Yesterday, a number of senior counterterrorism officials and experts testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on U.S. efforts to combat extremism.  Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, stated that the "primary goal of countering violent extremism is to stop those most at risk of radicalization from becoming terrorists."  National security experts agree that a strategic and farsighted counterterrorism policy takes the fight to terrorists globally and gets results through military, intelligence and law-enforcement means. 

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Prominent conservative lawyers and Bush administration officials denounced as "shameful" a video by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's conservative organization Keep America Safe that suggests lawyers who defended Guantanamo Bay detainees are complicit in terrorism.  Signatories include top Bush Administration attorneys and officials, even those who have vocally defended its controversial policies - as well as Kenneth Starr.  Separately, Bush administration Solicitor General Ted Olson defended the attorneys attacked in the video.  These developments dramatize the split between former Bush administration officials and the Cheneyites, who advocate for irresponsible and dangerous counterterrorism policies. 

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This week Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney took their movement's lead in politicizing America's national security.  Romney pulled a complete flip-flop on Afghanistan, from fully supporting the president's policy in the morning to wholeheartedly criticizing it in the evening.  His newly-released book, in opposition to the views of America's top military leader, Admiral Michael Mullen, suggests that the military should add to its duties the lead role in American diplomacy.  In addition, Liz Cheney's group Keep America Safe released a troubling video this week suggesting that attorneys who represented Guantanamo Bay detainees are complicit in terrorism, a move that a Bush administration official called "offensive" and "beyond a cheap shot."  These developments are symptoms of the two larger problems for conservatives: none of their leaders take national security seriously and they continue to attack the national security apparatus of the United States, exploiting national security for political gain.

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Tomorrow, the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a closed door hearing on progress toward the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, with Special Envoy for Guantanamo Bay Ambassador Daniel Fried and senior officials from the Departments of Defense, Justice, and the intelligence community. Closing the prison, which has become a recruiting tool for terrorists worldwide, is part of the Administration's broader counterterrorism strategy.

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Yesterday, a New York City court brought the suspect of the biggest terrorism plot since 9/11 to justice, as Najibullah Zazi pled guilty.  His plot involved training in Pakistan and homemade explosives intended to be set off on the New York City subway. From the start, the Obama administration utilized a crucial tool in combating terrorism: the rule of law. The Zazi success is the latest in a string of terrorism cases where the use of the criminal justice system has worked to thwart attacks and gain important intelligence.  Yet conservatives in the media and Congress still continue to ignore these successes.

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This weekend saw a continuation of two parallel trends.  First, Generals Colin Powell and David Petraeus continued the trend of America's top national security experts supporting the Obama administration's national security policies.  Powell and Petraeus expressed support for a range of policies including prosecuting terrorists through civilian trials, closing Guantanamo Bay, and ending the use of torture or "enhanced interrogation techniques." The annual meeting of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) conference demonstrated the second trend: conservatives politicizing national security.

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This week has seen a wave of successes for the Obama administration and our allies against extremists abroad.  The capture of senior Taliban leadership this week has demonstrated that Obama administration is taking the fight to the extremists, with concrete results.  Despite these successes conservatives see terrorism and national security as a political opportunity not a strategy to keep America safe.

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Yesterday, it was revealed that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar -- the number two in the Afghan Taliban and the de facto leader of the insurgency -- was captured in Pakistan.  This is the most recent in a trend of success in the Administration's counterterrorism efforts at home and abroad that utilizes diplomacy, intelligence, law enforcement and armed force to disrupt and dismantle terrorist organizations and plots.  Yet simultaneously, conservatives have gone to Dick Cheney for leadership and actually heightened their criticism, opting for an ideological, not reality-based approach to America's security. 

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The FBI-led interrogation of the failed Christmas Day underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has produced important results - including the arrest of ten terror suspects.  The policies the Obama administration has followed in his and other cases - interrogation guidelines, the reading of Miranda rights and the use of civilian courts - date from the Bush Administration and are supported by non-partisan national security experts, who feel that military trials and sensationalism only give terror suspects the notoriety they seek. But none of this is evident from the public debate, where conservatives have taken politicization of national security and terrorism to dangerous new heights. 

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Yesterday conservatives amped up their attacks on the American criminal justice system and military.  On Fox News, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insulted the FBI's competencies, saying that Larry King gives a tougher interview than the FBI does when interrogating a terrorism suspect.   He follows a broader pattern of distorting the facts and disparaging our security institutions - and the men and women who risk their lives to keep us safe - for political gain. 

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