Homeland Security

Greg Sargent points out an interesting Gallup poll yesterday in which Obama gets higher marks (for the most part) on foreign policy and national security than on domestic issues.



Sargent calls this a "reverse Nixon-to-China sybdrome." (The conventional wisdom is that it's easier for hawks to make "dovish" concessions. But Obama is a dove getting high marks for somewhat "dovish" positions, Sargent argues.)

Indeed, it doesn't look as though Obama's position on Guantanamo Bay and openness to talks with Iran is hurting him.

But it's important to note that Obama has shifted adopted (or just slightly modified) some of Bush's position since taking office, including the "state secrets privilege," military commissions, habeas corpus, and others. (See here for more on the similarity between Bush and Obama on terrorism issues.)

So I wouldn't conclude that Obama's high approval numbers on terror represent a victory for Bush's main critics.

Dick Cheney's speech tomorrow on national security will be carried live on the cable networks immediately following President Obama's address on similar topics, giving the former Vice President a huge platform to pick a fight with Obama.

Greg Sargent reports that CNN and MSNBC will cut to Cheney at 10:45 AM, right after Obama's major address at 10AM. (Sargent simply assumes that Fox News will do the same, which is probably a correct assumption.)

Democrats and liberal bloggers are already pushing back against the notion that Cheney's opinion is somehow equivalent to the President's. It's certainly true that what the President of the United States has to say about national security will have more implications for U.S. policy than the former Vice President's thoughts, but the scheduling of these two addresses, as well as the network's willingness to cover Cheney, may at least partially undermine the White House's goal for tomorrow's address.

The administration is hoping to use tomorrow's speech to cool down the heated debate surrounding interrogation policy, Pelosi's spat with the CIA, the decision not to release photos of detainee abuse, the closing of Guantanamo Bay, etc. It's the same tactic Obama applied to the economy in an April 14th address at Georgetown University.

Now that Cheney--Obama's most visible opponent on the issues he'll address--will effectively rebut the President on live TV, one has to wonder if tomorrow's events will simply add fuel to the fire.

President Obama signed executive orders this morning reversing Bush administration detainee interrogation practices and requiring the prison at Guantanamo Bay to be closed one year from now.

As expected, Obama ordered a review process for Guantanamo detainees, with the goal of releasing, transferring to other nations, or prosecuting the 245 detainees currently held at the facility. Obama largely left the question of how to prosecute detainees unanswered, though recommended that federal courts or regular military courts would be preferable. Military tribunals with revised authority could also be used. Read more...

President Bush this morning was briefed on the report that made headlines yesterday with a prediction that a terrorist attack using biological weapons is likely to be carried out on a major city in the next five years.

The White House issued a statement this afternoon Read more...

For the first time since 2004, a majority of U.S. citizens see America as winning the global war on terror President Bush declared in 2001, while fewer Americans than ever see terrorists as winning, a new poll has found.

According to recent data from Rasmussen Reports, 51 percent think the U.S. is winning, while 16 percent think terrorists are--an all-time low for that figure.

Opinion has fluctuated since Rasmussen began tracking it in April 2004, with confidence reaching a previous high of 51 percent in November and December of that year. Confidence reached 50 percent in late 2006, and has been reported as low as 31 percent by Rasmussen since then.

John McCain today called the Supreme Court's ruling to grand habeas corpus right to Guantanamo Bay detainees "one of the worst decisions in the history of the country," The Boston Globe's Political Intelligence blog is reporting.

The Arizona senator blasted the ruling at a town hall forum in Pemberton, N.J. today, saying it will "hurt our ability" to protect the U.S. from terrorists.

A proponent of closing the Guantanamo prison, McCain reacted more mildly to the ruling when asked about it yesterday.

"These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens and I think we should pay attention to Justice Roberts' [dissenting] opinion in this decision," McCain said yesterday. "But it is a decision that the Supreme Court has made. Now we need to move forward. As you know I always favored closing Guantanamo Bay and I still think we ought to do that."

See The Trail's report on McCain's initial reaction here.

A vast majority of those angry about illegal immigration blame the U.S. government, not illegal immigrants themselves, a new poll finds.

A poll released today by Rasmussen finds that 83 percent of those angry about illegal immigration blame the federal government, while 12 percent blame illegal immigrants.

Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 "likely voters" across the country for the survey.

Congressmen whose districts border the Mississippi River are bracing for floods as tides that have ravaged Iowa and Minnesota in the past week start to head south.

Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) met with volunteers today in his western Illinois district, holding a press conference with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and local officials to address the threat.

Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), whose district borders Hare's across the river, is preparing a front-page section of his website to give constituents up-to-date information on the flooding, an idea his office got from Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), according to Hulshof Legislative Director Aaron Smith.

Hulshof, who maintains a farm eight miles from the river, has a staffer in contact with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Association, Smith said. Read more...

The Supreme Court has ruled to extend habeas corpus rights to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military facility.

The court voted 5-4 to extend the right to detainees. Under the ruling, suspected terrorists being held at the facility can now challenge the military's authority for holding them.

According to news outlets, it remains unclear if this ruling will lead to hearings for the terror suspects in the short term. The AP reports that 270 prisoners are classified at

Congressional computers containing information on global human rights activists and political dissidents were hacked by a source working from China, two congressmen alleged today.

Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said at a press conference that computers belonging to several of their staffers were hacked from a Chinese I.P. address in 2006 and 2007.

"A source from China hacked into the computer of my foreign policy and human rights staff person, then the computers of my chief of staff, my legislative director, and my judiciary staff person," Wolf said. "On these computers was information about all of the casework I have done on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists around the world." Read more...