Yemen's Islamist militants
at a time when links between the Somali group and al-Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula are growing.'' Do the same security
concerns expressed by the administration with regard to Yemen
apply to Somaliland?
3. Does the U.S. government now recognize Somaliland as an
independent state? Does it have relations with the region's
government? Are U.S. officials receiving cooperation from the
Somaliland regional government?
4. It is my understanding that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
indicated to authorities that he had trained in Yemen with
other al Qaeda members prepared to launch similar attacks
targeting U.S. airliners. Is this correct? If so, what
countries are these suspected terrorists from?
5. Following the thwarted Christmas Day attack, who
interrogated Mr. Abdul-mutallab? Which agencies were
consulted for questions prior to the interrogation? Which
agencies submitted questions for the interrogation? Was he
interrogated prior to being read Miranda rights? Given that
this attack occurred on the Christmas holiday, did the
appropriate high-level officials come to Detroit to conduct
or support the interrogation?
6. Was Mr. Abdulmutallab considered a ``high-value''
detainee upon his arrest? What qualifies a detainee to be
considered of ``high-value''? Was the new High-Value Detainee
Interrogation Group (HIG) involved in his interrogation? Did
every agency (that is represented on the HIG) participate in
the interrogation?
7. I was told in September 2009 that the Interrogation Task
Force had made recommendations to the president, which he had
approved. What is the new interrogation policy and how was it
applied, if at all, in the interrogation of Mr.
Abdulmutallab? If it was not applied, why not?
8. Does the new interrogation policy draw distinctions
based upon whether the detainee is apprehended inside or
outside the U.S.? If so, please specify.
9. What are the restrictions--legal, policy or procedure--
that limit which agencies can take part in such
interrogations? Were other intelligence agencies involved?
10. Who made the decision to arrest Mr. Abdulmutallab
rather than transfer him to military custody to be held as an
enemy combatant? Which agencies were consulted in this
decision?
11. Was Mr. Abdulmutallab advised to stop cooperating with
interrogators after being provided with legal counsel? If so,
did he?
12. Why were the terms ``al Qaeda,'' ``Yemen,''
``terrorism,'' or ``jihad'' not mentioned to describe Mr.
Abdulmutallab's activities in the seven-page charging
instrument?
[[Page H115]]
13. Was Christmas Day chosen for attack by al Qaeda for
symbolic value?
14. What connections exist between the radical cleric al
Aulaqi and the Christmas Day, Fort Hood, and Arkansas
attacks--as well as other terrorist plots last year?
15. How many former Guantanamo detainees have returned to
terrorism?
16. Has the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report on
detainee recidivism been revised upward? If so, when will
this report be released publicly? Has the president seen the
updated report?
17. In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, Professor
Bruce Hoffman, a respected professor of security studies at
Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the U.S.
Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center, wrote,
``During the past 18 months, American and British
intelligence officials have said, well over 100 individuals
from such countries have graduated from terrorist training
camps in Pakistan and have been sent West to undertake
terrorist operations.'' Is this assessment low or high?
18. Does al Qaeda monitor congressional hearings or think
tank publications relating to U.S. counterterrorism strategy?
19. What are the primary strategies al Qaeda uses to
recruit Westerners? Which strategies have been most
successful?
I would appreciate a response to these questions as soon as
possible. The answers to these questions will be critical in
helping Congress play an active and participatory role in
working with the administration on counterterrorism matters.
This can only happen, however, if the legislative branch--
including the minority party--is included in this process.
I look forward to your response. Please do not hesitate to
contact me or my staff member, Thomas Culligan, at 202-225-
5136 if I can be of assistance.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.
____________________