among the attendees, director of national intelligence, dennis blair, homeland security secretary janet napolitano, as well as leaders of the tsa and the national counterterrorism center, all formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and all created to avoid just the kind of human and systemic failures that almost led to a christmas catastrophe in the skies over detroit. >> they should all be in the hot seat. this is ludicrous. i think there should be some action taken to correct this. there was a lack of accountability in the system. >> reporter: and late this afternoon, a warning from a top counterterrorism official -- al qaeda continue to redefine their methods to test our defenses and pursue an attack on the homeland. on the case of republican charges that mr. obama has deemphasized fighting terror, today the president hit back. >> of all of the partners we disrupted terrorist financing, cut off recruiting chains and lifted major losses on al qaeda leadership, thwarted plots here in the united states and saved countless american lives. >> reporter: and, lester, we're told that today th

. >> this morning the director of national intelligence denny blair sent a letter to his colleagues saying the agency would "take a fresh and penetrating look" at the human and technical performance going forward. moments ago the same director of national intelligence said he was asking john mclaughlin who served briefly under president bush as acting director of the c.i.a. to gather group of intelligence efforts to look at what went wrong before the fort hood massacre and failed christmas day attempt to "remedy potential weaknesses the incidents exposed." bret? >> bret: major garrett, live on the north lawn. thank you. ♪ ♪ >> bret: on the fox news job hunt, the latest numbers on unemployment. correspondent james rosen reports while the jobless rate was unchanged a closer look reveals a still dismal situation for a struggling american workforce. >> even as he touted his plan to award $2.3 billion in stimulus funded tax credit to companies developing green energy technology, president obama acknowledged they slipped back on the number one priority last month. >> job numbers released by the

martha: i wasn't suggesting that dennis blair should go anywhere.hat office, that whole group was created. it did not exist before 9/11. the idea that you're going to have a director of national intelligence that would oversee and tie this together, it seems to me that is where they think the flaw was in putting this together. that is a good place to start. >> that is interesting. the thing is, martha, they made it clear that they are not looking to reorganize the entire system. they are just asking for tighter controls and the watch list, selectee list, and obviously a better sharing of information. they're asking every agency to look at what their actual jobs are all the way down the personnel change and to define what their jobs are and make sure that they are sharing information and doing their jobs right. the president said they have not been doing their jobs correctly. martha: peter newman, when you look at this from across the pond, the discussion has gone to this point of you are never going to stop every single person. every person in our c

. >> chris: you have given her vote of confidence how about denny blair and leon pineta?> there are complicated issues within the intelligence community. they're working hard to make sure the president has the benefit the intelligence community can provide. >> chris: on another personnel matter it came out this week that the president's nominee for tsa chief had a transportati -- head of transportation security erroll southers had to correct congressional testimony after he had given it about his involvement a couple of decades ago in going through criminal records on a personal matter. does the president still have full confidence in him and back his nomination? >> absolutely. erroll southers has tremendous experience and it's what we need right now at the transportation security administration. it's unfortunate that there is one senator who has a hold on mr. southers. and i think the issues have been looked at repeatedly. senators are comfortable with it. and again, it's unfortunate that there is one hold. >> chris: i don't have to tell you we have a little over a minut

which was the director of national intelligence, admiral denny blair, that is where it is all supposed to go. >> lehrer: give more authority. >> you have got 16 sources, military and civilian, 16 separate smoke stacks, silos as we call them. there is -- this is where it is supposed to come to and be acted upon. that has been back and forth, as people know and has been reported. but bean leon panetta, the cia director and protect his turf, and admiral blair and his mandates for the director of national intelligence. i mean i think that's something that only the president can resolve. >> lehrer: my -- >> my point is that expert infew significance actually quite powerful. somebody who really knows the field, they just have a feel for something. we have a process that minimizes the role for expert intuition. because it has to go through all these different channels. and that bleeds away a lot of the oh, i think, i have a hunch, you just can't do that. >> lehrer: richard clarke, former white house guy for both george w. bush and before that bill clinton said on this program last night that

which was the director of national intelligence, miral denny blair, that is where it is alsupposed to go. >> lehrer: give mo authority. >>ou have got 16 sources, mitary and civilian, 16 separate smoke stacks, silos as we ll them. theris -- this is where it is supposed to come to and acted upon. that has been back andorth, as peoe know and has been reported. but bean leopanetta, the cia director and protect his turf, and admiral blair an his mandates for the directorf national intellence. i mean think that's something that only the president can resolv >> lehrer: my -- >> my point is that expert infew signicance actually quite powerful. somebody who really kns the field, they just have feel for sometng. we have a process that mimizes the role for expert intuition. because it has to go thrgh all these diffent chanls. and that bleeds aw a lot of the oh, i tnk, i have a hunch, you just n't do that. >> lehrer: richard clark former white house guy for both georgw. bush and before that ll clinton id on this program last night at software could -- that works, that makesll of tse pieces of dat

there still could be some political pressure on, say, dennis blair, the director of national intelligence, or michael leiter, the guy in charge of the national counrterrorism center. but again, it's going to be weeks, maybe months before we know for sure if somebody individually gets held accountable, lester. >> chuck todd and richard engel tonight with us. thank you very much. >>> now to the weather. and this year is getting off to a cold start across much of the country, even by january standards. and the cold snap came just as many americans are on the move after the holidays. from the great plains to the northeast, ice, snow, and frigid cold were the order of the day. we get more from nbc's jeff rossen. >> reporter: whiteout conditions in buffalo, new york as the bills battle the colts. fans could barely see the players. >> yeah! >> reporter: perhaps the players could barely see these fans. the weather channel's mike seidel was there this morning. >> let me tell you how cold it is. my face feels like it's going to crack, my eyes are watering up and i can't even feel my fingertips this

homeland security secretary janet napolitano and national intelligence director dennis blair are among those scheduled to testify. you can watch it live on c-span3 beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern time or watch it online at c-span.org. abigail adams had to remind john adams to remember the ladies when creating a new government. dolly madison had to encourage her once shy husband james this weekend on "afterwards," the intimate lives of the founding fathers. thomas flemming profiles the women who played a central part in creating our country. afterwards, part of this week's "book tv." massachusetts voted for republican scott brown yesterday in a special election to finish the remaining two years in ted kennedy's senate term. in a moment we'll bring you scott brown's victory speech. but first, here's his opponent, democrat martha coakley. [applause] >> thank you! i don't know. somebody told me there was a crowd out there. thank you. thank you. i want you to know that i just got off the phone with scott brown. i've offered him my congratulations and my best wishes on his victory tonight. an

. >> the director of national intelligence dennis blair sent a memo to employees. in it he said, i'm quoting here, that al qaeda is diminished. yet, yesterday, michael lighter who runs the counterterrorism center sent out a statement that says al qaeda continues to refine their methods. which is it? is it diminished or more sophisticated? >> it is both. me made quite a bit of progress in degrading the capabilities of al qaeda organization. taken the battle to them. we eliminated senior leaders an operatives. that doesn't mean they have the capability of carrying out attacks. they're looking for ways and vulnerabilities in our system to get their operatives here to the united states or other places to carry out the attacks. >> should we raise the threat level here? >> we have a system in place that allows us to strengthen the security measures. that's what happened on december 25th. we didn't have to raise the alert level to red. we immediately strengthened security precautions on planes and other places. we feel comfortable we're well poised now. >> you feel comfor

in a memo released yesterday the director of national intelligence dennis blair wrote the terrorist boardedorthwest airlines flight 153 for detroit but the number was 253. josh reports that blair later corrected the memo not before it was sent to reporters. done you feel safe with this guy and leon panetta both being in charge of the intelligence community? >> tomorrow a not so happy anniversary for christina roamer claiming if the obama stimulus plan was implemented unemployment would remain below 8%. as know too well that is not how things turned out. earlier today the department of labor delivered more bad news on-the-job front in december alone 85,000 more americans lost their jobs. which is far more than economists expected. the unemployment rate remains in double digits. what did the 787 billion dollar spending spree accomplish? besides bankrupting your kids? we are waiting for an answer, mr. president. calls torture bow tax cheat tim geithner's resignation heating up thanks to new e-mails regarding his role in the bailout of aig. e-mails written by the federal reserve bank of new yor

among the attendees, director of national intelligence, dennis blair.land security secretary, janet napolitano, as well as leaders of the tsa and the national counterterrorism center, all formed in the wake of 9/11 attacks and all created to avoid just the kind of human and systemic failures that almost led to añju)áuspj catastrophe in the skies over detroit. >> they should all be in the hot seat. i mean, this is ludicrous. i think there should be some action taken to correct this. there was a lack of accountability in the system. >> reporter: and late this afternoon, a warning from a top counterterrorism official. al qaeda continued to refine their methods to test our defenses and pursue an attack on the homeland. in the face of republican charges that mr. obama has de-emphasized fightingxd terror the president hit back. >> along with our partners, we've disrupted terrorists' financing, cut off recruiting chains, inflicted major losses on al qaeda's leadership, thwarted plots here in the united states, and saved countless american lives. >> and that wa

late today the director of national intelligence, dennis blair, announced he was asking john mccadillac ran, was the director of the c.i.a. and president bush's acting director of the c.i.a. to gather a group of individuals in the intelligence community to look at what the intelligence community failed to do in reaction to fort hood on november 5, the massacre there, and the attempted christmas day bombing over the skies of detroit. in his announcement, blair said the following, he wanted this group of experts to undergo a careful examination of the secrets of -- convention of events ling up to both incidents, as well as proposals to remedy potential weaknesses in intelligence procedures that these incidents exposed. what's the connection between these two? of course, nidal malik hasan had relations, e-mail and otherwise with a radical cleric in yemen with al-qaeda and the arabian peninsula and al lackey. those connections were not linked in any way, at least in an action orientd way with the abdulmutallab suspect in the christmas day bombing. now the director of national intelligence w

on new year's eve, the director of national intelligence, dennis blair, issued a statement to his employeesvious, that it had been an especially challenging week for the intelligence community. he said the president's judgment that there had been intelligence failures was a tough message to receive, but it was time to move forward to outthink, outwork and defeat the enemy's new ideas. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. >>> now some more proof that lapses can happen despite the best efforts of airport security. a united airlines expresses flights bound for chicago yesterday had to do a u-turn, an express flight had to do a u-turn. airline learned after takeoff that the name of one of the passengers matched on a tsa restricted list. the mistake irritated many of those passengers. >> if there was that kind of concern after it was off the ground, somebody's just dropping the ball here. if we have these computer systems that check, you know, these people before they get on the flights, they need to make sure that, you know, they stay to that standard. >> go jet airlines, which was operating the fl

among the attendees, director of national intelligence, dennis blair, homeland security secretary janet napolitano as well as leaders of the tsa and the national counterterrorism center. all agencies formed in the wake of the 9/11 attack and all created to avoid just the kind of human and systemic failure that say almost led to a christmas catastrophe in the skies over detroit. >> they should all be in the hot seat. this is ludicrous. i think there should be some action taken to correct this. there was a lack of accountability in the system. >> reporter: and there is this warning from a top u.s. counterterrorism official. al qaeda continues to remain their methods to test our defenses and pursue an attack on the homeland. and in the face of republican charges that mr. obama has deemphasized fighting terror, now the president is hitting back. >> we've disrupted terrorists' financing, cut off recruiting chains, inflicted major losses on al qaeda's leadership, thwarted plots here in the united states and saved countless american lives. >> reporter: and, jenna, late yesterday it was announc

you've got the director of national intelligence, dennis blair, who oversees ntct. of course, janet napolitano. all of them are going to be asked to explain their reviews, explain what went wrong on their end. remember, the president said there were systemic and human failures. so they want to get to the bottom of the human failures but then talk about the systemic problem, and what changes can be implemented to fix that as well, chris. >> when you say human failures, the question is always raised, what are the chances that some heads will roll? >> right. well, right now i'm told very unlikely that heads would roll soon. this is just not in the president's nature. he wants to get all of the information in front of them. i think there certainly has been a lot of finger-pointing at nttc in mrr and dny. why? those two entities were created in those post- 9/11 reforms. they are charged with connecting the dots. so that's why there's been a lot of public finger-pointing behind the scenes between other agencies saying, hashgs those g guys had all of this stuff. they had a

dennis blair conceded that once the plane landed in detroit, the suspect-- umar farouk abdulmutallab-- should have been treated as a terror suspect and questioned by special interrogators. blair also said he should have been more aggressive about adding names to the "no-fly" list, instead of focusing on complaints about the list. >> shame on us for giving into that pressure. we've now greatly expanded the no-fly list from what it was on december 24th and have done a lot more of what is prudent which is to put names on it just in case and then take them off as we need to, but the pressure was quite the other direction. >> sreenivasan: in a separate hearing, republican senator jeff sessions charged the decision to treat abdulmutallab as a conventional criminal was a costly mistake. >> one of the things we learned from the 9/11 commission is intelligence is what saves lives -- intelligence. and we need to gather intelligence. that's not the motive of the criminal justice system generally in america. it's to prosecute criminals. >> sreenivasan: f.b.i. director robert mueller said the deci

who's -- could be held the most accountable, those two gentlemen in particular, admiral blair, dennis blair who is the dni, and michael lighter who runs nctc, you're going to hear a lot of republican chatter about janet napolitano, head of homeland security. but i can tell you this, the president has 100% confidence in her. probably one of his favorite cabinet secretaries personally. they're very close. and a lot of white house aides believe she's gotten a bum rap in that she wasn't, when she said the system worked, which, of course, got a lot of criticism for that, she wasn't talking about the intelligence aspect, but about what they were doing on her end, after the terror attempt was thwarted. >> what is this likely to do, chuck, to the president's agenda going into the new year? because there are only so many major issues that can be fought. and there are so many issues that are brought about by this, from guantanamo, to airport security. how do we deploy our resources abroad? where does yemen fit in to all of this. what might this mean for the bigger picture? >> well, think about this.

dennis blair concede that once the planlanded in detroit, the suspect-- umar farouk abdulmutallab-- ould have been treated as a terror suspect anduestioned by speal interrogators. blair also said should have en more aggressive about adng names to the "no-fly" list, stead of focusing on colaints about the list. >> shamen us for giving into th pressure. we've now greay expanded the noly list from what it was on cember 24th and have done a lomore of what is prudent which to put names on it just case and then take them off as we needo, but the pressure was ite the other direction. >> sreenivasan: a separate hearing, republican setor jeff sessions chargedhe decision to treat abdulmutlab as a conventional criminal was a costly mtake. >> one of the things we leard from the/11 commission is intelligce is what saves lives -- intellince. anwe need to gather intelligence. th's not the motive of the criminal justiceystem genelly in america. it's tprosecute criminals. >> sreenivasan: f.b.i. dector bert mueller said the decisi to aest the nigerian suspect was thright move. said the f.b.i. needed to kn

dennis blair's job was to connect the dots. that was where the failure has come. line. nor had we had an indication that kate janet napolitano is under threat, even though she came under a lot of criticism when the day after the bombing in dissent -- incident happened she said everything worked fine. i am not looking for jobs to be lost here. i think the president is probably going to have sternward u words. >> president obama also meeting on the hill. what is the purpose of that meeting? >> that is to get the ball rolling on the conference meeting, the meetings between the house and senate to try to get the final deal on health care. the emphasis this week really will be on the house. whether the house liberals will go along with a version of the senate health care bill. the fear is really that they will lose one senator, not that it's the policy will be able to round up her people. -- not that nancy pelosi will not be able to round up her people. the white house made a concerted push to win at least one republican to the senate bill. the senate personally focused

dennis blair and others about apparatus and structure. guest: whatever internal arguments there are, those in your profession are more likely to extract that from leaks that we are p. host: what are your takeaways about how al qaeda of my defection from what we know about the planning? -- help al qaeda might be functioning from what we know about the planning? guest: they were trying to set the norms in hitting the united states, trying to get our allies with medium-size attacks. they have gone from what was a plan to kill tens of thousands of americans to one that was designed to bring down a single airplane. their infrastructure is dismantled. at the same time, the very fact that osama bin laden is alive and they're still there, putting propaganda in the web and the world, is dangerous, and this is going to be a long war. host: what is the appropriate response at this point in time, with the restructuring? guest: well, i think the president's approach of the focusing on afghanistan makes sense, but the real focus is pakistan. 9/11 was b

whether it's dennis blair, director of national intelligence, janet napolitano or michael lighter, head of the national terrorism center. how they perform could dictate how long they're in their job. this week we'll hear from health care and by friday, new unemployment numbers. so a busy year already kicks off for the president. >> nbc's chuck todd, safe travel home. >>> the military says four u.s. troops were killed on sunday by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan, the first u.s. combat deaths in afghanistan this year. >>> in china, a highway overpass under construction collapsed on sunday, seven died, 30 others hurt. some critically. rescue workers are looking for possible victims. >>> there was a scare on sunday, for passengers on an air berlin plane from germany to the canary islands. the plane skidded off a runway after the pilot aborted takeoff. there were no reports of injuries. >>> in finland, a passenger train apparently lost its brakes and slammed into the lobby of a hotel in helsinki. despite the damage, no one was seriously injured. >>> overseas markets are starting offe

dennis blair will take the lead in improving those actions. my intelligence advisor report will observe the long-term challenge of sifting through this vast universe of data in our information age. finally, i am ordering an immediate effort to strengthen the adding of people to the no- fly list. we must do better while still facilitating air travel. taken to gather, this will improve the community's ability to integrate, analyze, and act on this intelligence swiftly and effectively. it will help the community do its job and protect american lives. but, even the best intelligence cannot identify in advance every individual that would do us harm. we need security at the airports and borders, through partnerships with other nations, to prevent terrorists from entering america. the attacker on christmas day was subjected to security, metal detectors, x-rays. metal detectors cannot detect the kinds of explosions -- explosives so into his clothes. the defense secretary will discuss the use of these types of explosives and the checkpoint and he passe

we know that the director of national intelligence, dennis blair; f.b.i.rector robert mueller; national counterterrorism director, michael leiter, and the homeland security director, janet napolitano, were not -- were not consulted about the decision to read abdulmutallab his miranda rights. we know as soon as this terrorist was told of his right to remain silent, that's what he did. he stopped talking. it is unfathomable that these individuals were not even consulted before this hugely important decision was made. after the hearings conducted last week and interviews over the weekend, it appears that it was ultimately the attorney general who made the decision to read miranda and place abdulmutallab in the court system. there is ambiguity to show just how this decision came to be maismed were there any deliberations or meetings that occurred prior to this decision? was the president brought into this discussion? all of these ambiguities need to be cleared up so that we do not make the same mistakes again. as a member of one of the committees charged with

the homeland security expert and dennis blair are among those scheduled to test of faith.eginning at 9:00 -- scheduled to testify. you can watch this live beginning at 9:30 a.m. >> this weekend, john neeler believes the chance of a terrorist attack in the u.s. is much smaller than expected. also, a look at the automobile in modern society from operation costs to global warming. find the schedule on booktv.org. >> now an interview with the authors of "game change," recently published book on the presidential campaign. as of tuesday, it was amazon's number one selling book. this is about an hour. >> we are joined by the authors, john heilemann and mark halperin. i heard you say you had a list of things you thought would make news in this book. what on that list has not made news that you were surprised about? of things. when john and i set out to write the book, we hope it would be interesting book to read an interesting story. but we were also going for breaking news because we thought there were things that were uncovered during the campaign. i will give you one. john will

dennis blair said "would never showed cummings -- whatever shortcomings appear in the investigation shouldcure the improve collaboration by and information sharing in the intelligence community against al qaeda and the many other threats to our national security. the intelligence community should be proud of its role in weakening the ability of terrorist groups to carry out highly orchestrated attacks conducted by highly trained teams like the one on 9/11. al qaeda is diminished as evidenced by the fact that they are sending inexperienced individuals without long association with al qaeda, but susceptible to jihadist ideology. unfortunately, even on sophisticated terrorists can kill many americans." our last call comes from new york city. greg, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make a short statement. to the people that listen to c- span, first and foremost, the idea that the democrats are doing what the democrats are doing, why not? they are in charge, they are in control. second, the people of this country are more concerned about one individual flying on an airplane an

before focusing on this one and say i very much appreciated the fact that all of our witnesses -- dennis blair, director of the national counter-terrorism center, and the department of homeland security, janice napolitano, all acknowledge mistakes were made with regard to the christmas day attack on the plane over detroit, and all three of them offered to work with each other and with this committee to make our existing multilayer counter-terrorism defense quicker to react and harder to penetrate. i thought admiral blair was especially forthright, and i thank him for that. my guess is his forthrightness has brought him some criticism and made him the target of some displeasure, but it was the right thing to do because it was the way he felt, and he spoke in what he believed to be the national interest. he felt and he spoke in what he believed to be the national interest. it is self evident that our homeland security intelligence did not work as we on this committee, congressman hamilton, post -11 with of wanted those agencies to work. -- post 9/11 would have wanted those agencies to work. thos

i very much appreciated the fact all of the witnesses in last week's hearings, and dennis blair, janetnapolitano, all acknowledge that mistakes were made with regard to the christmas day attack on the plane over detroit. all three offered to work with each other and with this committee to make our existing terrorist -- counter terrorist quicker and harder to penetrate. i thought animal blair -- i thought admiral blair was forthright and it brought him some criticism. it made him the target of some displeasure. it was the right thing to do because it was the way he felt and he spoke in what he believed to be the national interest. it is self evident that our homeland security intelligence did not work as we on this committee, congressman hamilton, post -11 with of wanted those agencies to work. -- post 9/11 would have wanted those agencies to work. when they do deal with the shortcomings, we have some hope the problems will be fixed and obviously whatever mistakes will make one not occur again. one of the most troubling revelations last week was that none of the witnesses was consulted

. >> good afternoon, rick, the national intelligence director dennis pa blair wants an independent assessmentchannels facing the intelligence community. he has appointed john mcglaf lynn to lead a team to both the attempted bombing of the detroit airliner and the fort hood shooters. they've released preliminary review of the detroit attack and watch list for other areas and don't forget a handful of congressional hearings ahead. it will be the time for the next few weeks or maybe months for review and analysis here in washington. >> the president and the republicans each issuing weekly addresses today and the g.o.p. using their address to really come down hard on the white house and its response to terrorism. what was that all about today? >> well, congressman peter king gave the republican address. he says reviews are all well and good, but we need to act like a nation at war and that the administration should stop sending mixed messages. king is pushing for a bill that would prevent terror suspects at combit mow from being transferred to u.s. soil. here is what representative king had to sa

i very much appreciated the fact all of the witnesses in last week's hearings, and dennis blair, janetnapolitano, all acknowledge that mistakes were made with regard to the christmas day attack on the plane over detroit. all three offered to work with each other and with this committee to make our existing terrorist -- counter terrorist quicker and harder to penetrate. i thought animal blair -- i thought admiral blair was forthright and it brought him some criticism. it made him the target of some displeasure. it was the right thing to do because it was the way he felt and he spoke in what he believed to be the national interest. it is self evident that our homeland security intelligence did not work as we on this committee, congressman hamilton, post -11 with of wanted those agencies to work. -- post 9/11 would have wanted those agencies to work. when they do deal with the shortcomings, we have some hope the problems will be fixed and obviously whatever mistakes will make one not occur again. one of the most troubling revelations last week was that none of the witnesses was consulted

but we have gotten no indication that dennis blair job is on the line here.ave we gotten any indication that homeland security secretary janet napolitano is under threat, even though she came under a lot of criticism when the day after the bombing incident happened, she said everything had worked fine. so i'm not looking for jobs to be, you know, to be lost here. but i think the president will have some stern words. i've been doing that before big and i do think that he's probably going to have some policy announcements to try to bolster this idea of connecting the dots. now, unfortunately, we heard a lot about that after 9/11, and we're still hearing about it. >> the president also today will be meeting with capitol hill leaders that they are meeting earlier on the hill to talk about health care legislation. then meeting with the president this evening. what's the purpose of that big? >> well, that is really to get the ball rolling on the conference meeting, the meeting between the house and senate, to try to get the final deal on health care. the emphasis t

i very much appreciated the fact all of the witnesses in last week's hearings, and dennis blair, janetnapolitano, all acknowledge that mistakes were made with regard to the christmas day attack on the plane over detroit. all three offered to work with each other and with this committee to make our existing terrorist -- counter terrorist quicker and harder to penetrate. i thought animal blair -- i thought admiral blair was forthright and it brought him some criticism. it made him the target of some displeasure. it was the right thing to do because it was the way he felt and he spoke in what he believed to be the national interest. it is self evident that our homeland security intelligence did not work as we on this committee, congressman hamilton, post -11 with of wanted those agencies to work. -- post 9/11 would have wanted those agencies to work. when they do deal with the shortcomings, we have some hope the problems will be fixed and obviously whatever mistakes will make one not occur again. one of the most troubling revelations last week was that none of the witnesses was consulted

this week the director of national intelligence, dennis blair, the national counterterrorism center director, michael lighter, and the department of homeland security director, janet napolitano all testified before committees in this congress and this senate surrounding the incident concerning umar farouk abduabdul duel and each said tht they were not consulted on prosecuting abdulmutallab in a civilian rather than military court. these are people supposedly at frontlines of homeland and fighting terrorism. the director of national intelligence, a position created to stand on top of all of the other intelligence gathering organizations to break down the silo so that we could gain information, connect the dots, as you hear, which, of course, did not happen for this event. but that position, the chief intelligence officer of the united states of america not informed why we were prosecuting abdulmutallab as a civilian. michael lighter, the head of the national counterterrorism center, trying to counter the terrorism that's affecting our country, i had the opportunity, mr. president, to question