The Obama administration laid out its priorities to securing the Southwest U.S. border amidst a drug war in Mexico, committing to send some additional forces to the border.
Led by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- former governor of border state Arizona -- the U.S. government will spend $700 million to work with Mexican law enforcement to stem the drug war, and will invest in reducing the demand for drugs in the U.S. that is fueling the war in Mexico.
"The President is concerned by the increased level of violence, particularly in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, and the impact that it is having on the communities on both sides of the border," the White House said in a statement announcing the policy. "He believes that the United States must continue to monitor the situation and guard against spillover into the United States."
And, touching on the hot-button issue of illegal immigration, the White House was sure to note that the president is "firmly committed" to secure borders and reducing the flows of illegal immigration.
California should explore a pilot program of legal, regulated marijuana, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) said Thursday.
Sanchez, chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, said that because of her state's receptiveness to more lenient marijuana laws, it would be a good host for an experiment in reform.
"Well, certainly, I have seen in my own state of California people over and over voting a big majority the whole issue of marijuana and possession of that," Sanchez said this morning on CNN. "So maybe it would be a good pilot program to see how that regulation of marijuana might happen in California since the populous, the majority of Californians believe maybe that's should happen."
Taking a page from a number of those who favor the reform of pot laws, Sanchez likened the issue to the prohibition of alcohol in the early 20th century.
"Well, certainly there is one drug -- it's called alcohol -- that we prohibited in the United States and had such a problem with as far as underground economy and cartels of that sort that we ended up actually regulating it and taxing it," she said. "And so there has always been this thought that maybe if we do that with drugs, it would lower the profits in it and make some of this go away."
Sanchez's comments come amidst a furious drug war in Mexico between drug cartels. Sanchez's subcommittee would have direct jurisdiction over the American side of the war.
Additionally, the suggestion also comes after the federal government announced it would not prosecute many medical marijuana consumers in California, a change in tone from the Bush administration. The Obama administration also named Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as its drug czar this week.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday morning it is investigating information it had recently received regarding a threat to the inaugural ceremonies.
"The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (including the [United States Secret Service]) and the intelligence community are coordinating with other law enforcement authorities to investigate and analyze recently received information about a potential threat on Inauguration Day," a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said. "This information is of limited specificity and uncertain credibility.
DHS said that President-elect Obama's transition team had been briefed about the nature of the threat, and had been "fully integrated into the process."
While DHS encouraged citizens attending the inauguration to go about their normal plans, they also asked those who came to be patient and vigilant.
DHS also said there was an "unprecedented level of security" at the inauguration, and said it was constantly reviewing its security measures as they receive additional information about threats.
General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, will meet with the newly inaugurated President Obama and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday.
Petraeus will join Obama and other top military leaders during the new president's first full day in office to discuss troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, CNN reported Tuesday.
After a transition in which Obama has spoken more often about the economy, and emphasized that the U.S. has "one president at a time," the meeting could be seen as a signal that foreign policy will dominate the opening hours of the Obama administration.
Petraeus's judgment, particularly while in charge of all the armed forces stationed in Iraq, had been a topic of debate between Democrats and Republicans during the 2008 campaign.
A star-studded lineup of political heavyweights from both parties will appear Thursday to support Eric Holder's nomination as Attorney General.
The updated witness list for the 9:30 hearing on President-elect Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department shows a witness list from a variety of political backgrounds, though only a few have been summoned by the minority Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Bush administration Homeland Security advisor Frances Townsend, and former FBI Director Louis Freeh will all appear Thursday, some before Holder speaks, and some after.
Some Republicans have trained their focus on Holder as the one appointment of Obama at which they will intend to take aim.
Minority spokesman Chris Gindlesperger said that the minority called only three witnesses: former FBI agent Richard Hahn, 2nd Amendment scholar Christopher Halbrook, and the son of a victim of a group Holder represented.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) promised a tough "grilling" of CIA Director nominee Leon Panetta, but said people will realize the former Clinton chief of staff is qualified for the position.
Wyden, a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, confirmed to liberal blogger Ezra Klein that he had spoken to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the Panetta pick, while defending the nomination.
"One part that is public is the confirmation hearing, and you can be sure, given the events of the past 24 hours, that there will be a serious grilling of the nominee," Wyden said. "I think, on the basis of knowing Leon Panetta for many years, when the Committee doors close, people will be saying that Leon Panetta is qualified for this job."
The nomination had been castigated in part by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee who said that she had not been consulted on Panetta's designation to head the intelligence agency.
"George H.W Bush was nominated to head the CIA and had absolutely no background in the area," Wyden said. "Certainly less than Leon Panetta, who had experience as chief of staff and head of OMB. But if you head to the CIA today, the building is named after Bush."
Wyden also commended Feinstein for introducing legislation Tuesday seeking to end torture and close the terrorist detainee facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) only penned a letter to the Bush administration objecting to its domestic warrantless wiretapping program to give himself cover, not because he really opposed it.
Cheney, on CBS's "Face the Nation," said that congressional leaders, including Rockefeller, didn't object to the government program to wiretap phone conversations without warrants when Cheney first told them about it in 2003. Rockefeller, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committeee, later wrote a letter voicing his concerns about the program.
Cheney said Sunday he didn't know why Rockefeller wrote the letter.
"I always felt it was a bit of a CYA letter, that, in those crucial meetings, when we sat down to debate the program and tell them about it, in fact, everybody in the room signed up to it," Cheney said. "Nobody objected."
Read below Cheney's full exchange with CBS's Bob Schieffer about Rockefeller and the wiretapping program.
SCHIEFFER: And we're back again with the vice president.
Mr. Vice President, in an interview last month with Chris Wallace over at Fox, you said that starting in 2001, the administration and in many cases you personally kept congressional leaders fully briefed on the program to monitor America's international phone calls without a warrant. You said that the Republican and Democratic leaders were unanimous when you briefed them that the programs were essential and did not require further congressional action. But the New York Times has noted that Senator Rockefeller wrote you a letter in 2003, reiterating concerns that he said he had expressed at those meetings that the programs raised profound issues and created concern regarding the direction the administration was taking.
SCHIEFFER: So were congressional leaders kept fully informed or were they not?
CHENEY: They were kept fully informed.
SCHIEFFER: Well, why would he have written that letter?
CHENEY: I have no idea. I know when -- what happened was the -- everybody who was in the room that day, for example, when I got the leadership down, the chairman and ranking member of the intelligence committees, including Senator Rockefeller, and asked them if we thought they should continue -- if they thought we should continue the program. They said yes. Do we need to come to Congress to get authorization for it? And they said no.
And he was there. He never objected or posed that in any way.
Later on, when this became public, when the New York Times broke the story, which, frankly, I think was an outrageous decision on their part -- they were asked by the president of the United States not to, on the grounds it would damage national security -- then Senator Rockefeller decided he wanted to hark back to this letter.
But the fact was he couldn't even find it. He had to call my office for a copy of the letter that he allegedly had written, some years before, raising some questions that he had about the program, but...
SCHIEFFER: Well, i mean, do you...
CHENEY: I always felt it was a bit of a CYA letter, that, in those crucial meetings, when we sat down to debate the program and tell them about it, in fact, everybody in the room signed up to it. Nobody objected.
SCHIEFFER: Do you feel you went too far, Mr. Vice President, in -- in your surveillance?
CHENEY: Absolutely not. I think what we did was one of the great success stories of the intelligence business in the last century. I think what the National Security Agency did under General Mike Hayden, working with the CIA, at the direction of the president, was masterfully done. I think it provided crucial intelligence for us.
It's one of the main reasons we've been successful in defending the country against further attacks. And I don't believe we violated anybody's civil liberties.
This was all done in accordance with the president's constitutional authority, under Article II of the Constitution, as commander in chief, with the resolution that was passed by the Congress immediately after 9/11. And subsequently, we have gotten the legislative authority, signed up to last year, when we passed and modify the FISA statute.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted some responsibility for 2001 terror attacks that happened under her watch, but she added that both the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to see them coming.
Rice, in an interview on CNN, acknowledged that the worst national security breach occurred when she was President Bush's national security adviser in September 2001.
"I do take responsibility," she said. "But this was a systemic failure. The United States of America had experienced terrorist attacks in 1993, in 1998, in our embassies abroad, in 2000 against the Cole, and then, finally, in September of 2001.
"But the fact of the matter is that we had not thought of this. We, the administrations before us, had not thought of this as a war against the terrorists that we were going to have to wage."
Rice didn't answer whether she considered resigning her post after the 9/11 attacks.
Rice also wouldn't say whether she voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Barack Obama in this year's presidential election.
"I know you're dying to know. But the fact is that I didn't get involved in partisan politics," Rice said. "I think I've made clear that I thought that both Sen. McCain -- John McCain and Barack Obama, the now president-elect, conducted themselves in a way that made the country proud. It's why people, I think, abroad were so focused on this election. That's true."
Retiring Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said President-elect Obama should work to overthrow the Iranian regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once he assumes the presidency next year.
"I believe that there will never be peace in Iraq, there will never be peace in the Middle East as long as the present regime in Iran is in place," Tancredo said during a teleconference before the Iran Policy Committee Tuesday morning at the National Press Club.
Tancredo told a reporter he advocated Obama trying to force an overthrowing of the government of Iran, but said that he doubted the incoming adminsitration would take such a position.
"I see absolutely nothing that would lead me to believe that they are willing to change their designs on the Middle East," the Congressman, rumored to be considering runs for either the governorship or Senate seat available in 2010, added.
Tancredo chalked his hard-line stance up to his experience in the real world, and said he doesn't really deal in the "world of diplomacy."
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