Peter Hoekstra Continues To Play Politics With Failed Terrorist Attack

Yesterday I noted how my Congressman, Peter Hoekstra, extended his long track record of playing politics with terrorism by using this week’s attempt to blow up a plane in Detroit for political gain. Hoekstra, who is now a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in Michigan, continued this again today on (of course) Fox:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said Sunday that it is fair to blame the Obama administration for the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee said that the administration has not taken the threat of terrorist threats on the U.S. seriously.

Asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace if it is fair to blame the Obama administration for the attacks, the Michigan Republican replied “”Yeah, I think it really is.”

Hoekstra said that increased domestic threats have made themselves more evidence this year, with this attack and the Fort Hood shootings, but said that the Obama administration is trying to “downplay” the threat.

“The Obama administration came in and said we’re not going to use the word terrorism anymore, we’re going to call it man made disasters, trying to, I think, downplay the threat from terrorism,” he said. “In reality, it’s getting much more complex.”

So it is Obama’s fault that a  terrorist entered the country on a visa granted under former president George Bush while I have never seen Hoekstra criticize Bush for the multiple errors in judgment which contributed to the success of the 9/11 attack. As I noted in the earlier post:

The Clinton administration left the Bush administration warnings about al Qaeda. The Bush administration not only ignored these warnings but lied about receiving them. Then there was that CIA briefing entitled “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.” just before the attack which George Bush ignored. As Al Gore discussed in The Assault on Reason, paying attention to this warning should have led to a review of the State Department/INS watch list which already contained the names of many of the 9/11 terrorists. Others could have also been identified before the attack as they were using the same addresses or frequent flier numbers. In 2006 Keith Olbermann also reviewed the many warnings which were ignored.

It is total fiction on Hoekstra’s part to claim either that the Obama administration is not taking terrorism seriously or that “The Obama administration came in and said we’re not going to use the word terrorism anymore.”  Barack Obama has spoken out several times about the need to respond to terrorism including his speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars back in 2007. Steve Benen recently noted that the Obama administration is not only taking action against terrorism, but has had significant successes. A report from ABC News last August quoted National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones who cited other ways in which the Obama administration is having greater success against terrorism than the Bush administration.

Taking such liberties with the truth is hardly new for Hoekstra who has previously made discredited claims of finding WMD in Iraq. He has also tried to play politics with terrorism previously. After having written an op-ed condemning others for divulging military secrets, he himself was found to have divulged secrets on Twitter. He previously resorted to scare tactics which have been criticized by several former national security officials when there was talk of moving prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to a maximum security prison in Michigan.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    Zipity says:

    Liberal Michael Moore made millions off of you idiots politicizing national security matters – My Pet Goat anyone? Golf?
    Meanwhile the HSSecratary is spinning a failed detonator as a “mission accomplished” and the president is out on the back nine! Four!

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    Zipity,

    Someone as ignorant as you of the facts shouldn’t be calling other idiots. Michael Moore is a film maker, not a member of Congress like Hoekstra, plus Moore’s movies were far more accurate than Hoekstra’s statements.

    It is not the HS Secretary who is using the term “mission accomplished” here. It was George Bush who claimed that in Iraq.

    Playing golf and acting normal is exactly what Obama should be doing, along with pushing for a review of airport security as he is also doing. The wrong response was to give the terrorists a victory every time they made a move by spreading further terror as George Bush did. That just plays into their hands.

  3. 3
    The Trump Network says:

    » Peter Hoekstra Continues To Play Politics With Failed Terrorist … http://bit.ly/8dOTPK

  4. 4
    Lauolefiso Stibbie says:

    » Peter Hoekstra Continues To Play Politics With Failed Terrorist … http://bit.ly/8O8Qaa

  5. 5
    David Batty says:

    Hoekstra is practising gutter politics. He and other republicans of his ilk  are sitting on pins and needles, hoping for a real terror strike so that they can critisize Obama and score cheap political points

  6. 6
    Fine says:

    Unlike his predecessor, Obama is intensely focused on striking where terrorists and militant organizations are known to hide…not where he wishes they were.
    Yemen is an anomaly for the Arabian peninsula. It’s very religious society run by a relatively secular government…and it doesn’t have oil, or the resources to keep fighting without outside help. Given Yemen’s location, it’s particularly bad if either al-Qaeda (or allied groups) or the Houthis get control of the government.

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