2 senators favor punishing US officials for security failures in Christmas airliner plot

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Senators: Punish US officials over airline plot

WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration begins to address the failings behind the Christmas Day airliner attack, two senators said Sunday the U.S. needs to punish officials, correct security lapses and limit opportunities to join jihad overseas.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., took issue with President Barack Obama’s suggestion that no one would lose his or her job over the incident. Neither called specifically for someone to be fired, and they did not name who should be disciplined.

Lieberman pointed to breakdowns at the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, where he said people failed to act to identify as a threat the suspected bomber, a young Nigerian, and revoke his visa.

“At the National Counterterrorism Center, something went wrong,” said Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “So if human errors were made, I think some of the humans who made those errors have to be disciplined so that they never happen again.”

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of igniting an explosive mixture aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it prepared to land in Detroit. Officials received fragments of information as early as October about an alleged terror recruit they later learned was Abdulmutallab.

Asked whether Obama should fire Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Counterterrorism Center head Michael Leiter or presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the advisers reflect the sentiments of the president.

“I think the president was right when he said, ‘The buck stops with me.’ The problem is he can’t be fired right now,” Kyl said. “So what he’s got to do is provide a sense of urgency with these people who work for him.”

Other lawmakers said the U.S. should be more careful about releasing detainees held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to countries where al-Qaida has a presence, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last week Obama suspended the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, home to nearly half of the 198 terror suspect detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Obama has reiterated his vow to close the camp.

On Sunday, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said a Saudi rehabilitation program for detainees has had mixed results and that individuals should not be sent there.

“You shouldn’t be sending them back to Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” said Hoekstra. “Because the evidence is clear — these people are released and a number of them go back onto the battlefield.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed that more care must be taken in releasing detainees.

“I agree with those that have said that Guantanamo has really been a recruiting tool for al-Qaida, that it has not been helpful to us,” she said. “They come out of Gitmo and they are heroes in this world,” and the tendency is for them to go back to the battlefield.

In other comments, McCain, R-Ariz., said Abdulmutallab should have been treated like an enemy combatant and should not be tried in a civilian court. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., disagreed, saying that the U.S. has charged and convicted hundreds of individuals in civilian courts since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“It’s an effective way to seek justice,” Reed said. “It takes away the aura that the al-Qaida elements try to project, that these are soldiers, these are warriors, these are carrying a fight on. They’re criminals.”

Kyl and Reed appeared on “Fox News Sunday” while Lieberman and McCain spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Feinstein and Hoekstra appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”