Washington, Apr 27 –

U.S. Rep Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, today released a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair requesting the detailed briefing notes kept by CIA of all congressional briefings on enhanced interrogation. Hoekstra also warned the administration that serious questions would be raised if briefings records on the CIA interrogation memos were destroyed or not made available for committee review.

It is time for the administration to tell the entire story about enhanced interrogation,” Hoekstra said. “Lawmakers in both parties knew about this program and they knew of the valuable intelligence it was producing. A complete and accurate accounting of the facts is critical for the American people’s understanding. The CIA was not operating this program in a vacuum, they were operating it with the knowledge, authorization and funding provided on a bipartisan basis by Congress.”

In previous phone calls and in writing, Hoekstra warned the administration that it had a number of issues to consider before its rushed decision to release the memos. He raised the issue of potential damage to national security, and warned that the recriminations and finger-pointing would send a chill throughout the intelligence community.

Hoekstra also took the administration to task for failing to provide an accurate and complete list of the names, dates and locations of members of Congress briefed on the program a week after he wrote requesting it. An interim response on briefings provided to the committee appeared to be incomplete and inaccurate, not matching more comprehensive and complete briefing lists previously provided to the committee by CIA.

“A basic request the administration should have been able to answer immediately has languished for more than a week,” Hoekstra said. “The Obama administration chose to release the interrogation memos, needlessly risking national security. Now it seems content to slow roll releasing a complete and accurate list in an attempt to quell the political firestorm it ignited on Capitol Hill.”

The letter is here
http://hoekstra.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Hoekstra_follow_up_ltr_re_members_briefed_to_EITs.pdf

Good job on the Jeff Sessions Appointment

…apologies in advance to my southern brethren for the metaphor

Good Deal.

If the Democrats hold to their rule about needing one Republican vote to get a nomination out of committee, this could really be helpful. Specter screwed up in reverse here. Had he stayed in the GOP, he certainly would have been the one to defect (again) and support a leftist nominee.

Still it will be an uphill fight. If the committee can at compel Obama to nominate a less hard-left justice, this will be a good thing.

http://firstconservative.com/blog

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25426774-13762,00.html

The scary part? Listening to that one “team member”, the same justification wouldn’t sound out of place coming from almost any big-city mayor here in the USA.

Given who else they could have picked, this is great news – and the first indication since the Stimulus Bill vote that our Congressional leaders are starting to realize that can’t just play business as usual with the comfy club while Obama and his shock troops are setting fires to burn the house down.

But we can’t let them get away with token gestures – we need to make sure that the other Republicans on judiciary will follow Session’s lead: pass the ammunition, protect supply lines from flank attacks, provide supporting firepower – and above all, not turn tail (or stab Sessions in the back) when the battle turns fierce.

Which it will – guaranteed. Maybe not over this SCOTUS appointment, but there are plenty of other Democrat attacks looming.

And Sessions needs our support too, to continue to hear from Republican conservative voters. It’s all too eacy to get sucked into D.C. bubbles and lose contact with the rest of the nation.

Folks, this deal may or may not be firm. Maybe it is, and I sure hope so, because conservatives desperately need their man standing right in that gap.

So, please keep up the pressure. I will be satisfied only when this is a done deal.

Our activism yields results. This is awesome.

….

A ray of sunshine in what has been a bleak, dreary 3 months.

Follow this link to learn more about ‘The Party Of Arlen’.

…to call McConnell’s office and say Thanks! I did and I think the staffer was a little surprised by a thank you call rather than some kind of complaint.