Top Items:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Cites ‘Systemic Failure’ in U.S. Security — HONOLULU - President Obama on Tuesday blamed a “systemic failure” in the nation's security apparatus for the attempted bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day and vowed to identify the problems and “deal with them immediately.”
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Armen Keteyian / CBS News:
U.S. Intel Lapses Helped Abdulmutallab — CBS News Exclusive: CIA Had Info on Person of Interest Dubbed “The Nigerian” in August But Officials Failed to Connect Dots — (CBS) CBS News has learned that as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information …
Times of London:
Al-Qaeda ‘groomed Abdulmutallab in London’ — Sean O'Neill, Crime and Security Editor and Giles Whittell in Washington — The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner “War on Terror Week” as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London, The Times has learnt.
Janet Napolitano / USA Today:
U.S. will ‘find and fix’ system's vulnerabilities — Friday's attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Flight 253 near Detroit is a powerful illustration that terrorists will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place since September 11, 2001.
Wall Street Journal:
Obama Slams Security Breach — ‘Catastrophic’ Lapse Enabled Bomb Try; Father Told CIA of Suspect's Radicalization — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said a “potential catastrophic breach” allowed the alleged Christmas Day bomber to set his attack into motion, as it emerged …
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Cheney: Obama ‘trying to pretend’ — Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term …
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Susan Crabtree / The Hill:
Feinstein: Halt transfers to Yemen — The senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee wants no more Guantanamo Bay detainees released to Yemen in the wake of a Christmas day terrorist attack hatched in that country. — “Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time …
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Obama takes the heat Bush did not — Eight years ago, a terrorist bomber's attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner was thwarted by a group of passengers, an incident that revealed some gaping holes in airline security just a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11.
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Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
As the Nation's Pulse Races, Obama Can't Seem to Find His — I was walking through a deserted downtown on Christmas Eve with a friend, past the lonely, gray Treasury Building, past the snowy White House with no president inside. — “I hope the terrorists don't think this is a good time to attack …
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
As standoff with Iran continues, U.S. prepares targeted sanctions — The Obama administration is readying sanctions against discrete elements of the Iranian government, including those involved in the deadly crackdown on Iranian protesters, marking a shift to a more aggressive U.S. posture toward …
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Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Republicans see political opportunity in Obama response to failed airplane bomb — Republicans are jumping on President Obama's response to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner as the latest evidence that Democrats do not aggressively fight terrorism to protect the country …
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Susananne / susananne's Diary:
Yes, Byron, The GOP Deserves Blame, But You Need to Go Further — Byron York's article in the Washington Examiner highlights Republican shortcomings in recent years causing the shift to a Democrat-controlled Congress. While I agree with some of his points, I think York needs to go further with a few critical elements.
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Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
Move Your Money: A New Year's Resolution — Last week, over a pre-Christmas dinner, the two of us, along with political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki, and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, began talking about the huge, growing chasm between …
Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Americans most admire Obama, Clinton, Palin — WASHINGTON — President Obama is the man Americans admired most in 2009, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are virtually tied as the most-admired woman.
Laura Saunders / Wall Street Journal:
Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man — Nothing's certain except death and taxes — but a temporary lapse in the estate tax is causing a few wealthy Americans to try to bend those rules. — Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax — which can erase nearly half of a wealthy person's estate — goes away for a year.
The Huffington Post:
The Cash Committee: How Wall Street Wins On The Hill — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The question was simple: Should the lending practices of auto dealers be regulated? — It was already October and the 42 Democrats and 29 Republicans on the House Committee on Financial Services had spent …
John Schwartz / New York Times:
Debate Over Full-Body Scans vs. Invasion of Privacy Flares Anew After Incident — The technology exists to reveal objects hidden under clothes at airport checkpoints, and many experts say it would have detected the explosive packet carried aboard the Detroit-bound flight last week.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Rove granted divorce in Texas — Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, has been granted a divorce in Texas after 24 years of marriage, a family spokesperson said. — Dana Perino, the spokesperson, said: “Karl Rove and his wife, Darby, were granted a divorce last week.
Discussion:
Newsweek Blogs, La Figa, Liberal Values, Queerty, Politics Daily, USA Today, Salon, Raw Story, FishBowlDC, Political Byline, Wonkette, The Impolitic, The Daily Dish, Shakesville and TPM LiveWire
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Brady Dennis / Washington Post:
E-mails inside AIG reveal executives struggling with growing crisis — The probing e-mails came from every direction inside insurance giant American International Group during the summer and fall of 2007, all with the same underlying question: — Could Joe Cassano back up his assurances …
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