New York Remains on Edge

New York City residents are understandably nervous after the Times Square car bomber brought back memories of 9/11. Today, an abandoned cooler of water bottles in Times Square caused an evacuation and visit from the bomb squad. Now an illegally-parked truck is causing a reprise.

No wonder New Yorkers are frightened. Not only does their city symbolize all that Islamofascists hate, but they have learned from hard experience that they must be on the alert at all times for anything or anyone who looks suspicious.

It's all well and good for ordinary citizens to be vigilant, but that's not much of a counter-intelligence plan. The Obama administration essentially conceded that point when it acquiesced to renewal of the Patriot Act.

Rand Paul, however, said he would vote against the Patriot Act.

That puts Rand Paul to the left of Obama on counter terrorism.

Rand Paul's First Ad: National Security

Dr. Rand Paul has released his first campaign ad, and like Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's speech earlier today, it focuses on terrorism.

Paul flatly contradicts Trey Grayson's repeated attacks that Paul is "dangerously" naive on how to treat enemy combatants and fight Islamofascists.

In the ad, Paul says that he would keep "prisoners" off U.S. soil. Earlier in the campaign, Paul had said that Gitmo's enemy combatants should be returned to their country of origin. The Obama administration recently proposed moving Gitmo's enemy combatants to Illinois, a policy Grayson has criticized.

Paul also said that "prisoners of war, enemy combatants and terrorists captured on the battlefield should be tried in military court and not brought to the U.S. I do not believe they should be tried in civilian court." Grayson has made that point forcefully and repeatedly; Paul, not so much.

It is unclear from Paul's ad whether Paul approves of the Obama administration interrogating the Christmas Day Bomber like a common criminal, reading him Miranda rights and providing him with a taxpayer-funded attorney. The Christmas Day Bomber was captured by fellow passengers on a flight bound for Detroit; does that constitute the "battlefield" in Paul's analysis?

That Paul felt the need to respond to Grayson's attacks is implicit acknowledgment that foreign policy and national security are the two issues that distinguish the front-runners in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate -- and are the issues on which Paul is most vulnerable.

McConnell's Heritage Speech

Here's Politico's coverage of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's speech, criticizing the Obama administration for going soft on terrorism:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday accused the White House of being more concerned about a messaging strategy than prosecuting a war against terrorism.

In a blistering speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation, the Kentucky Republican issued his toughest criticism yet of Obama's efforts to handle terrorists, saying the president has a "blind spot" when it comes to fighting terrorism, citing the administration's handling of the accused Christmas Day bombing.

"Again and again, the adminstration's approach has been to announce a new policy or to change an existing one based not on a careful study of the facts, but as a way of conspicuously distancing itself from the policies of the past - even ones that worked," McConnell said. "It short, it has too often put symbolism over security."

McConnell's speech is the latest indication that the politics of national security could play a dominant role in this year's elections, coming a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused the GOP of putting politics before national security by blocking key Obama nominees.

Following his Heritage speech, McConnell signaled that the issue of prosecuting terrorists in military commissions rather than U.S. criminal courts sells well all around the country, as it did in Scott Brown's election to Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat.

"If this approach of puting these people in U.S. courts doesn't sell in Massachussets, I don't know where it sells," he told a questioner.

He added: "You can camapign on these issues anywhere in America."

In his speech to about 100 attendees, McConnell accused the administration of handling terrorism as a "narrow law enforcement" matter, and suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder was ducking GOP questions about the attempted bombing attempt.

"He can't keep dodging this forever."

McConnell said the adminstration was more concerned about getting the alleged bomber - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - an attorney rather than critical intelligence from him. And he lambasted the administration for seeking to try accused terrorists in U.S. criminal court rather than at Guantanamo Bay, promising to do "everything we can to deny them the funds they'll need" if they avoid his suggested route.

And he said that the administration belatedly decided against moving detainees to move detainees out of Guantanamo to Yemen.

McConnell dismissed news reports that the aleged bomber was cooperating with law enforcement, criticizing the anonymous sources who leaked the information to the media. McConell said the sources leaked information "aimed at rehabilitating and justifying the administration's mishandling of the Nigerian bomber."

Susan Collins Give GOP Address

Sen. Susan Collins from Maine gave the Republican weekly address, in which she excoriates the Obama administration for coddling the Christmas Day Bomber. As weekly addresses go, this one is exceptionally well-written and takes on added punch because it comes from a moderate Republican.

First Collins blasts the Obama administration for failing to connect the dots -- allowing Abdulmutallab to board the plane even after his own father tried to turn him in to the authorities:

The government’s security system, a front line in the war against terrorists, failed long before Abdulmutallab boarded his flight to the United States.

It failed when his visa wasn’t revoked, even though his father had warned our embassy in Nigeria about his son’s ties to Islamic extremists.

It failed when the intelligence community was unable to connect the dots that would have placed Abdulmutallab on the terrorist watchlist.

It failed when this terrorist stepped on to the plane in Amsterdam with the same explosive used by the ‘Shoe Bomber,’ Richard Reid, more than 8 years ago.

Then Collins takes on the administration's bizarre decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and let him lawyer-up after just 50 minutes of questioning -- 20 minutes less than Obama's State of the Union speech:

When the Obama administration decided to treat Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, it did so without the input of our nation’s top intelligence officials.The Director of National Intelligence was not consulted.

The Secretary of Defense was not consulted.

The Secretary of Homeland Security was not consulted.

The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center was not consulted.

They would have explained the importance of gathering all possible intelligence about Yemen, where there is a serious threat from terrorists whose sights are trained on this nation. They would have explained the critical nature of learning all we could from Abdulmutallab. But they were never asked.

President Obama recently used the phrase that ‘we are at war’ with terrorists. But unfortunately his rhetoric does not match the actions of his administration.The Obama administration appears to have a blind spot when it comes to the War on Terrorism.

And, because of that blindness, this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them, fresh from an attempt to blow a plane out of the sky on Christmas Day.

Two points jump out. First, Collins sometimes votes with the Democrats on domestic issues. Nonetheless, she is no liberal squish on the issue of Islamofacism. Second, by noting who the administration failed to consult before it decided to treat the Christmas Day Bomber like a common criminal, Collins makes clear that Attorney General Eric Holder is endangering the lives of all of us. He should be sacked.

The Elephant in the Room Wore Boxers (and Explosives)

Remember Lenny Skutnik? President Ronald Reagan introduced Lenny Skutnik to America during his State of the Union. Stutnik was the hero who dove into the freezing Potomac River to rescue survivors of a plane crash. Since Skutnick, we have grown accustomed to the appearance or reference to a variety of people during the president's speech.

Skutnik, of course is a hero. But the individual on the minds of many is the Christmas Day bomber who tried to kill Americans on a plane bound for Detroit. Just as Skutnik represents the bravest, best sentiments of mankind, the Christmas bomber is his antithesis, a polar opposite who nonetheless requires the attention of the president.

To be sure, no one expected the president to invite the Christmas terrorist to sit with the First Lady; we don't want to interfere with his court-appointed defense. Still, the incident merited a little text. And yet Obama made only a passing reference to the terrorist or the inconvenient truth that there are those actively trying to kill us: "We are filling unacceptable gaps revealed by the failed Christmas attack, with better airline security and swifter action on our intelligence." That's it; that's all he said.

Republicans have been demanding answers all week as to who decided to give that terrorist his Miranda warning, including the right to a court-appointed attorney instead of interrogating him. Yet Obama acted as if his lovely Christmas vacation in the isles of Hawaii prevented him from recalling that those of us in the lower 48 were subject to an attempted terrorist attack on his watch.

There is a real villain in this non-fiction story, a Christmas bomber who exploited our lax national security and attempted to kill many Americans. And before he could ask for a potty break, we gave him a lawyer -- on the taxpayer's dime. (Query: if this was such a good call, why will no one in the Obama administration admit to making that call?)

Obama attempted in this State of the Union to shore up Democrats for election. He proffered some talking points, and yet no rebuttal to the demand of Senator-elect Scott Brown: our tax dollars should go to weapons to defeat terrorists, not lawyers to defend them.

Obama never attempted to rebut Brown's point. It seems the president is now taking political advice from . . . Martha Coakley?

McConnell: Who Made the Call on the Christmas Bomber?

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is asking some important questions regarding the Obama administration's decision to the treat the Detroit-bound Christmas bomber as a civilian rather than thoroughly interrogate the terrorist. McConnell made the following remarks today on the Senate floor:

“Mister President, yesterday several members of the administration’s national security team testified before the Senate concerning the attempted Christmas Day attack by the Nigerian terrorist of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. This testimony was troubling, and left some wondering why the administration is subjecting this terrorist to criminal prosecution instead of gaining the valuable intelligence that is needed in our war on Al Qaeda.

“Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, stated frankly that the Christmas Day Bomber should have been questioned by the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group; Blair went on to say that neither he nor other important intelligence officials were consulted on this matter. This raises several troubling questions:

“First, why were Miranda rights given to the obvious terrorist after only a brief session of questioning, which predictably ended his cooperation?

“Second, at what level of authority was this decision taken to treat him as a criminal defendant instead of an unlawful enemy combatant? Who made this decision?

“I asked this question last night of John Brennan, the President’s senior counterterrorism adviser, three times and he refused to answer. I think that the Senate is entitled to know precisely who authorized this.

“A year ago the President decided to revise the Nation’s interrogation policies, and to restrict the CIA’s ability to question terrorists. The administration created a High Value Detainee Interrogation Group to question terrorists. Why wasn’t his group brought in once this terrorist was taken into custody?

These questions underscore the naivete of the Obama administration. The lack of competence is bad enough, but these kinds of mistakes actually endanger our lives.