Homeland Security

As Director of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection, angry Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters directed their rage at Phil McNamara during the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Now, McNamara -- a decade-long Democratic National Committee veteran -- will serve a different constituency as executive secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Appointed in June, McNamara will oversee correspondence and briefings flowing to and from Secretary Janet Napolitano's office. It would be a daunting task for anyone, but perhaps less so for McNamara.

A long-time party rules expert, McNamara was a driving force behind the 2008 delegate selection plan that added Nevada and South Carolina to the early primary roster occupied by Iowa and New Hamshire. Since coming to the DNC in 1998, McNamara has overseen delegate selection twice and coordinated key committees at national conventions in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

During his time coordinating one of those committees, last year's platform committee, he worked with then-Arizona Gov. Napolitano, who headed the body.

His new job promises a lot of interaction with bureaucrats and time sentenced to endless meetings. Perhaps most impressive about his resume, McNamara was perhaps the only person to sit through every minute of every Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting during the 2008 primary.

This writer sat through most of them, and we can attest that McNamara's endurance is a thing of wonder.

-Reid Wilson

President Obama would have residents of Michigan turn their state into a "federal penal colony" in their time of economic desperation, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) accused Thursday.

Hoekstra, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and candidate for governor of Michigan, accused the president of trying to play off the state's economic hardships in order to convince them to take detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for placement in a Standish, Mich. federal detention facility.

"They're trying to play off an administration in Michigan that clearly is hurting," Hoekstra said of the Obama administration's consideration of Standish to relocate terrorist suspects.

"They think that in Michigan's desperation, we will just latch onto it and say, wow, we're going to turn Michigan into a federal penal colony," Hoekstra added, appearing on a conservative news radio syndicate.

Hoekstra explained that while he thought prison officials could handle the detainees, local officials should be given access to classified information Hoekstra is privy to as a member of the Intelligence committee about the detainees.

"The bigger answer is what happens in the community," he said. "And for this, I think the president needs to release the classified information about the threats these people have posed and the problems that we have had detaining them in Guantanamo."

Still, the Michigan Republican said he preferred that the president would leave the Guantanamo Bay facility in place.

On Tuesday, the Treasury Department designated Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC) as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The firm provided financial services to two other companies known to participate in North Korea's WMD and missile programs.

KKBC is based in North Korea and has at least one overseas branch in China.

"North Korea's use of a little-known bank, KKBC, to mask the international financial business of sanctioned proliferators demonstrates the lengths to which the regime will go to continue its proliferation activities and the high risk that any business with North Korea may well be illicit," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said in a statement.


The two other companies are Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon) and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation (Hyoksin), a subordinate of the Korea Ryonbong General Corporation (Ryonbong).

The George W. Bush administration identified Tanchon and Ryonbong as weapons proliferators in 2005. The Treasury Department identified Hyoksin as a subsidiary of Ryonbong in June.

Treasury designated KKBC under an executive order that allows the department to freeze their assets and prohibit U.S. companies from engaging in business transactions with them.

The department said that since 2008, KKBC has assisted the three other companies in transferring funds to other munitions companies and arms dealers.

President Obama should visit Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas -- and for that matter, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- before moving a terrorist detention facility, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) said Wednesday.

Roberts kept up his campaign against a potential relocation of suspected terrorists to his home state after it was reported this week that the Obama administration has been examining prisons in Kansas and Standish, Michigan.

"No member of the Kansas congressional delegation has been briefed by the White House on Leavenworth's consideration," Roberts said in a web video he posted this afternoon. "So we invite the president: Come to Leavenworth, see firsthand that this is a dangerous idea. See the best learning center in our military."

Roberts had threatened to "shut down the Senate" over the proposal, and kept up his campaign today, calling the idea of moving prisoners to Ft. Leavenworth "absurd."

But Roberts also called on the president to visit Guantanamo Bay before he follows through on his plan to shutter the terrorist detention facility at the Naval base.

"Mr. President, come to Ft. Leavenworth and see for yourself. And oh, by the way, I would also encourage you to actually visit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which I understand you have not visited either," Roberts said. "See for yourself what it means to close this facility and move it inside the limits of the continental United States."

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) threatened to "shut down the Senate" before he allows terrorist suspects to be relocated to Leavenworth, Kansas.

Roberts heatedly pledged to prevent detainees currently housed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be relocated to a prison facility in his home state.

"I've said it once. I'll say it many more times: Not in my back yard. Not in Kansas," Roberts said in a press conference with Kansas reporters. "I will shut down the Senate before I'll let that happen."

The Associated Press reported Monday that the Obama administration is examining the Kansas facility as well as a Michigan prison as destination for accused terrorists after they close down the Guantanamo Bay facility.

Roberts said that he would like to see the detainees remain in Cuba, and accused the Obama administration of closing the facility there to appease international allies. He said that he also wouldn't want detainees to be relocated to Michigan.

"What more proof does this administration need that a new facility will not make housing terrorists more appealing to the international community or international opinion?" Roberts said. "It will just make it less safe for Americans."

He said that President Obama has changed his mind on several big issues, and that Guantanamo should be no different.

The Kansas Republican chided on another Kansas Republican, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for not having briefed lawmakers on the Leavenworth facility.

The Department of Defense "dropped the ball" in the 1990s when it came to determining the fate of Navy Capt. Scott Speicher, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Sunday.

Nelson thanked the Defense Department for its work to locate the remains of Speicher as of late, which were identified in Iraq on Sunday, but shamed the agency for its work in the 1990s.

"I really thank the Department of Defense for staying on this," Nelson said during an appearance on Fox News. "They dropped the ball in the 1990s, but fortunately, we have the evidence now."

Nelson, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has long taken an interest in determining the fate of Speicher, who went missing after being shot down in 1991 during the early days of the first Gulf War.

"It got lost in the bureaucracy," Nelson said of the Speicher case's handling by the Pentagon. "They just forgot about it."

"We walked away from a downed pilot," the Florida Democrat added. "18 years is a long time to through through the emotional ups and downs on this-or-that lead."

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen tamped down talk that the U.S. may increase troop levels in Afghanistan in a tweet Saturday.

Mullen played down an upcoming report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the international security force in Afghanistan, which may request more forces for the country.

Mullen dismissed the speculation over the content of McChrystal's report on his Twitter account on Saturday.

He tweeted:

Speculation about Gen. McChrystal asking for more troops is just that: speculation. Work isn't done yet, need to let him finish it.

Reports have swirled, though, that McChrysal will do just that -- especially after troops in Afghanistan incurred their worst fatality toll in years.

The report would also put President Obama in a difficult political position, perhaps forcing him to choose between any recommendation McChrystal might make and political weariness over escalating the military situation in Afghanistan, which is approaching its 8th anniversary this fall.

Cross-posted to the Twitter Room.

Some lawmakers' insistence on investigating the past actions of the CIA "threatens to distract" the intelligence agency from its mission, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote this weekend.

"I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action," Panetta wrote in an op-ed to be published Sunday in the Washington Post.

The op-ed marks yet another salvo in the back-and-forth between Congress and the CIA director over the agency's national security initiatives during the Bush administration.

The most recent had come after the CIA revealed the Bush administration had withheld briefings about some programs targeting terrorist leaders.

Panetta complained that his agency "continues to pay a price for enduring disputes over policies that no longer exist" and that conflicts with lawmakers "fuel a climate of suspicion and partisanship on Capitol Hill that our intelligence officers -- and our country -- would be better off without."

"Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong," Panetta wrote. "But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials may be called to speak before the Senate Intelligence Committee "down the line," its chairwoman said Monday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, said that those officials may be called to testify or reveal details in an investigation into whether details about a CIA program were deliberately withheld from Congress, but warned against a perception of "recrimination."

"Well, we well may down the line call some people," Feinstein said in response to a question on CNN about whether Cheney and other former top intelligence officials would be asked to speak about the program.

But the California Democrat insisted the process be balanced and not driven by a political agenda.

"It's not my interest to get into recrimination or blame at this stage," she said. "I think it should be driven by a very evenhanded investigation of what did go on."

Feinstein said there was evidence that the CIA had never been briefed on the Bush administration plan, which was reportedly involved in targeting top terrorist leaders.

Feinstein did praise the actions of current CIA Director Leon Panetta, though, for canceling and disclosing the program to lawmakers once he discovered it.

"And so when Mr. Panetta came in and said, look, I just learned about this program, I'm canceling it as of today, he did exactly the right thing," she said.

President Obama's decision to shutter the terrorist detainment center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is an "outright dangerous approach" to handling national security, the leader of a military families group alleged Monday.

Kirk S. Lippold, the former commander of the USS Cole ship that was attacked in Yemen in 2000, blasted the president's decision to close down Guantanamo Bay a day before the Justice Department releases a report containing recommendations on how to handle the prison's detainees in the future.

"Tomorrow, the Obama Administration is slated to issue its report at last providing clear direction on the process and confinement of Guantanamo Bay detainees," said Lippold, the senior military fellow for the group Military Families United. "For six months the Administration has taken an inconsistent and downright dangerous approach in dealing with this critical national security issue."

Military Families United bills itself as the "premier military family advocacy organization," and was founded in 2008.

"While this long awaited report cannot alter the risky decisions made by the Obama Administration during the past six months, it will hopefully provide some answers to the families who have paid the ultimate price in defense of our freedom," Lippold said.