02/06/10
From The Obama File
Senator Kit Bond Questions Obama's Motivation
February 4, 2010
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
During my tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I have worked with the
Executive Branch to stem the disclosure of sensitive information. In 2006, for
example, I introduced legislation that would aid the Executive Branch in
prosecuting individuals engaged in leaks of classified information. In the realm
of national security, sometimes it is necessary to withhold critical information
from the public that may be used by our enemies to harm the American people.
Accordingly, I am deeply disturbed with the official handling of vital national
security information regarding the recent cooperation by the Christmas Day
bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab. On Monday afternoon, the leadership of the
Senate Intelligence Committee received notification from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) concerning Abdulmutallab’s recent willingness to provide
critical information. FBI officials stressed the importance of not disclosing
the fact of his cooperation in order to protect on-going and follow-on
operations to neutralize additional threats to the American public; FBI Director
Bob Mueller personally stressed to me that keeping the fact of his cooperation
quiet was vital to preventing future attacks against the United States. Handling
this information in such a sensitive manner struck me as entirely appropriate.
Twenty-four hours later, however, White House staff assembled members of the
media to announce Abdulmutallab’s cooperation and to laud the events that led to
his decision to cooperate with law enforcement personnel. This information
immediately hit the air waves globally and, no doubt, reached the ears of our
enemies abroad.
At the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Annual World Wide Threats Hearing
Tuesday, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI Director, the Director
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency all stated they believe terrorists will attempt another
attack on America within the next few months. I cannot understand, Mr.
President, why the sudden cooperation by Abdulmutallab would be broadcast
publicly to the media in detail when your intelligence chiefs are unanimously
warning that another attack on our country is imminent. The release of this
sensitive information has no doubt been helpful to his terrorist cohorts around
the world.
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.
Some have tried to use Abdulmutallab’s sudden cooperation as a justification for
prosecuting this foreign terrorist in an Article III court, but I believe this
development supports an opposing view. Because we treated him in this fashion,
we followed Miranda and advised him of his right to remain silent, losing five
crucial weeks for obtaining imminent threat information. Miranda is issued when
statements from the accused are needed to obtain a conviction, but in this case
we did not need his own statements as the chemical evidence he was wearing and
over 200 witnesses would ably suffice; hence, the decision to Mirandize made no
sense on a practical or strategic level. Additionally, Abdulmutallab’s family
was key in gaining his cooperation, and in most cases the suicide bomber does
not have a moderate Islamic family willing to work with the United States; in
fact, the opposite is most often the case (as with the suicide bomber that
killed seven CIA officers in Khost, whose wife applauded her husband’s actions).
I urge you, Mr. President, to consider the consequences of publicly
disseminating sensitive information vital to the defense of the American people.
I do not believe the American people want this information jeopardized to
further political arguments. The American people rightfully expect the
government’s first priority to be their security. It is also critical that our
courageous law enforcement and intelligence professionals know that they can
trust that sensitive information vital to their efforts to protect the American
people will not be disclosed.
Sincerely,
Christopher S. Bond
United States Senator
Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, former Governor and now Senator for Missouri is a Republican.