Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday questioned why Pakistani officials have not been able to capture or kill members of al Qaeda taking refuge in the country.

“Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she told a group of Pakistani journalists during her trip to the country.

“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to … Maybe that’s the case,” she added. “Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”

Al Qaeda, she said, has launched attacks on Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries, “so the world has an interest in seeing the capture and killing of the people who are the masterminds of this terrorist syndicate.”

“As far as we know, they are in Pakistan.”

Iran agreed on Thursday in talks with the United States and other major powers to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspection in the next two weeks and to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium to Russia to be turned into fuel for a small reactor that produces medical isotopes, senior American and other Western officials said.

Are there a million caveats? Sure. But the conservative Bush policy of just being an ass to everyone went against decades of U.S. foreign policy that produced results – step by step. We’re back on track now, and able to do what needs to be done – a step at a time.

Among the alternatives being presented to Mr. Obama is Mr. Biden’s suggestion to revamp the strategy altogether. Instead of increasing troops, officials said Mr. Biden had proposed scaling back the overall American military presence. Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American forces would concentrate on strikes against Qaeda cells, primarily in Pakistan, using special forces, Predator missile attacks and other surgical tactics.

The Americans would accelerate training of Afghan forces and provide support as they took the lead against the Taliban. But the emphasis would shift to Pakistan. Mr. Biden has often said that the United States spends something like $30 in Afghanistan for every $1 in Pakistan, even though in his view the main threat to American national security interests is in Pakistan.

Seriously I don’t see any evidence that these types of devices work in any real world capacity, nor do I see the point of spending a whole lot of cash on them to make certain hawks feel better about it.

President Obama is in his job largely due to his stated policies of not being George W. Bush on foreign policy and national security.

Thank God.

‘This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to the global community,’ Jones said. ‘The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international.’

Jones said that ‘we are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders and a kind of a global coming-together by the fact that this is a threat to not only the United States but to the world at-large and the world is moving toward doing something about it.’

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.), the ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells NRO that the Obama administration’s national-security apparatus is in “free fall” and showing “no adult leadership”

Now, you would think someone like Hoekstra would be far too busy breaking his promise to term limit himself, but oh no, Hoekstra’s fashioned himself as a national security expert for some time now.

You might remember that Hoekstra was the one (along with Rick Santorum) who breathlessly claimed WMD had been found in Iraq, despite um… evidence (it was all the rage on Fox News though).

Then, a website created at the behest of Hoekstra and Pat Roberts turned out to have details on how to build a nuclear bomb available for all to see.

And most recently when visiting Iraq, Hoekstra created a security breach by revealing that his congressional delegation was there. Via Twitter.

Yes, friends, in the world of the National Review and conservative/Republican politics, a patsy like Pete Hoekstra is a perfect national security expert.

This guy doesn’t know his butt from a hole in the wall. Why in God’s name would anyone believe a single thing he said about anything, let alone something as vital as national security?

IN RELATED WTF “expert” pundit work, Pat Caddell, who recently spent a couple days playing sock puppet to the feces-flinging Glenn Beck, spoke to another National Review writer, telling them what they wanted to hear about health care reform.

Pat Caddell was a political adviser to President Carter. Which in the world of politics is sort of like being the guy on the Titanic who saw the iceberg but didn’t think it would be that big a deal. Pat Caddell has not been relevant to any politics within my entire adult lifetime.

Caddell is a reliable “Democrat” who hates Democrats and makes a living doing so on Fox News.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

We can’t ignore this stuff. The past has shown us that when the CIA goes rogue it ends up hurting us all, departing from its traditional mission and it success at that, moving into the sort of immoral activity that increases distrust of America from the outside and inside.

If Director Panetta is trying to obstruct that, perhaps he should step down. And people thought a guy from outside the national security club would be more interested in letting some sunshine in.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

An exercise at the National Defense University, an educational institute overseen by the military, last December explored the potential impact of a flood in Bangladesh that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into neighboring India, touching off religious conflict, the spread of contagious diseases and vast damage to infrastructure.

The House Intelligence Committee has asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled program to target al-Qaida leaders, congressional officials said Tuesday. The move is a precursor to what will almost certainly become a full-blown investigation into the secret operation and why the program was not disclosed to Congress, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

And this is why President Obama is wrong when he so quickly wants to turn the page on the abuse of this country by George W. Bush and Co.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta has told lawmakers that CIA officials misled Congress ‘for a number of years’ since 2001, according to a letter released Wednesday from seven Democratic lawmakers.

The lawmakers say the CIA also withheld information about unspecified ’significant actions.’

The letter didn’t identify when Mr. Panetta made the statements or to what they referred.

‘This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,’ the letter continued.

Despite keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Pentagon, President-elect Obama’s transition team informed 90 Bush appointees their services will not be needed after Inauguration Day.

Scott Gration, a senior official on Obama’s transition team, called and emailed several of President Bush’s Pentagon appointees about 10 days ago to inform them they were being dismissed.

I’m still not wild about Gates staying on, but at least he seems competent and he was not from the Rumsfeld/Cheney world of incompetence + megalomania.

‘For a bunch of small-government Republicans,’ one former denizen of the White House who has now stepped back inside for the first time in eight years, ‘these guys built a hell of an empire.’

Eight years ago, there were two deputy national security advisers; today there are a half-dozen, each with staff. In the downstairs suites of the West Wing and across the street in the Old Executive Office Building, the returnees tripped into the Homeland Security Council, created to keep order in the new, vast, often dysfunctional Homeland Security Department. In the Pentagon’s deepest crevices, the Joint Special Operations Command has mushroomed in size and influence because of the demands of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The list goes on.

Even the people who support cuts in defense spending (I’m not much for that) would think that doing so to give ExxonMobil and the airlines another sweetheart deal is ridiculous.

First Lady Hillary Clinton, with her husband the President, at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. She may as well be ordering an airstrike on Bosnia.

First Lady Hillary Clinton at a state dinner with her husband, the President. It’s not everyone who knows which fork is the salad fork you know.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the White House Christmas tree. Can we roll the dice on someone who hasn’t chosen the decorations for a really big Christmas tree before? I don’t think so.

First Lady Hillary Clinton smiles and waves at her husband, the President’s second inaugural. Smiles. And waves. At the same time. Do they even teach you how to do that in Illinois?

First Lady Hillary Clinton poses with her family at Christmas. Bold. Decisive. Ready to Lead.

First Lady Hillary Clinton reads to some children. Notice how the Cat In The Hat resembles a member of Al Qaeda? Hillary did.

First Lady Hillary Clinton attends Richard Nixons funeral with her husband, the President. Look how she attended the frick out of that ceremony!

First Lady Hillary Clinton as part of her role leading the health care reform task force, speaks to a senior citizen. This, uh, failed miserably.

First Lady Hillary Clinton meets with some girl scouts. This is totally like meeting with soldiers. That is, soldiers who are as cute as a button and love playing with Barbies.

First Lady Hillary Clinton oversees the construction of a gingerbread house. For our purposes substitute “Baghdad” or “New Orleans” for “gingerbread house” and you can see where I’m going with this.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and some Sesame Street characters meet. It’s like a high level meeting at Camp David. Right.

First Lady Hillary Clinton cuts the ribbon of a Women’s Wellness Center. Many refer to this as her version of “Nixon goes to China”.

First Lady Hillary Clinton testifies to congress about the healthcare reform task… you know what, let’s move on.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the US Women’s World Cup Team. Global? Yes, she’s got that covered.

First Lady Hillary Clinton has high level talks with Danny Devito at a summit discussing raising teens. Now she’s totally ready to take on Kim Jong Il.

First Lady Hillary Clinton displays a book about White House sculpture. There are two kinds of leaders in this world: Ones who know White House sculpture and ones who don’t. Sorry, Barack.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the 1996 US Olympic team. Hillary Clinton is the woman to the right, just one person away from her husband, the President, the only one who at that time was Commander In Chief. He, not her, was the only one tasked by the Constitution to serve as Commander In Chief. She was his wife, his partner, his confidante, his soul-mate and more. But she was not the President.

“We know that Senator Clinton will spend the week touting her national security credentials in a move that echoes George Bush’s 2004 campaign,” Mr. Prince wrote. “We believe Democrats will not be fooled by efforts to play on their fears.”

The Edwards campaign seems to be saying that to simply discuss national security is to buy into the Bush framing of the world. Because the rhetoric of Sen. Clinton in the campaign so far is the exact opposite of the Bush doctrine. I may have some differences with her past votes and whatnot (though we must remember that Sen. Edwards also voted to authorize the Iraq War) – but Edwards seems to believe that national security won’t be on the table in this election. If that’s what they think, they’re wrong. For our entire political system for the foreseeable future we will not be able to put foreign policy on the backburner like in the past. Today’s assasination underlines that notion. In the past a political killing in Pakistan would be bad in a global sense, but happening under the current global situation it has very real ripples right here to America. This reminds me of Sen. Edwards ill-fated attempt (as I said at the time) to redefine the meaning of terrorism, especially in the middle of a political campaign.

It sucks, but that’s talk of the past. We can’t go back to it, no matter how hard we try. The next president is going to be someone who understands that national security is at the front of the American people’s minds. If Sen. Edwards is not going to accept that, he won’t win.