1) National Security 2) Republican naivete’ 3) WMD Terror Threats

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer David Stringer, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 6:31 pm ET

LONDON – Intelligence ties between London and Washington have been jeopardized by a British court’s disclosure that a terrorism suspect was beaten and shackled in U.S. custody, diplomats and security officials said Wednesday.

Fears in the United States that Britain can no longer be trusted with secrets is prompting an urgent assessment of relations between the allies and — according to some sources — has already slowed the flow of sensitive information from the U.S.

Britain’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday authorized the release of a previously secret summary of CIA documents detailing the treatment of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and, according to the British court, subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities.”

Foreign Secretary David Miliband fought for two years to block publication of the seven-paragraph summary, insisting that would violate a long-standing rule that nations don’t disclose intelligence shared by their allies.

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This first got my attention because national and international security is such a big issue right now in this dangerous times. My thought is “Why should the UK leftists take security seriously when the nation that supposedly leads the free world is currently in the hands of leftist who don’t take it seriously at all. And they have illustrated this by renaming the “War on Terror” (incorrectly named in the first place), to “Overseas Contingency Operations”; and referring to terrorist attacks as “Man-caused Disasters”. This is dangerous foolishness in very dangerous world.

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By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 7:17 pm ET

WASHINGTON – After all the talk, some glimmers of real bipartisanship. Senate Democrats and Republicans are looking for a few dry patches of common ground, showing mixed results on a jobs bill and new hope for legislation aimed at avoiding another financial meltdown.

On Thursday, a Wall Street bill that seemed headed for the same partisan heap as health care got help from a junior GOP senator who stepped in to negotiate a deal with Democrats after talks with more senior Republicans broke off.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman, said he and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., will work on writing the massive overhaul of bank regulations, still a priority of President Barack Obama as the nation emerges from a jobs-killing recession blamed on lax government oversight of the financial industry.

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This article doesn’t concern me on is face this partnership bears watching. Senator Corker needs to be aware that an attempt most likely will be made to use him to provide cover for the Dodd, the dems and the pres.  Too often, well meaning but idiotic Republicans (can you say McCain and Lindsey Graham) enter into this things and then find themselves simply used as pawns to pass more pieces of the leftists agenda. I am not saying I agree with Senator Shelby’s reasons for holding things up (I don’t understand it well enough to comment on that) but the Republicans constantly behave like Rodney King (can’t we all just get along) and then get embarrassed to the detriment of our liberty and the pursuit of happiness).

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The Jihadist CBRN Threat

By Scott Stewart | February 10, 2010

In an interview aired Feb. 7 on CNN, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she considers weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the hands of an international terrorist group to be the largest threat faced by the United States today, even bigger than the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. “The biggest nightmare that many of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction,” Clinton said. In referring to the al Qaeda network, Clinton noted that it is “unfortunately a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings.”

Clinton’s comments came on the heels of a presentation by U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In his Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community on Feb. 2, Blair noted that, although counterterrorism actions have dealt a significant blow to al Qaeda’s near-term efforts to develop a sophisticated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) attack capability, the U.S. intelligence community judges that the group is still intent on acquiring the capability. Blair also stated the obvious when he said that if al Qaeda were able to develop CBRN weapons and had the operatives to use them it would do so. Read more » at Stratfor.com.

This just concerns me because the folks incharge of national security in the US seem to be so inept. Blars colleague Brennen said the Al Qaeda Is not 100ft tall and need not be feared so much.

Stay tuned on this one.