Northwest Flight 253

Three Senate Panels Kick Off Flight 253 Hearings Today

Justin Elliott | January 20, 2010, 9:13AM

As three separate Senate committees today hold hearings on the failed Christmas attack over Detroit, watch for Republicans to take the opportunity to ramp up their criticism of the Obama Administration.

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Pete Hoekstra

Reyes Takes Shot At GOPer Over Criticism Of Obama On Fort Hood

Justin Elliott | November 9, 2009, 6:25PM

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX)

House intelligence committee chair Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) made a thinly veiled swipe at his GOP counterpart today over comments made by Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) criticizing the Obama Administration's handling of information about the Fort Hood shootings.

As we told you earlier, Hoekstra said intel agencies including the CIA weren't being sufficiently forthcoming about information the intelligence community might possess about Nidal Malik Hasan. And he suggested there are potential issues with the "performance" of intel agencies in the case.

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Obama Administration

Obama Adopts Bush's State Secrets Position -- And Exact Language -- In NSA Spying Case

Justin Elliott | November 2, 2009, 6:03PM

Pres. Obama and Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush

Here's a good catch from Michael Isikoff on the new blog Declassified at Newsweek:

It looks like the Obama Administration is invoking the state secrets privilege in a lawsuit alleging illegal surveillance by the National Security Agency -- and it's using the exact wording used by the Bush Administration two years ago in the very same case.

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