PAGE 8 � S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S � Tuesday, February 9, 2010
BY WALTER PINCUS
AND ED O'KEEFE
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- President
Barack Obama's senior coun-
terterrorism adviser on Sunday
criticized politicians for using
terrorism situations such as the
Detroit
bombing
case as a
"political
football."
But lead-
ers of the
Republican
Party,among
the harshest
critics of the
handling of
the Detroit
incident, on Sunday disputed John
Brennan's remarks.
Republican House and Senate
members have questioned why
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the
alleged Christmas Day bomber,
was not treated as an enemy com-
batant instead of being questioned
for 50 minutes by the FBI and
later given his Miranda rights.
Former Alaska governor and
2008 GOP vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin, in her
speech Saturday night before the
Tea Party convention, said the
Obama administration sees "no
downsides or upsides to treating
terrorists like civilian criminal
defendants. But a lot of us would
beg to differ."
Without citing individuals,
Brennan, a longtime CIA official
and now White House deputy na-
tional security adviser, said on
NBC's "Meet the Press": "Quite
frankly, I am tiring of politicians
using national security issues
such as terrorism as a political
football. They are going out there,
they are unknowing of the facts,
and they are making charges and
allegations that are not anchored
in reality."
Brennan said that on Christmas
night he had briefed four senior
House and Senate Republicans
about Abdulmutallab, who was
"in FBI custody" and at that point
"talking" and "cooperating." He
said that at no point did any of the
four -- Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-
Ky., the Senate Republican minor-
ity leader; Sen. Christopher Bond
(Mo.), ranking GOP member of
the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence; Rep. John Boeh-
ner, R-Ohio, the House minority
leader, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra,
R-Mich., ranking minority mem-
ber of the House Permanent Se-
lect Committee on Intelligence
-- raise concerns about Abdul-
mutallab being placed in military
custody or having been read his
rights.
Brennan said "quite a bit of an
outcry after the fact" led him to be
"concerned on behalf of the coun-
terterrorism professionals" that
politicians are using the issue for
partisan purposes, whether they
be Democrats or Republicans.
During the "Meet the Press"
interview, Brennan said the right
thing had been done on Christmas
Day, but he made clear that the
administration may be rethinking
that decision. He said the presi-
dent had ordered a new look at
the processes "and whether or not
we can enhance and strengthen
them, and that's what we're look-
ing at right now."
Obama adviser
rebukes critics
Brennan
Endeavour clears the tower
JOHN RAOUX/AP
Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off early Monday from the Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Endeavour's six-member crew
will deliver a large room with a cupola to the International Space
Station.
From wire services
WASHINGTON -- Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clin-
ton said she regards the greatest
threat to the United States to be
weapons of mass destruction in
the hands of an international ter-
rorist group.
"The biggest nightmare that
manyofushaveisthatoneofthese
terrorist member organizations
within this syndicate of terror
will get their hands on a weapon
of mass destruction," Clinton told
CNN's "State of the Union" pro-
gram in a taped interview.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
in the U.S., the al-Qaida terrorist
network has become "more cre-
ative, more flexible, more agile,"
Clinton said, according to a tran-
script of the interview. "They are
unfortunately a very committed,
clever, diabolical group of terror-
ists who are always looking for
weaknesses and openings."
A nuclear-armed North Korea
or Iran "poses both a real or a
potential threat," Clinton said.
"But I think that most of us be-
lieve the greater threats are the
transnational nonstate networks.
Primarily the extremists -- the
fundamentalist Islamic extrem-
istswhoareconnectedtoal-Qaida
in the Arab peninsula."
North Korea has detonated
two nuclear devices and tested
several missiles. The communist
regime has said it isn't willing to
return to multilateral nuclear dis-
armament talks while the coun-
try is subject to United Nations
sanctions.
Asked if she was convinced
that Iran had a nuclear weapon,
Clinton said "no," acknowledging
there is "some debate" over how
close they may be to developing a
weapon.
The U.S. wants more United
Nations sanctions aimed at halt-
ing the program, which Iran,
with the world's second-biggest
oil and natural gas reserves, says
is for peaceful uses such as power
generation.
The U.N.'s atomic agency said
last year it had lost confidence
in the truthfulness of Iran after
learning the country had con-
cealed its Fordo nuclear facility,
about 100 miles south of Tehran
near the Islamic holy city of
Qom.
"We believe that their behavior
certainly is evidence of their in-
tentions," Clinton said. "The fail-
ure to disclose the facility at Qom.
The failure to accept what was a
very reasonable offer by Russia,
France, and the U.S. through
the IAEA to take their uranium
-- their low enriched uranium
-- and return it for their research
reactor."
On Afghanistan, Clinton said
she thinks President Hamid Kar-
zai "has really stepped up" since
he was re-elected and that "we're
making progress" there.
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY
The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. David
Paterson met privately with key
Democratic leaders about his
re-election
plans as
questions
swirl around
the state
capitol about
a variety of
unproven
accusations
involving the
Democratic
governor's
personal
conduct.
Paterson campaign spokesman
Richard Fife said the weekend
meetings and calls had nothing to
do with the accusations but were
"routine re-election campaign
calls."
"The governor started making
calls two weeks ago to step up his
campaign effort and get ready to
officiallyannouncehisre-election
campaign," Fife said. "The calls
were -- and are -- going well ...
And then look what happens -- a
coordinated effort to stop him and
spread rumors."
A Democrat close to the situ-
ation, though, said the meet-
ings included discussions about
whether Paterson would resign or
announce he will not run because
of the unsubstantiated claims in
the whisper campaign surround-
ing the governor's behavior. The
Democrat spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensi-
tivity of the issue.
One recent New York Post ar-
ticle about the accusations drew a
denial by Paterson's spokeswom-
an and a strong rebuke by the su-
perintendent of state police.
"Perpetrating lies about the
governor, his family and troopers
who diligently perform their du-
ties is a disservice to the citizens
of New York," said state police
Superintendent Harry J. Corbitt,
a career trooper appointed to the
top post by Paterson.
Paterson became governor 23
months ago when Eliot Spitzer re-
signed amid a prostitution scan-
dal. Paterson had been forced to
confront allegations of sexual af-
fairs and drug use since the day
he rose to office on March 17.
Clinton:
WMD is
biggest
threat
N.Y. governor planning
future amid allegations
Paterson

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