barclay calls on owens to demand that obama replace secretary of homeland security & attorney...

8/14/2019 BARCLAY CALLS ON OWENS TO DEMAND THAT OBAMA REPLACE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY & ATTORNE

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BARCLAY CALLS ON OWENS TO DEMAND THAT OBAMA REPLACE

SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY & ATTORNEY GENERAL

PULASKI, NY -- BARCLAY FOR CONGRESS, NEW YORK 23rd DISTRICT EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE:

A likely Republican candidate for Congress -- State Assemblyman Will Barclay of

Oswego County -- is calling on Congressman Bill Owens to demand that President Obamareplace both Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric

Holder.

The first function of any government, its most basic responsibility, is to protect its

citizens from dangers to their safety and security, Barclay points out.

By now, said Barclay, it should be obvious to Bill Owens and any other Member of

Congress that Napolitano and Holder are either too ignorant of or too indifferent to the threat

posed by radical Islamic terrorists. Unless they are replaced with stronger and more sensibleleaders, we are inviting disaster.

Owens serves on the House Homeland Security Committee which has oversight

responsibility for homeland security. To date, Owens has been silent about mounting andincreasingly sharp criticisms of the job performance of both Napolitano and Holder.

Allowing these two to continue to tinker with Americas safety and security defiescommon sense, said Barclay.

Barclay cited specific examples that he says demonstrate a pattern of poor judgment andjob performance by Napolitano and Holder.

The Homeland Security Secretary apparently believed that she could mollify the

terrorists by refusing to call terrorists attacks what they are terrorists attacks and insteadcalling them man-caused disasters, said Barclay. Such nave silliness on the part of a cabinet

member whose task is to protect our country is dangerous for America.

Napolitano has responded to earlier criticism of her calling terrorist attacks man-caused

disasters by saying this was a nuance that demonstrates that we want to move away from the

politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

Incredible! said Barclay. If trying not to hurt the feelings of terrorists by calling them

what they are is somehow supposed to make us better prepared for all risks, how does Janet

Napolitano explain that on Christmas Day an al-Qaida linked terrorist who was on a watch-listwas able to board a Detroit-bound flight carrying explosives when he had a one-way ticket that

he paid for in cash two red flag warnings right there -- and when his own father had told the

State Department he could be a terrorist threat?

And what was Napolitano thinking when she claimed that because just in the nick of

time a quick-acting Dutch citizen prevented that terrorist from detonating his bomb and blowingup a plane carrying 289 passengers, this proves that the system worked?


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As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Bill Owens has even greater

responsibility than most other Members of Congress to work to pressure President Obama to fire

Napolitano and replace her with someone who understands the nature of our enemy and willdiligently work to protect us, said Barclay.

Bill Owens owes the people of our congressional district a full explanation of what hethinks about Secretary Napolitanos job performance. Does he or does he not agree with those of

us who believe that keeping her on the job endangers America? Silence is acquiescing to such

folly.

Napolitano is not the only top official who needs to go, said Barclay: Attorney General

Eric Holder matches Janet Napolitano in demonstrating that he cannot and should not be

entrusted with any responsibility in the area of protecting our country against the terrorists.

Eric Holder has it backwards, said Barclay. He is doing his best to make life as

miserable as he can for CIA agents who worked to protect us against the terrorists while he issimultaneously going to extraordinary lengths to award undue benefits to terrorists we have

captured.

Barclay points out that without even informing the Director of National Intelligence, the

head of the National Counter Terrorism Center or the head of the CIA, Holder took it upon

himself to bestow US constitutional rights to the Christmas Day bomber, a foreign enemy

combatant who is not entitled to such rights.

Holder had no idea if this guy was just one lone player or if he might possibly be but

one of many such bombers aboard a number of US bound flights, Barclay points out, yetHolder ordered that the terrorist be told that he had the right to remain silent and the right to an

attorney, which as an enemy combatant he most certainly does not. Holder wants us to believe

that if the terrorist was not granted the same rights to which an American is entitled we could not

convince people of his guilt. Give me a break there were scores of eye witnesses!

Because of Eric Holder, said Barclay, right now patriotic CIA agents accused of suchthings as blowing smoke in the faces of enemy combatants are having to sacrifice and dig into

their life savings to pay huge attorney fees while a foreign terrorist who tried to blow up a Delta

Airlines flight carrying 289 passengers is being provided free legal services at the expense of the

US taxpayer.

Both the Inspector General of the CIA and career professional prosecutors of the Eastern

District of Virginia had investigated these allegations against CIA agents and concluded therewere no sound grounds for criminal prosecution, said Barclay, but Holder ignored their

professional judgment and is making his departments Office of Professional Responsibility

prosecute them anyhow, despite the fact that this is beyond their area of expertise and that neverbefore has OPR been used to second guess the judgment of career prosecutors.

At the same time, said Barclay, Holder continues to insist that instead of trying the

self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at amilitary tribune in Guantanamo we need to try to him in a civilian criminal court in New York

City because Holder thinks this will convince the world how nice we are, that we are willing to


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treat our sworn enemies as well as we would treat some minor criminal. The real consequence,

of course, is that it makes us look like nave fools.

Doing this bestows upon this mastermind of 9/11 a soap box platform from which to

espouse to the world the hate-America tirades of the jihadists for many months, possibly years,

said Barclay. It invites an attack against the courthouse; it places the judge and jurors in seriousjeopardy for the rest of their lives; and it requires the expenditure of a small fortune on extra

security measures.

Making matters even worse, said Barclay, lawyers who volunteered to aid these

enemies in efforts to derail military tribunes are now working in the Obama Justice Department

under Holder, including:

Principal Deputy Solicitor GeneralNeal Katyal, who worked on legal challenges to theMilitary Commission Act and even organized a defense team for Osama bin Ladens

driver and personal bodyguard, claiming that this terrorists enabler just needed a job.

National Law Journalreports that, Justice officials say Katyal will still be able to work

on detainee-related matters.

Assistant Attorney General Tony West who defended American Taliban terrorist John

Walker Lindh against prosecution by the Bush Administration Justice Department.

Justice Department National Security Division attorney assigned to detainee issues

Jennifer Daskal, a former anti-Guantanamo activist with no prosecutorial experience who

once lamented as if it were torture the fact that a terrorist detainee who fancies himself a

poet found it was nearly impossible to write poetry anymore because the prison guards

would only allow him to keep a pen or pencil in his cell for short periods of time.

Three months ago on November 18th when Eric Holder appeared before a US Senatecommittee he was specifically asked to disclose to the committee the names of anyone else in the

Obama Administration who previously represented or agitated on behalf of captured terrorists,Barclay points out. Holders flippant response was: I will consider that request and to date

he has stonewalled on providing this important information.

Treating terrorists enemies of America as if they are just ordinary criminals rather thanenemy combatants is the wrong approach, said Barclay. A military justice approach of

combatant detention and war-crimes prosecutions by military commission is the more sensible

approach.

Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder are the wrong people to trust to keep us safe from theterrorists threat, said Barclay.

I hereby publicly ask Bill Owens to speak out and join with me in demanding that

President Obama replace Napolitano and Holder.

If Owens thinks I am wrong to suggest this action, I would like to hear his reasons

and I suspect that the rest of the people of Central New York and the North Country would, too.


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If Owens agrees with me, why has he been silent about Napolitano and Holder?

And if Owens thinks what I say is debatable, I challenge him to debate me at the soonestopportunity at a public forum here in the district about my contention that Napolitano and Holder

must be replaced for the good of our country.

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CONTACT: Michael Backus315-261-0000

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

barclay calls on owens to demand that obama replace secretary of homeland security & attorney...

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