Intelligence Failure

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For those who are still bothering to keep score, the Obama administration granted "the right to remain silent" to the Christmas Day Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after only 50 minutes of questioning...soon after which time, the bomber lawyered up and stopped speaking.

After nearly universal condemnation of this idiotic decision, and five weeks of costly silence, the Whitehouse recently called an urgent news briefing to report that the bomber had finally started talking again and was giving really great information, thereby proving that their "mint on the pillow" approach was paying off.

But there are two problems. The first is that this Whitehouse, having shown itself to be unserious about terrorism, now lacks the credibility to be believed. The second problem is that if Abdulmutallab really is talking, then the value of the intelligence has been wasted because the Whitehouse just told Al Qaeda that we've got it, in a transparent attempt to prop up the president's flagging popularity.

Talk about your intelligence failures...