Intell Czar Dennis Blair Testifies Christmas Bomber Should Have Been Questioned by Non-Existent unit

[The Straight Story]

Intelligence Czar Dennis Blair Testifies Christmas Bomber Should Have Been Questioned by Non-Existent Unit


Appearing before a congressional committee investigating the Christmas Day bomb attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told lawmakers this week that a special anti-terrorism unit known as the “High Value Interrogation Group” (HIG) should have handled the investigation, and not the FBI or the Justice Department.

Only one problem: the HIG doesn’t exist.

Apparently, the nation’s top intelligence official was not aware that the proposed unit had yet to be formed. And even if it was functioning at the time of the attempted attack aboard the Northwest Airlines flight, it would have been inappropriate to use the HIG for someone like Abdulmutallab.

“That unit was created exactly for this purpose—to make a decision on whether a certain person who’s detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means,” Blair told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Wrong again. Officials in the Obama administration told Newsweek that the HIG was created specifically to handle “high value” al-Qaeda leaders who might be captured overseas, and not people like Abdulmutallab who are seized in the U.S.

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Intelligence_Czar_Dennis_Blair_Testifies_Christmas_Bomber_Should_Have_Been_Questioned_by_Non_Existent_Unit_100123

[midnight]

1. Where have I been? I didn't know we had an intelligence baCZAR?

[jmowreader]

2. That's a position we don't actually need, too

The DNI is supposed to be the senior individual in the American intelligence apparatus--the guy who rides herd on all the other directors, such as the Director of Central Intelligence, the Director of NSA, the Director of National Reconnaissance Office and so on.

There's just one thing: before Shrub came along and ignored the intelligence community long enough to let it bite him in the ass, the Director of Central Intelligence wore two hats: head of the intelligence community, and director of the CIA.