Government Executive - Authors - Chris Strohm

FEMA weighs options for stretching budget into next week

Chris Strohm — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Congress has never allowed the fund to run out of money. In September alone, FEMA provided more than $600 million in aid to individuals and recovery projects, and the repercussions of an empty till would be felt across the country.

"Under law, FEMA would be forced to temporarily shut down disaster recovery and assistance operations, including financial assistance to individuals, until Congress appropriated more funds," FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said on Monday. "This would include all past and current FEMA recovery operations."

State and local officials and emergency managers across the country are sounding alarm bells if Congress allows the disaster relief fund to run out of money. They have been lobbying lawmakers with letters laying out their concerns and the potential consequences.

"The nation appears on target this year to experience a record number of disasters, with 81 declared thus far," Tom Cochran, executive director of the United States Conference of Mayors, wrote in a letter on Friday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Compounding the problems are the serious economic and unemployment problems we face - problems which have significantly limited the ability of local and state governments to provide their share of the help that is needed," he added. The letter calls on Congress to replenish the disaster fund without requiring cuts to other programs.

The National League of Cities last week also called for disaster funding to be provided without cutting other programs.

Faced with insufficient funds as the end of the fiscal year on Friday approaches, FEMA is now only providing disaster aid to the most critical recovery projects. But states and communities across the country are facing a whole slew of new projects as a result of disasters like tornadoes that ravaged Joplin, Mo., and Hurricane Irene that blasted the East Coast.

FEMA's relief fund reimburses communities for recovery projects and provides direct assistance to individuals hurt by disasters. But communities are now hesitant to begin paying for new projects due to uncertainty about being reimbursed. That means efforts to fix washed-out roads or rebuild infrastructure are on hold, the effects of which could be compounded with winter approaching.

The presidents of the National Association of Counties, the National Emergency Management Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers sent a letter on Thursday to lawmakers listing key projects across the country that are in jeopardy because of insufficient funding. For example, recent flooding of the Mississippi River in Louisiana resulted in $60 million worth of projects that are being delayed, the groups wrote to Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

About 850 projects in Kentucky costing about $25.3 million are on hold, they added, and about 515 projects in Alabama totaling nearly $32 million are being delayed as the state continues to struggle to recover from massive storms and tornadoes earlier this year.

"In addition to backlogged funding and project worksheets, most states and communities will have entirely lost the 2011 construction season by the time the [disaster relief fund] is replenished," they wrote.

The National Governors Association sent a letter to congressional leaders on Sept. 19 calling for sufficient funding to be provided, saying it appears the nation will exceed the record number of 81 disasters a year ago. "None of us-no state, no congressional district-is immune to the loss of lives and property due to the vagaries of the weather," the group wrote.

The House voted 219-203 on Friday for a spending bill to keep the government operating through Nov. 18, including about $3.7 billion in new disaster aid that would be partly offset with $1.6 billion in cuts to two loan programs. Senate Democrats have put forward legislation that is nearly identical to the House bill, but which does not require spending cuts to offset the aid.

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Internal investigation opened into CIA-NYPD relationship

Chris Strohm — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The spy agency's charter expressly denies it any domestic police powers, and it has historically confined itself to overseas operations.

The investigation was opened following an Associated Press report that said the CIA was aiding the police department. Petraeus said the agency placed an "adviser" in the department to help with information-sharing operations.

"Indeed, there is an adviser there who tries to ensure that there is sharing of information as that is essential and advisable, noting that we are very sensitive to the laws and civil liberties [concerns]," Petraeus said during a rare joint hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who also testified at the hearing, said he did not believe it was "good optics" to have a CIA analyst embedded in the police department. But Clapper said he disagreed with criticism that the U.S. government's counterterrorism efforts inside the United States are out of control.

"I do not believe there is, quote, too much domestic surveillance," Clapper said.

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A decade after 9/11 attacks, U.S. still grappling with detainee policy

Chris Strohm — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The case threw into sharp relief what critics claim is the lack of a coherent policy by the Obama administration to handle terrorism suspects.

"Warsame showcases the tangled mess of the Obama administration's detention policy and practice," House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said at the time. Rogers supports trying terrorism suspects before military commissions and has called on the administration to work with Congress to develop comprehensive legislation for handling detainees.

Another critic, Senate Armed Services ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., has added a controversial provision to the National Defense Authorization Act that would put all terror suspects into immediate military custody, rather than permitting them to be handled by law enforcement agencies like the FBI.

A decade after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government is struggling to strike a balance in its policy for handling insurgents caught abroad, raising fundamental legal questions about where to take them, how long to hold them and when to fold each case.

Because the "enemy" is not a state, it has caused confusion over how to grapple with the detainees, a senior official told National Journal.

It boils down to handling detainees on a case-by-case basis, the official acknowledged. Several factors come into play for each detainee, such as how much of a threat does the person represent, what country is he from and how might detaining him affect U.S. foreign relations, the official said. Most detainees are held abroad under laws governing armed conflict, while some - like Warsame - are moved into criminal justice proceedings.

The former George W. Bush administration used the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold newly caught detainees as well as facilities like the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The CIA also had a network of secret prisons abroad.

The Obama administration has put a moratorium on bringing detainees to Guantanamo and has been trying to close prisons operated by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. But with Afghan civil institutions slow to develop, the military expects to keep its Afghanistan Detention Facility in Parwan operating beyond a planned closure next year, and actually recently expanded the facility's capacity. "When you talk about how long we might be detaining, all I can really say is it's going to be conditions based," the official said.

NATO this week also decided to stop transferring detainees to several prisons operated by Afghanistan authorities in anticipation of a United Nations report alleging prisoners have been abused. The U.S. military will review the report but emphasizes the majority of detainees it captures go to the facility it runs in Parwan, said Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Defense spokesman.

"The U.S. continues to take very seriously such allegations and works to consistently ensure the safe and humane treatment of its detainees," he said. "Until we can verify the observations in the pending [U.N.] report, we will continue to work with our allies on resolving this issue. I won't speculate on future decisions involving new captures."

The U.S. military also operates what are known as smaller, field detention sites in Afghanistan, where detainees are typically held for about 72 hours before being set free or transferred, Breasseale said. And the military continues to operate a small internment facility in Iraq under a security agreement, he added.

Obama issued an executive order halting the CIA's detention and interrogation program. But the agency can still briefly hold terrorism suspects abroad while transferring them, and jointly question suspects being held by other countries, a U.S. counterterrorism official told National Journal.

Authority for such debriefings must be granted by a senior officer in Washington, an official said, and it is not given lightly. However the official said the U.S. government should be able to interview suspected terrorists picked up overseas if they might have information about plots against American interests.

But critics of the Obama administration fear an aversion has set in to capturing terrorism suspects abroad because of confusion about what to do with them. Rather than capture insurgents that might have intelligence, critics worry the administration relies too much on drone attacks or lethal operations to kill them.

Human rights groups, on the other hand, argue the administration is not giving detainees fair legal proceedings.

"One of the big disagreements that we have with the military is that we think international human rights laws should apply," said Daphne Eviatar, a senior associate at Human Rights First, who traveled to Afghanistan earlier this year to view hearings that detainees are given.

She, along with other human rights representatives, want the military to reduce the amount of classified evidence kept hidden during the hearings and provide more competent military lawyers for detainees. About 2,500 detainees are held at the facility in Parwan, but there are only about 16 personal representatives for them. "They basically are having secret trials and holding people indefinitely for years," Eviatar said.

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Homeland Security chief: Disaster aid is running out

Chris Strohm — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Napolitano said she is discussing the option of requesting emergency disaster aid with officials at the White House and the Office of Management and Budget, but declined to say how much might be needed.

"We are at that point where the [disaster relief fund] will not cover all of what we know is out there," Napolitano told reporters during a wide-ranging press conference.

She said damage from Hurricane Irene alone will cost $1.5 billion. OMB estimates damage from other disasters has reached $5.2 billion. The disaster relief fund has dropped to about $500 million, according to congressional aides.

Another option under discussion is to roll the funding into the fiscal 2012 spending bill for the Homeland Security Department, Napolitano said. However, Congress isn't likely to pass the budget bill in the near future, and instead is expected to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running. In that case, Napolitano said, she would expect the continuing resolution to contain funding that could be used to pay for past disasters.

Lawmakers are already working on legislation to provide disaster aid. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a DHS budget bill that would provide $6 billion in aid. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the $6 billion could be put into a stand-alone bill in the coming weeks. But a fight is brewing with some Republicans over whether the funding should be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in a statement that the House "stands ready to provide any immediate funding" and will "act on a request for such disaster assistance as soon as it is made by President Obama."

He added that Reid's stand-alone bill might seek $7 billion in aid. "I would ask Leader Reid to provide members of the House with the details of his request and a breakdown of what immediate funding is needed for each of the specific disaster areas listed above, so that the House can appropriately act on any legislation passed by the Senate," Cantor said.

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, D-La., is also calling on Obama to submit a funding request to Congress. "If the [disaster relief fund] runs out of money, it would halt recovery projects, including those stemming from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and Irene," according to a statement from Landrieu's office.

On another front, Napolitano said the government has picked up "lots of chatter" about terrorist threats surrounding the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. But she said nothing has reached the threshold of being a known, credible threat that would require a threat advisory.

Still, the department has directed agencies such as the Federal Air Marshal Service to be on alert. "We will be staffing up. For example, we'll be adding more air marshals to be on duty," Napolitano said. "I think it's fair to say that in addition to asking citizens to be vigilant and so forth, that we have ourselves leaned forward and have made sure that we are doing all we can from the DHS perspective."

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Senate bill provides $6 billion in disaster aid

Chris Strohm — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The funding is included in the fiscal 2012 budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the government's disaster relief fund. The funding is more than double the amount included in the House-passed DHS budget bill, which would provide $2.6 billion for disaster relief.

It remains to be seen how Republicans react to the funding or if they demand any specific offsets.

The White House on Monday estimated about $1.5 billion in disaster aid will be needed to cover damage from the hurricane, on top of $5.2 billion needed to cover other disasters.

Overall, the Senate version of the budget bill would provide DHS about $41 billion in discretionary spending for 2012, which is less than the $43.2 billion President Obama requested. The department's current budget is $41.8 billion.

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9/11 led to spending binge on homeland security grants

Chris Strohm — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The grants built up a network of capabilities in states, urban areas, and other regions since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Tens of thousands of first responders trained for dealing with terrorist attacks and natural disasters. At 73 "intelligence fusion" centers, analysts sift through data and share classified information over secret networks. Local police and fire departments have pricey radios, robots, and armored vehicles.

But reports over the years have revealed problems involving no-bid contracts, equipment that didn't work as planned, and poor coordination of resources. For example, emergency-response officials in California - by far one of the largest recipients of homeland-security money - used sole-source contracts to spend about $6.2 million on license-plate readers, $4 million on public-safety radios, and $1.2 million for intelligence-analysis software, according to an audit by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general. State officials acknowledge no-bid contracts were a problem and say they are reforming their procurement policies.

Officials in one California area spent more than $74,000 on 55 large-screen digital televisions for training but didn't purchase the actual training system, the IG found. "On the day we visited, all the televisions were being used to monitor the same television station," the IG wrote.

In Texas, $250,000 paid for an emergency-response trailer that was barely used because it was too big. "At the time of our visit, we were informed that the trailer had been parked since its purchase, with very little use," the IG wrote. A special-response team had to use bolt cutters to snip padlocks on two other first-responder trailers because they couldn't find keys to the locks, the IG found. "Upon opening the trailer doors, we discovered that two relatively new mobile generators had flat tires and would have been difficult to move in the event of an emergency."

The IG's findings, released earlier this year, covered a three-year stretch from 2006 through 2008, the most recent compiled data.

The Homeland Security Department argues those examples don't represent what the grants have accomplished so far.

Eddie Hicks saw the positive impact of the federal money in late April when violent storms and tornadoes ripped through Alabama, where he directs the Emergency Management Agency for Morgan County. Three regional rescue teams, equipped and trained through homeland-security grants, quickly moved into action. "When the April 27 storms came in, we didn't have to call somebody in from outside. We were able to use local resources to do the immediate search and rescue in the aftermath of the storms," Hicks said.

In the past few years, DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have also shifted priorities for how grantees can use the federal funds, placing an emphasis on trying to prevent terrorist attacks that originate inside the United States. The move was driven by intelligence that warns of attacks carried out by individuals. An attack on a military recruiting station in Seattle, Wash., in June was thwarted in part by a fusion center that was funded with homeland security grants, the senior DHS official said. No large-scale terrorist attack has been carried out on U.S. soil in the last decade -- proof, officials say, that the systems work.

But the Government Accountability Office has repeatedly reported that FEMA lacks a system to ensure that money is being spent wisely. Congress has required the agency through legislation to develop such a system, but it is still waiting. "They haven't met those requirements," a Senate aide who does oversight on grants said. "We think it's a failure on their part."

And a newly released survey found that a whopping 88 percent of emergency-response officials believe that grants are allocated according to what's best for politicians, not what's best for emergency preparedness. Still, 71 percent said the United States is better prepared for a terrorist attack today than in the days before 9/11. The study surveyed 1,055 public-service and public-safety professionals and was done by a group of reputable organizations, including the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers and the American Public Health Association.

State and local governments have come to depend on the homeland-security grants to augment their budgets, and funding cuts could imperil existing projects. Officials in California, for example, told the Homeland Security Department's IG that fusion centers would have to close and large regional communications systems would be at risk if federal funding dries up.

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Acting head of ATF reassigned

Chris Strohm — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Kenneth Melson will be replaced as acting ATF director by U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Jones is expected to assume the new position on Aug. 31. Melson is being reassigned as a senior advisor on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy, the department said.

Melson came under fire for a program called Operation Fast and Furious, which was ran out of the ATF Phoenix field office. The operation has been halted and is under investigation by lawmakers and the Justice Department?s inspector general for failing to stop guns from flowing into Mexico.

The Justice Department did not mention Operation Fast and Furious in announcing the changes.

A congressional investigation into the operation being led by House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is examining how high up within the administration the program was known about and authorized.

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Agencies respond as Irene makes its way up the East Coast

Chris Strohm — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Five people died as a result of the storm in North Carolina, and three were killed in Virginia due to falling trees, emergency officials said, according to CNN.

In the Washington area, roughly 500,000 homes and businesses were without power. Thousands of flights were cancelled, the Bay Bridge was closed and flooding was expected.

"Our No. 1 message for individuals and families up and down the eastern seaboard this morning is that we're not out of the woods yet," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a news conference on Sunday. "Irene remains a large and potentially dangerous storm. Hazards still persist in communities that have already seen the storm pass."

"Our local, state and federal partners in North Carolina, Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states remain focused on search and rescue, debris removal from critical roadways and other critical missions this morning," Napolitano added.

President Obama, who cut short his Martha's Vineyard summer vacation to bring his family home to the White House, has received regular briefings on the storm from federal emergency officials.

Obama visited FEMA headquarters in Washington on Saturday. "It's going to be a long 72 hours," Obama said in what has become a daily video conference with preparedness officials and others, including representatives of big-box stores signed on for emergency relief efforts.

"This is obviously going to be a touch and go," he told FEMA employees.

FEMA directed people in the hurricane's path to websites, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, and mobile apps.

Nongovernmental organizations and companies got in on the action as well. Google and Facebook both have web pages dedicated to information about the storm.

Obama declared disasters in Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York to free up federal aid before any flooding or wind damage to and help in preparations.

DHS deployed three Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to staging areas, with doctors, nurses, paramedics, and pharmacists trained to provide emergency health and medical support.

FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams were staged in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, D.C., Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a prepare-to-deploy order for 6,500 active duty troops, who would deploy in support of hurricane relief efforts if ordered, according to Pentagon spokesman George Little.

Little said that it has taken Panetta only 5 to 7 minutes on average to approve requests from states for Defense Department support.

McGovern said her organization was anticipating the storm would affect a "huge geographical area" and that it could take "weeks, maybe even months" to fully respond to damage and needs.

She said the Red Cross was ready to serve 250,000 meals a day, which could be increased to 1 million, and has 15,000 shelters in the affected area.

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Obama calls on residents in hurricane's path to prepare for worst

Chris Strohm — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

This story has been updated.

President Obama called on all those in the path of oncoming Hurricane Irene to take precautions now. "Don't wait, don't delay, we all hope for the best and prepare for the worst," the president said on Friday, speaking from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

Obama said all indications point to Irene being "a historic hurricane.... I cannot stress this highly enough: if you are in the projected path of the hurricane, you have to take precautions now."

The president said he's been speaking to the governors of the states along the Eastern Seaboard. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed teams up and down the coast, Obama said, and has millions of liters of water, along with cots, blankets, and other emergency supplies.

But the president stressed the best course of action for anyone in harm's way is to get out.

"If you are given an evacuation order, please follow it," he said, adding that an aircraft carrier had been ordered out to sea on Thursday to avoid the approaching storm. The government, Obama said, has been preparing for Irene for more than a week.

Obama himself and the first family will cut their vacation short by several hours, leaving Friday night instead of Saturday morning, according to the White House.

Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, but hurricane watches and warnings were posted for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and New England. Residents have been put on notice to prepare for the worst.

On Friday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered an evacuation of city residents who live in low-lying areas-the first such evacuation in history. Public transportation in New York will begin an orderly shutdown at noon on Saturday.

Obama said he convened a conference call with senior members of his emergency management team earlier on Friday and "directed them to make sure that we are bringing all federal resources to bear and deploying them properly to cope not only with the storm but also its aftermath."

"I've also spoken this morning with governors and mayors of major metropolitan areas along the Eastern Seaboard to let them know that this administration is in full support of their efforts to prepare for this storm and stands ready to fully support their response efforts," he added.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters on Friday that the federal government is taking the storm "very seriously." "This is a serious hurricane. It has already caused significant damage in Puerto Rico and elsewhere," she said.

Washington and the surrounding Virginia and Maryland areas should be prepared for power outages, heavy rain, strong winds and potential flash floods, said FEMA chief W. Craig Fugate. He said power outages could last days in more rural areas, adding that there could be flooding along the Potomac River.

The American Red Cross is also mobilizing its assets. Gail McGovern, Red Cross president and chief executive officer, said her organization is anticipating the storm will affect a "huge geographical area" and that it could take "weeks, maybe even months" to fully respond to damage and needs.

She said the Red Cross is ready to serve 250,000 meals a day, which could be increased to 1 million, and has 15,000 shelters in the affected area.

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As hurricane approaches, quake raises emergency preparedness questions

Chris Strohm — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Mobile-phone networks quickly became clogged and unusable in the minutes after the quake, and traffic backed up in the Washington area. Those are just two issues that emergency-response officials will likely be studying in the coming weeks.

W. Craig Fugate, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, declined to discuss specifics about problems exposed by the earthquake, referring questions about traffic and other problems to local officials. But he said the quake underscores the need for people to be prepared for the unexpected and have emergency backup communication plans, especially with Hurricane Irene expected to hit the East Coast this weekend.

"As infrequently as we think about hurricanes, the earthquake yesterday reminded us that we got to be prepared for a variety of things and the best way to start is make sure you have a family disaster plan," Fugate said in a conference call with reporters. "It reminded people that the unexpected can happen."

Others weren't hesitant to critique what occurred in the earthquake's aftermath. The congested phone lines show the need for emergency responders to have a broadband communications network dedicated to public safety, according to the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.

"While there [were] no reports of outages or congestion on public safety radio systems, there was an impact on first responders and emergency personnel who relied on their commercial cell phones and data cards to communicate with their colleagues and families," according to a statement late Tuesday from the association. "Clearly, public safety cannot rely on commercial networks during critical incidents and major events, as they cannot gain access to roam onto or gain the level of priority access necessary to be effective in such incidents."

Emergency response officials should also study how to prevent the kind of traffic jams that ensued on Tuesday as people tried to get out of Washington, said David Olive, a homeland security lobbyist and founder of Catalyst Partners, a government relations and public affairs firm.

"First, whenever [the government] decides to let government employees leave early, they should ensure that the D.C. government traffic-operations folks have time to deploy to critical intersections to keep traffic flow manageable," Olive wrote in a blog posting.

He said "any reasonably competent security analyst" knows that people concentrated in an area with limited mobility creates the potential for "a second event," which could include a terrorist attack.

"Second, the human reaction to flood communications pipelines with queries provided an unexpected, but excellent opportunity to stress-test the ability to disseminate and receive information in a Web 2.0 world," he added.

Fugate said mobile-phone networks cannot be counted on to work during emergencies, adding that people should instead use social media and have portable radios. He said it was not surprising to see traffic congestion in the Washington area given the number of people trying to get out of town. But he referred additional questions to local officials.

FEMA is now making preparations for Hurricane Irene, a Category 3 storm with winds up to 115 mph. The storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday along the coast of North Carolina, where state and local officials have already given evacuation orders for coastal communities.

President Obama was briefed on Wednesday by counterterrorism adviser John Brennan about preparations being made by the Homeland Security Department in anticipation of the hurricane, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"Unlike an earthquake, this hurricane is a forecasted event that we are watching," Fugate said.

Aamer Madhani contributed.

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As Qaddafi's government comes apart, new concerns for U.S.

Chris Strohm — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Current and former U.S. government officials expressed concern late Sunday that Libya could tailspin into chaos without a steady transition and quick establishment of new laws.

Key senators who've been the fiercest critics of President Obama's handling of the Libyan conflict argue the U.S. government should immediately step up its assistance to the Transitional National Council in Libya. The council has been preparing to step into power to manage a post-Qaddafi state.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called on the Obama administration to "move expeditiously" to release $34 billion in Qaddafi-linked assets the U.S. froze in February to be used for the reconstruction of the country.

"The Libyan people have won their freedom, but now they must build the durable institutions necessary to keep it, including a transparent and inclusive political process, a free and independent media, an impartial system of justice and the rule of law, a free economy, and unified, professionalized security forces that answer to civilian authority," the senators said in a joint statement.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., who along with McCain and Graham criticized Obama for not being aggressive enough in ordering military operations in Libya, called for the U.S. government to "redouble" its assistance to the transitional council.

"Although I am optimistic that the Libyans will be able to shoulder the bulk of the transition to democracy on their own, I also hope that the U.S. and its allies will make available any and all assistance they request, including a civilian international monitoring mission," Lieberman said.

Lieberman, McCain and Graham all said the Obama administration should help prevent acts of retribution in Libya and initiate a process of national reconciliation, but didn't say how they thought this should occur. There was no immediate mention of U.S. boots on the ground.

U.S. lawmakers like House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., have also been worried about preventing chemical weapons in Libya from falling into the hands of Islamic radicals.

NATO, which helped provided air cover for the rebel assault on Tripoli over the weekend, said it stands ready to work with the Libyan people and the Transitional National Council. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the transition "must come peacefully."

"They [the TNC] must make sure that the transition is smooth and inclusive, that the country stays united, and that the future is founded on reconciliation and respect for human rights," he said in a statement.

But John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News late Sunday that the United States and its allies may not have done enough over the past five months to prepare for the fall of Qaddafi. He noted that Libya does not appear to have a stable military _ something that was instrumental in helping neighboring Egypt manage its civil uprising.

The three senators also said developments in Libya should send a message to other regimes in the Middle East, especially that of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "In particular, that is a lesson for Bashar al-Assad, and we are confident that his regime will soon join Qaddafi's on the ash heap of history," McCain and Graham said.

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Senate panel cuts more than $500 million from spy operations

Chris Strohm — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

More than $500 million would be cut from the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies under a bill authorizing programs and spending for spying operations next year, a key senator and congressional aides said.

The fiscal 2012 intelligence authorization bill would reduce intelligence spending by about 1 percent -- about $550 million -- from current spending levels, Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told National Journal.

Further cuts to intelligence spending beyond 2012 are likely under the debt and deficit-reduction bill passed by Congress and on Tuesday by President Obama-beginning in earnest a downturn in robust and unprecedented spending on intelligence activities following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"We've been anticipating it and so we have been ratcheting down," Feinstein said. "The budget that we control according to public figures is $55 billion. That's a doubling from before 9/11. What we take [in 2012] is a 1 percent cut and that's a real cut over last year."

"It's significant because we're reversing a trend, which has been to go up, and now that trend is going to go down," she added.

The Senate Intelligence Committee authorizes funding for what's known as the National Intelligence Program, which funds the CIA and other non-military intelligence agencies. Congressional aides said the actual cut would be slightly more than 1 percent.

Intelligence Committee aides said the fiscal 2012 authorization bill recommends "substantial funding and personnel cuts" compared to the amount Obama requested. Aides added that the bill still would ensure "that the intelligence community has the necessary resources to conduct operations that are vital to our nation's security."

While Feinstein's panel recommends funding cuts, the actual money for intelligence agencies is allocated by the appropriations committees. Feinstein said she is coordinating with appropriators.

Total spending on intelligence activities tops $80 billion a year, when spending on military intelligence programs is taken into account. "Every one has to be willing to tighten their belts; the intelligence community is no exception," said an intelligence official who asked to remain anonymous.

The debt deal Obama signed into law lumps spending on the national intelligence community management account into a broad "security" category that includes spending on the Defense Department, Homeland Security Department, Veterans' Affairs Department, and other programs. That means the intelligence account will have to compete with the others for money under new spending caps.

"You can be sure we're going to be very careful with that and we're not going to incapacitate the agencies in any way, shape, or form," Feinstein said.

But her authorization bill faces a major hurdle, as Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he will place a hold on it. Wyden told National Journal on Tuesday that he is concerned about a provision in the bill that would extend, until 2015, the government's authority to monitor e-mails or phone calls made by a U.S. citizen without a warrant.

Wyden wants the Obama administration to disclose the number of citizens who have had their communications reviewed by the government. For now, the administration says it is unable to provide such a number.

"What I feel strongly about is there needs to be some answers to some very important and directly relevant questions," Wyden said. "When we get the facts, then we can talk about the policy."

On another front, Obama on Tuesday nominated Charles McCullough to be inspector general of the U.S. intelligence community. McCullough is currently the deputy inspector general and has held positions at the National Security Agency, Treasury Department, and FBI.

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Soldier charged in bomb plot targeting Fort Hood personnel

Chris Strohm — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The U.S. soldier arrested in Texas on Thursday planned to make two bombs using gun powder and shrapnel packed in pressure cookers to detonate inside a restaurant frequented by soldiers from Fort Hood, according to the Justice Department.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo was charged on Friday with possession of an unregistered destructive device in connection with the bomb plot, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Waco, Texas. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.

According to the complaint, Abdo told arresting officers he intended to conduct an attack in Killeen, Texas, and at Fort Hood, the military base that was the site of a 2009 shooting rampage that left 12 soldiers dead. The restaurant was not identified.

The complaint alleges that on July 27 Abdo was in possession of a Springfield .40-caliber handgun, ammunition, an article entitled, "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom," as well as bomb-making components that included six bottles of smokeless gunpowder, shotgun shells, shotgun pellets, two clocks, two spools of auto wire, an electric drill, and two pressure cookers.

Abdo, 21, had disappeared from Kentucky's Fort Campbell after receiving word that he was going to be court-martialed for the possession of child pornography.

Abdo is at least the third Muslim-American soldier suspected of trying to kill his fellow troops since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2003, then-Sgt. Hasan Akbar threw a grenade into a tent in Kuwait, killing a pair of American soldiers. Six years later, Maj. Nidal Hasan was charged with opening fire on a crowd of troops at Fort Hood, killing 13 people-including 12 soldiers-in the worst act of military-on-military violence in U.S. history.

Abdo's case has renewed concerns about the threat posed by so-called lone-wolf extremists, individuals with no apparent ties to terrorist groups.

"The arrest near Fort Hood is the latest evidence that all Americans - including the men and women of our armed forces - face a growing threat of homegrown violent Islamist extremism, especially from lone wolves," Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said in a statement.

"An observant gun dealer took the threat seriously when he reported suspicious behavior, potentially saving scores of lives, and reinforcing the importance of the 'see something, say something' principle," Lieberman added. "This incident reminds us that alert citizens are critical to the nation's commitment to avert terror."

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Senate confirms Mueller to head FBI for two more years

Chris Strohm — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The Senate voted 100-0 on Wednesday to confirm Robert Mueller to remain as director of the FBI for two more years.

President Obama had previously requested that Mueller's term be extended for two years in order to help ensure continuity in his national-security team. Mueller had been under a 10-year term that would have expired on August 3.

But some Republican senators were hesitant to simply extend Mueller's term for two years, fearful that doing so might not be constitutionally allowed. Instead, senators worked out a process under which they passed legislation allowing Obama to renominate Mueller for two more years. Obama signed the bill on Tuesday and formally renominated Mueller.

The Senate on Wednesday also approved Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the next ambassador to China. Locke, who was confirmed on a voice vote, will be the first Chinese-American to assume that post.

Despite concerns by civil rights advocates and some lawmakers that the government has at times overreached and abused its law enforcement powers, Mueller enjoys widespread, bipartisan support in Congress. He is the first director to be granted an extension. If he stays on until the end of the extension, Mueller will be the longest-serving director since J. Edgar Hoover.

Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Senate Judiciary ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the FBI has its share of "black marks and skeletons in the closet." He said he was particularly concerned at how the FBI has treated whistle-blowers who report fraud and abuse. But he said those problems "are not necessarily the fault of Director Mueller."

"In 1976, following the excesses of J. Edgar Hoover, Congress limited the term of the director of the FBI to one non-renewable 10-year term … to prevent the accumulation of excess power by the director as well as to provide some political independence for the FBI," Grassley added. "However, we do live in extraordinary times and currently face unusual national-security threats."

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Mueller has guided the FBI through a major transformation since taking over the bureau in the days just before the September 11 attacks.

"Although the transformation has not been without problems, Director Mueller has consistently displayed professionalism and focus in increasing the FBI's national security and counterterrorism efforts, while still carrying out the bureau's essential law enforcement responsibilities," Leahy said.

Mueller's new term expires on September 4, 2013.

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Justice to drop investigations into CIA officials involved in torture

Chris Strohm — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The Justice Department will end a wide-ranging probe into the CIA's past interrogation, rendition, and detention activities, but it will launch a formal criminal investigation into agency officials involved in the deaths of two detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday.

"The department has determined that an expanded criminal investigation of the remaining matters is not warranted," Holder said in a statement.

Holder said he accepted the recommendation of longtime federal prosecutor John Durham to proceed with a criminal investigation into the deaths of the two detainees, adding that Durham's team "reviewed a tremendous volume of information pertaining to the detainees" that included "both information and matters that had never previously been examined by the department."

the attorney general tapped Durham in 2009 to review cases of alleged detainee mistreatment and death at the hands of CIA interrogators and contractors under the George W. Bush administration.

The probe has been hanging over the CIA, and Holder's decision to end it was immediately welcomed by key officials.

Notably, Holder made his announcement only minutes before the Senate voted 94-0 to confirm Gen. David Petraeus as the next CIA director. The announcement was also made on the last day for current CIA Director Leon Panetta, who is heading to the Pentagon as the next Defense secretary.

"After extensive examination of more than 100 instances in which CIA had contact or was alleged to have had contact with terrorist detainees, [Durham] has determined that no further law enforcement action is appropriate in all but two discrete cases," Panetta said in a message to CIA employees.

"No decision has been made to bring criminal charges," added Panetta, who fiercely defended CIA agents during his tenure. "Both cases were previously reviewed by career federal prosecutors who subsequently declined prosecution. The agency will, of course, continue to cooperate fully in the remaining investigations."

The Justice Department did not identify the two detainees who died while in CIA custody, but sources said they believed the two were Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who died at a U.S. base in al-Qaim, Iraq, in 2005, and Manadel al-Jamadi who died at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003.

During his confirmation hearing to lead the CIA, Petraeus said "it is time to take the rearview mirrors off the bus with respect to certain actions out there." Petraeus did not specifically mention Durham's investigation, but he referred to CIA practices conducted in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We do not any longer truly, I think, appreciate the context of the post-9/11 period and some actions that were taking place under direction," Petraeus told the Senate Intelligence Committee. "And I, for one, again, as the potential leader of the agency, would like to see us focus forward and indeed put some of these actions behind us once and for all and put our workforce at rest with respect to that."

House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., also praised Holder's decision.

"I hope that this decision will allow our intelligence professionals to move forward with their critical work free from the chilling effect of further investigation and with the deserved full confidence of the American people," Rogers said.

"Similarly, I expect that the criminal investigation announced today will be continued in a manner fully consistent with the principle reaffirmed by the attorney general that we will not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal advice."

Yochi Dreazen contributed to this report.

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Senators, administration clash over Libya operations

Chris Strohm — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The State Department's top legal adviser clashed with senators Tuesday over the Obama administration's legal reasoning for why it does not need congressional authorization to conduct military operations in Libya.

"There is no good reason why President Obama has failed to seek congressional authorization to go to war in Libya," said Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., adding that he believes the U.S. military is intervening in a civil war in the North African country.

State Department legal adviser Harold Hongju Koh testified before the panel, offering a nuanced legal argument for why the administration has not violated the 1973 War Powers Resolution in deploying U.S. military forces in Libya as part of a NATO-led mission to defeat the forces of strongman Muammar el-Qaddafi.

The Foreign Relations panel is expected to debate and vote on competing resolutions later Tuesday on whether to authorize the use of military force in Libya.

The War Powers Resolution requires a president to get congressional authorization within 60 days to use U.S. armed forces in hostile situations, or terminate those operations.

Koh offered the most descriptive legal analysis to date explaining the role of the U.S. military in Libya, saying U.S. forces are playing "a supporting role within a NATO-led, Security Council-authorized, civilian-protection mission that's limited."

Most senators on the panel disputed Koh's analysis. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., blasted Koh for offering what amounted to a "narrow" and "cute" argument.

"I think you've undermined the credibility of this administration; I think you've undermined the integrity of the War Powers Act; and I think by taking this very narrow approach you've done a great disservice to our country," Corker said.

According to Koh, the administration does not need congressional authorization because the military operation in Libya is constrained in four distinct ways: it is limited in mission, there is limited risk to U.S. forces, the risk of escalation is limited, and the choice of military assets being used is limited.

He said that the U.S. military has only flown a quarter of the overall number of sorties in Libya to date and only 10 percent of sorties that are firing missiles. He said the total number of munitions dropped in Libya to date is less than 1 percent of those dropped in military operations in Kosovo in the late 1990s.

"All we are simply saying is that when the mission is limited, the risk of escalation is limited, the threat to troops is limited due to no ground troops, and when the tools being used are extremely limited, that doesn't trigger the 60-day clock," Koh argued. "If any of those elements are not present, then what I said does not necessarily apply. You have to redo the analysis."

Koh acknowledged, however, that it may be time to rewrite the War Powers Resolution given the development of technology-such as unmanned drones-that allows the U.S. military to conduct operations from a distance and without putting troops at risk.

Regardless, senators took aim at Koh's analysis. "The fact that we are leaving most of the shooting to other countries does not mean that the United States is not involved in acts of war," Lugar said. "If the United States encountered persons performing similar activities in support of al-Qaida or Taliban operations, we certainly would deem them to be participating in hostilities against us."

Corker agreed with Lugar. He said Koh's legal reasoning could be used to argue that dropping a nuclear bomb in Libya would not constitute hostilities under the War Powers Resolution.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., also weighed in, saying the United States is providing two-thirds of all troops to support Libya operations. He added there is the potential for escalation of the conflict, saying he believes the U.S. military is involved in hostilities.

Only Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., offered the administration support. "In Libya today, no American is being shot, no American troops are on the ground, and we're not going to put them there," Kerry said. Kerry pleaded for senators to pass a resolution authorizing U.S. military operations.

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Was U.S. intelligence on bin Laden off target?

Chris Strohm — Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

That, in turn, has raised questions about the accuracy of the intelligence community's previous assessments of bin Laden as well as uncertainties over how the terror group he founded will evolve now that he is gone.

Based on a vast trove of information removed from the walled-off compound in Abbottabad, including a personal journal, U.S. intelligence officials say that, contrary to previous indications, bin Laden was not merely a figurehead removed from terror planning or someone who had largely lost his grip on al-Qaida. Instead, there were clear signs that he maintained strategic, operational, and tactical control of al-Qaida.

"There were communications from other senior leaders going back to him, asking him for advice and ideas on who to use" for operations, said a U.S. official who is part of a national-security team reviewing the recovered material. Without being specific, the official added: "He needed to approve certain operatives for certain things. Senior leaders needed to come to him for permission to do certain things."

Even so, U.S. officials could not immediately point to evidence that any of the plots bin Laden mulled over in his compound actually became operational. And that raised questions about whether he was planning and directing specific acts of terror that his subordinates were carrying out -- which was loosely the process that led to the 9/11 attacks -- or whether he had become a kind of chairman of the board, several steps removed.

"We don't know yet the degree to which he was operational in the sense of day-to-day control versus operational in the sense of broad strategic oversight of operation," said a former senior intelligence official. "If I were still working there, I would probably say to them, 'Show me the details. What do you mean?' "

Current government officials dispute that earlier intelligence assessments on bin Laden were off the mark.

"CIA analysts have assessed for years that bin Laden was involved in operational planning, timing, and target selection for al-Qaida plots," the U.S. official said. "The CIA also assessed that bin Laden has, throughout the years, focused on different aspects of the group's operations at different times. Although he was physically isolated from the group's foot soldiers, he was able to guide their plotting."

The official said that plots sometimes take years to filter through the planning stage and get carried out, pointing to some of the ideas found in the bin Laden compound for attacking the United States, including targeting trains in cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago. "Just because we haven't seen them attack trains doesn't mean that they didn't intend to do so. We do know that al-Qaida has been focused on attacking the U.S. homeland," and that's what bin Laden wanted.

For years, government officials have mostly hedged in discussing bin Laden and his relationship to the core of al-Qaida. Before he was caught in Abbottabad, his trail had gone largely cold. One the one hand, they said the group remained dangerous and aspired to carry out spectacular attacks. Officials also said splinter groups such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula posed the biggest threat to U.S. interests.

But the larger narrative painted for the public in recent years was that the group bin Laden led was under enormous pressure and its powers were diminished. Many intelligence officials also pushed the idea that al-Qaida had become much more decentralized, relying on freelance radicals who communicated via the Internet, among them Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric believed to be in Yemen. U.S. intelligence officials had also suggested previously that bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, was mostly in control of operations.

All of which raises a number of important questions: Is the intelligence community still trying to promote different narratives? Were U.S. intelligence assessments about the terrorist leader off target? What kind of control did bin Laden actually have?

Speaking at the Atlantic Council in November 2008, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said bin Laden was believed to be isolated. "He is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security. In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he nominally heads," according to a transcript of the speech on the Atlantic Council's website.

Hayden told National Journal he stands by his comments. He said intelligence officials at the time questioned whether bin Laden could really have operational and tactical control over al-Qaida. "We were very confident, turns out to have been very true, he didn't have electronic communications. And the courier network was … not so robust that it would seem to truly offer him tight tactical control," Hayden said. "This raises some interesting questions. What do they mean by 'more robust operational control,' particularly since he was doing this through periodic couriers?"

Several officials interviewed for this story said that they were not surprised to learn that bin Laden had maintained control over al-Qaida. But they said they have questions about how it worked and how much control he had, given his reliance on a courier network.

"It's not surprising to me," said Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "Now, how he did it with no Internet connection and all of that, by courier, would necessarily mean a slow down."

She added: "There's no Internet, there's no telephone, there's no communication mechanism. So how he did it is what is interesting to find out, and that was likely through the two couriers in the house."

"I think we need to know more about how operational he was," said former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who previously served as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "I don't know specifically what that means."

"I'm not arguing that he" didn't have a measure of control, added Harman, who now serves as head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "I'm just saying the extent of that command and control isn't clear to me, and I think that given the changed structure in al-Qaida … command and control has been dispersed. I'm not saying he didn't have any. But I'm saying others also have it."

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the biggest surprise to him was that bin Laden was not living in a tribal area. "Once you recover from that surprise, it's not a surprise to me that he would be in greater operational control than I would have expected" because he was better able to communicate using couriers, Levin said.

Indeed, it appears that uncertainty over bin Laden's whereabouts in the intelligence community helped to sow confusion over his position in the organization. CIA Director Leon Panetta told ABC News' This Week last June that "we know" bin Laden was in the tribal areas of Pakistan, noting that there was not precise information on his location since the early 2000s.

Current government officials said the fact that bin Laden was not living in a tribal area should not be seen as an intelligence lapse.

"In the nine years the U.S. government was looking for bin Laden, CIA analysts worked on the strong and compelling assumption that he may be in the tribal areas of Pakistan. That was, of course, only one possible theory about his location," the U.S. official said.

"But when it came to the world's most dangerous terrorist, CIA collectors and analysts did not dismiss any theory about where he might be hiding. Finding him and bringing him to justice was, quite frankly, too important to assume anything about his location," the official added.

But, if it's true that bin Laden maintained tight tactical control over al-Qaida, then his death could open up a new chapter for the group in which splinter organizations act more freely.

"If bin Laden had far more direct control at the tactical level, what we might see in the future is a threat from al-Qaida that is more varied, since it's not under his personal domain, and perhaps even more agile, since it's less reliant on an individual who was difficult to contact," a former senior official said.

That's a narrative the intelligence community probably doesn't want to promote.

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Trains a target for al Qaeda, DHS says

Chris Strohm — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Details about the plot appeared to be some of the first tangible information about al Qaeda's activities to come from materials confiscated at the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday.

DHS issued a message on Thursday to state and local law-enforcement agencies about the plot, but emphasized the planning occurred in February 2010 and, by all accounts, was only conceptual.

"As one option, al Qaeda was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge," according to the message, obtained by National Journal and marked "for official use only."

"Al Qaeda noted that an attack from tilting the train would only succeed one time because the tilting would be spotted," the message added. "While it is clear there was some level of planning, we have no recent information to indicate an active, ongoing plot to target transportation and no information on possible locations or specific targets."

DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler said "it is unclear if any further planning has been conducted since February of last year." He added there is no indication there was anybody inside the United States casing trains or train stations.

The Homeland Security Department is not aware of any credible or specific information that would warrant raising the nation's terrorist threat level, Chandler said. But the department decided to notify state and local officials of the information, given the events of last weekend when bin Laden was killed.

According to the department: "Since Sunday, DHS and its partners have taken a number of actions, including but not limited to: reviewing protective measures for all potential terrorist targets, including critical infrastructure and transportation systems across the country; deploying additional officers to non-secured areas at our nation's airports; and identifying any new targeting rules that should be instituted to strengthen the ways we assess the risk of both passengers and cargo coming to the United States."

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Bin Laden found in room with guns, U.S. officials say

Chris Strohm — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"He was not armed. The administration has confirmed that. But there were weapons in the room," said Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who serves on both the House Armed Services and House Intelligence committees.

"He did not have his hands on a weapon," Langevin added. The other lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said the presence of the two guns added to concerns that bin Laden was dangerous and would not surrender peacefully.

The government official confirmed that the weapons were an AK-47 and a pistol. The official said bin Laden was spotted coming out of the room where the guns were located and then ran back into that room.

A 20-minute firefight occurred from the time that U.S. special operations forces flew into the compound on helicopters to the time bin Laden was killed, the official said. "The first objective at the compound involved hostile fire from one of the facilitators living there. So it immediately became a hostile environment," the official said. "Then you also had threatening moves and actions inside the larger home to include action on all three floors."

"You had people lunging toward the [military team]," the official added. "You had guns present in the house. Given al-Qaida's history, you're concerned about suicide vests [and] bombs. The compound itself could have been rigged to explode."

Another 20 minutes was spent collecting materials at the site, including "documents, storage devices, audio visual equipment, guns, [and] computers," as well as getting those living at the compound who were still alive to safety, the official said.

The administration continued an intense slew of briefings for lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about the circumstances surrounding bin Laden's death. Despite the briefings, lawmakers still had many questions about what occurred at the compound in Abbottabad, just north of Pakistan's capital of Islamabad.

While there has been much attention on whether the White House would release any photos of bin Laden's body, some lawmakers want to see any video footage the administration might have of the assault on the compound and bin Laden's death. Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she has asked the administration to provide her committee any video recordings that it has.

Meanwhile, lawmakers said a bogus photograph of bin Laden's body began circulating on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Feinstein said somebody took a picture of either bin Laden's son or one of two couriers killed at the compound on Sunday and then doctored it to try to pass it off as the terrorist leader. The photo was circulating electronically, rather than as a physical print. "To the best of my knowledge no [official] photo has been given out," Feinstein said. "I think there's money to be made and I think there's skullduggery with someWhen special operations forces closed in on Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan, they found him in a room with two guns, one of which was an AK-47 assault rifle, two lawmakers and a U.S. government official told National Journal on Wednesday. The administration has confirmed that bin Laden was not armed when he was shot and killed on Sunday. But being in a room with weapons could bolster the administration's claim that it was necessary to kill the terrorist leader.

Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she has asked the administration to provide her committee any video recordings that it has.

Meanwhile, lawmakers said a bogus photograph of bin Laden's body began circulating on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

"To the best of my knowledge no [official] photo has been given out," Feinstein said. "I think there's money to be made and I think there's skullduggery with some of this stuff."

Senate Intelligence ranking member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., added: "I was shown a photo by an individual that was represented to be a photo of bin Laden after he had been shot. It appeared to be an accurate photo. It was not the official photo. I have not seen an official photograph of him."

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Napolitano lashes out at border critics

Chris Strohm — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday criticized those who argue the nation's border with Mexico is being overrun with violence, saying some are trying to score "political points" but their rhetoric is damaging economic development in border towns.

Apparently frustrated over continued criticism of the Obama administration, Napolitano gave one of her most forceful defenses of federal efforts to beef up border security and help communities straddling Mexico during an event hosted by NDN, a Washington-based think tank. Indeed, she said, part of the purpose of the event was to encourage people to think anew about what's happening along the border.

"I think the amount of resources we've put at the border with Mexico shows how serious this administration is," Napolitano said. "So, given the deployment of resources, given the statistical framework, it is simply inaccurate to state -- as too many have -- that the border with Mexico is overrun or out of control. This statement, I think, sometimes it's made to score some political points, you know. But it's wrong. It's just plain wrong."

The secretary said such claims have negative consequences for economic efforts in border communities and are also disrespectful of law-enforcement officials' efforts.

Alan Krieger, the mayor of Yuma, Ariz., agreed.

"I'm not in denial, nor are any of the other border communities, about the challenges that we face with the drug cartels. It's real. It's dangerous," Krieger told a later panel.

"My message here, and the message of the border mayors, is to override that negative message that hits the national media that everything is in chaos on the border. That's not true," he asserted. "Our lives go on. Agriculture goes on. Every bit of lettuce that you folks are eating today comes from Yuma, Arizona, in the winter. And it's good lettuce, a good product."

Napolitano encouraged the public to listen to those who live in border towns.

"I think it's important that we constantly be taking the temperature within our border communities themselves, that we not just rely on somebody on TV or somebody on the floor of the Congress or in the heat of a political campaign," she said. "Not even just rely on what I would be saying … but constantly be taking the temperature of our border communities themselves."

However, the sheriff of Terrell County, Texas, challenged comments Napolitano recently made about border security in an editorial published by the Washington Post on Friday.

"In a visit to El Paso last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed that there has been no 'spillover' violence from Mexico into the United States. Regardless of the veracity, her point is irrelevant," Sheriff Clint McDonald wrote. "It is not spillover violence but spillover effects of hostilities in Mexico that pose the real threat to the United States."

"In short, our nation is not developing the law enforcement teams capable of securing our borders," he said.

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Senator seeks interagency border security task force

Chris Strohm — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Speaking at the U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference, Cornyn said he does not believe that the Obama administration has an adequate strategy for stopping illegal activity along the border.

"First, a good strategy would have an interagency approach," Cornyn said. "We already know that there are dozens of task forces across the Southwest border, and many of them are doing good work. But they are not yet coordinating our intelligence and interdiction operations as well as we should."

He said a "good model" for the administration to replicate along the border would be the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Fla. The task force is made up of officials from multiple agencies that target illicit trafficking in the waters of the Atlantic.

"This is designed to resolve the conflicts between different U.S. government agencies and make sure we know who's in the lead and what the chain of command is," Cornyn said. "This chain of command is important for coordinating the drug interdiction efforts in the Caribbean and South America."

"And many federal agencies, as well as representatives of sovereign nations, including Mexico, are part of it," he added. "This model has already drawn the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, but we have not yet seen that idea bear fruit."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who spoke separately at the event, touted the administration's efforts to beef up security along the border with Mexico.

According to her, the administration has increased the number of Border Patrol agents to about 21,000; doubled the number of personnel assigned to Border Enforcement Security Task Forces; and deployed about one-quarter of all Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the Southwest border region-which Napolitano said is the most ever.

She added that the U.S. and Mexican governments have an unprecedented collaboration when it comes to law-enforcement cooperation, intelligence-sharing, and joint operations.

"We are not here to run a victory lap. We are here to tell you where we've been and where we are going," Napolitano said.

"This administration believes that security and economic prosperity are complementary. That's why we will continue to take actions on both fronts," she added.

Regardless, Cornyn, who has been a chief critic in Congress of the administration's handling of border security, cited a recent Government Accountability Office report that 1,120 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border are not under operational control.

"A good strategy should be resourced appropriately," Cornyn said. "My friend Secretary Napolitano talks about the resources that have been devoted -- the so-called inputs. Where I'm really more interested in what the results, or the outputs, are."

He added: "We're still not doing enough, in my view, to support local law enforcement that's had to bear the brunt of the federal government's failure to do its job along the border."

Cornyn said that the congressional stalemate over approving comprehensive legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws will continue unless more is done with regard to border security.

"Until the federal government does its job and regains the confidence of the American people that it will actually deliver a product as advertised … I think we're going to be where we are now, which is with no real opportunity in sight," he said.

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Senators question U.S. preparedness in wake of Japan's crisis

Chris Strohm — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday questioned which federal agency and individual within the federal government would take the lead in responding to a catastrophe like the one gripping Japan.

"Is it really clear who's responsible for what if, God forbid, we had the kind of multiple catastrophes that Japan is experiencing right now?" the committee's ranking member, Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, at a hearing.

There was no clear answer, as FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said that the response would depend on several factors, such as where the disaster occurred and whether local first responders survived. For example, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would lead efforts after a disaster at a nuclear-power plant, Fugate said. FEMA, on the other hand, would be responsible for coordinating evacuations around the plant.

Overall, Fugate said, FEMA has made "significant progress" in preparing to deal with a catastrophe, but "we have much work to be done."

But FEMA does not yet have an adequate system to assess what kind of capabilities exist in states and cities across the country to handle disasters, said William Jenkins, the Government Accountability Office's director of homeland-security and justice issues.

The Homeland Security Department and FEMA "have implemented a number of efforts with the goal of measuring preparedness by assessing the capabilities and addressing related challenges, but success has been limited," according to written testimony that Jenkins provided for the hearing.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., also questioned how prepared the U.S. government is to respond to a catastrophe.

If a disaster involving a nuclear-power plant occurred in his state, Brown said he is not confident the coordination would be good. Fugate said that nuclear-plant operators are required to conduct preparedness drills frequently and face an overall evaluation every two years.

He also said that the tsunami warning system in the Pacific Ocean worked well after the earthquake hit Japan. Fugate said he received a tsunami alert at 2 a.m. last Friday, at which point FEMA acted quickly to prepare for a disaster along the U.S. West Coast that never came.

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Tensions arise over revised intelligence measure

Chris Strohm — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Notably, the House-version of the fiscal 2011 intelligence-authorization bill would require the Obama administration to develop a uniform system across intelligence agencies to detect the unauthorized release of government secrets. The requirement was put in the bill in response to the leaking of secret government documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

But the process of putting together the bill has sparked partisan tensions in the House. Democrats argue that the legislation -- which authorizes the spending of tens of billions in taxpayer dollars -- was not considered under regular order and that Republicans are rushing it.

It marks the first public dispute between House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., since they took over the committee.

"Eight of the 20 members on the Intelligence Committee are new to the committee this year," Ruppersberger said in a statement. "They were asked to vote on something they had barely seen." He said no hearings were held on the bill in the current Congress.

"In fact, the final classified annex which contains the figures for the budget was only provided to members the morning of the markup proceeding," Ruppersberger added. "Members were asked to vote on a bill that authorizes tens of billions of dollars without having a chance to even read it."

The House Intelligence panel approved the bill last week, and the Senate Intelligence Committee gave the bill its nod on Tuesday.

Rogers defended the decision to go forward with the bill.

"We decided in a very congenial way that we're going to go ahead with the '11 budget so that we can reestablish the committee [and] so the intelligence community has the resources it needs for the rest of the fiscal year to initiate programs which [were] really already approved last year," Rogers told National Journal Daily.

"There are programmatic things that need to happen around the world that are classified that need steady streams of funding for the remainder of the fiscal year," Rogers added. "This should have been done last year. It wasn't done. I think it's important that we do this so we can give [intelligence agencies] the certainty they need to keep America safe."

Rogers said that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is looking for time to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.

A Republican aide on the House panel said that work went into crafting the bill during the last Congress and that the GOP majority made "an aggressive effort" to bring all panel members up to speed.

"This wasn't something that was done at the last minute," the aide said.

Lawmakers have decided to strip the bill of most controversial provisions in order to ensure that it advances.

"If this committee can't pass authorization bills … which give the scope and force of law to what we do, we are in fact a paper tiger," Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview.

"We have preconferenced with the House and I think we are in relatively good shape," Feinstein added. "We know the only way we can do it is get it through unanimously, which means there isn't going to be an overridingly big issue in it this year."

She noted there "are issues that need to be resolved" in the classified portion of the bill but would not discuss them.

In response to the disclosure of thousands of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the House version of the bill would require the director of national intelligence to create "an effective automated insider threat detection program for the information resources in each element of the intelligence community in order to detect unauthorized access to, or use or transmission of, classified intelligence."

"We need to make sure we learn the right lessons from WikiLeaks," Rogers said. "The road to achieving smart access begins with the insider threat detection system described in our bill. It includes tools like auditing controls to detect the misuse of our sensitive data, similar to the systems credit-card companies use to detect fraud."

He added: "The provision in the committee's FY11 bill sets a deadline for establishing both an initial and full operating capability for this system, and is a part of my larger efforts to achieve smart access."

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Short-term funding measure to prevent shutdown expected to pass

Chris Strohm — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The House is expected to approve a continuing resolution this week that would keep the government funded until April 8, with the Senate expected to follow suit. Negotiations will then continue on another short-term spending bill.

But lawmakers said a much larger challenge looms to address the nation's bleak financial outlook, as they must soon decide whether to raise the nation's debt limit.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed Sunday that Senate Republicans will not vote to raise the debt limit without a "credible" plan to address the country's $14 trillion debt.

"Democrats can raise it themselves if they choose to and try to do nothing whatsoever about the problem," McConnell said on Fox News Sunday. "I think to get any of the 47 Republicans, you've got to do something... that the markets believe is credible, that the American people believe is credible, that foreign countries believe is credible, in addition to simply raising the debt ceiling."

The challenge of coming up with a bipartisan plan to bring down the debt has fallen to a group led by Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Mark Warner, D-Va.

"If we don't get our arms around it now, then we're going to become a second-tier nation, and we can't allow that to happen," Chambliss said on Fox.

The group is considering multiple options, including cutting entitlements and recommending that the retirement age for Social Security be raised, said Warner, who also spoke on the program.

"You've got to put everything out," Warner said. "We didn't get into this situation overnight. We're not going to dig out overnight."

"Folks under 35 might see a slight bump in their age increase, but frankly, a lot of folks under 35 don't think there's even going to be Social Security if we don't do something," he said. He added the goal is to make Social Security stable for decades to come.

Chambliss said the proposal the group is developing aims to reduce the effective tax rate across the board by making changes to the tax code. He did not specify what those changes entail.

But he said a key issue for the group is ensuring that Congress does not turn around and spend revenue raised or saved by the plan.

"Frankly, one of the major issues that we are dialoguing about in our group now is what do we do with those revenues," Chambliss said. "We need to make sure that we commit the most significant part of those revenues to tax reduction -- tax rate reduction. Get our corporate rate down to where we're competitive in the world marketplace. Get our individual rates down to where people actually do pay less in taxes."

He said a portion of the revenue would then be used to pay down the nation's debt.

Exactly when the group will roll out a final plan is unclear. "We want to make sure we get it right more than set an arbitrary timeline," Warner said.

He said he would be worried about trying to tie the group's plan to the upcoming vote on raising the debt ceiling. But he added that waiting until next year would be problematic because it's an election year.

"We may not have that long of time before the financial markets say we're going to either no longer want to buy American debt or charge such a higher interest rate on it that it would have a dramatic negative on the economy," Warner said.

In the interim, there has been some criticism that President Obama has not been involved enough in budget negotiations. Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., disputed such claims in an interview on CNN's State of the Union.

"I think there's a perception and a frustration among members of Congress that things aren't moving to a conclusion. The president is working behind the scenes," Durbin said.

"I've met with him with leadership," Durbin added. "I know he is reaching out to try to find some accommodation here. He is trying to reach a point where we acknowledge the obvious. We have a serious deficit problem, borrowing 40 cents for every dollar we spend."

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, in turn, rebutted that. The Arizona Republican said, "He may have been talking to Senator Durbin and other Democrats, but he has not been talking to Republicans."

Notably, McConnell said Senate Republicans will not filibuster or block unrelated spending bills from coming to the Senate floor. Instead, he said Republicans would seek to add amendments to those bills cutting funding.

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Senator: Feds should "put the brakes on" new nuke plants after Japanese disaster

Chris Strohm — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"I don't want to stop the building of new nuclear power plants, but I think we've got to quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami and then see what more, if anything, we can demand of the new power plants that are coming on line," Lieberman said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"The reality is that we're watching something unfold and we don't know where it's going with regard to the nuclear power plants in Japan right now," Lieberman added.

Japanese authorities were rushing Sunday to prevent at least three nuclear reactors from melting down following Friday's 8.9-magnitude deadly earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Lieberman said he believes there is only a "remote" risk that radiation from the Japan plants could leak into the atmosphere and reach the United States.

Lieberman added that he talked earlier Sunday with Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate. According to Lieberman, Fugate said the U.S. government is ready to respond to a catastrophe involving one of the 104 nuclear power plants in the United States. But Fugate told Lieberman his concern is that individuals are not ready for such a disaster.

"What this horrific natural disaster in Japan has to do for all of us is to go back and look at our preparedness for such a catastrophe here," Lieberman said.

Fugate is expected to testify this week before Lieberman's panel.

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