Cheney: Changes to Anti-Terrorism Policy Will Raise the Risk of Attack

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that the Obama administration will “raise the risk” of a terrorist attack by overhauling his predecessor’s approach to the War on Terror.

Cheney sharply criticized Obama’s decisions to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, limit the methods CIA officers use to interrogate terror suspects and suspend military tribunals for alleged terrorists, saying those decisions taken together will make Americans less safe.

And he warned that the administration was transitioning to a pre-9/11 mindset that views terrorism as a “law enforcement problem” and not a military threat.

“When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they’re doing … they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that’s required, and that concept of military threat that is essential if you’re going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks,” Cheney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He said the Bush administration’s tough anti-terrorism policies were “absolutely essential” to the military’s ability to gather the intelligence that helped foil “all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11.”

Cheney added: “President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”

via Cheney: Obama’s Changes to Anti-Terrorism Policy Will Raise the Risk of Attack – Presidential Politics | Political News – FOXNews.com.

Explosive Device Goes Off In California Prison

An improvised explosive device went off inside a federal prison in California during a search Saturday, according to federal authorities.

No one was injured, the authorities told CNN.

The incident happened in the recreation area of the Victorville Federal Penitentiary. Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Traci Billingsley said the device was found by a staff member during a “routine search of inmate property”. She said it “detonated upon discovery.”

A bomb squad from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and FBI bomb technicians were called to the prison to examine the device and make sure it didn’t pose any further danger. They remained inside the prison as of 9:30 p.m.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said an investigation was under way. She said the incident is not terrorism-related.

Billingsley said the prison was locked down at the time the device was found. She could not say what prompted the lockdown, or if there was any connection to the search. No inmates were in the area when the explosion occurred.

“The prison remains secure,” she said.

She said she could not recall a previous incident where an improvised explosive device was found inside a prison.

via Explosive goes off in California prison – CNN.com.

Yemen On High Alert For al Qaeda Terror Attack

Over the last several weeks a growing number of al Qaeda operatives have entered Yemen from Saudi Arabia and have established a renewed network that potentially threatens U.S. and Saudi targets in the region, both U.S. and Yemeni officials have told CNN.

As a result Yemeni security forces have gone on high alert.

CNN spoke with three U.S. officials and a Yemeni embassy official who outlined new concerns about al Qaeda in Yemen that all three said go beyond the usual worries about the terror organization in Yemen. None of the officials could be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the information.

“There are strong indications of heightened activity in Yemen,” one U.S. official told CNN. “There is real concern in the U.S. government that al Qaeda is trying to mount attacks in Yemen.”

The United States continues to worry about attacks against the U.S. embassy or other U.S. business interests in Yemen the official said. But there are also growing concerns that a renewed al Qaeda network in Yemen could plan attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure or the massive cargo shipping operations that run through the immediate region — potentially disrupting an already shaky world economy.

The official said there is a flow of intelligence information in recent weeks backing up that assessment. “There are clear indications al Qaeda is placing emphasis on Yemen as a place to conduct operations and train operatives.”

Source

Senior U.N. Official Kidnapped in Pakistan

A senior U.N. official was kidnapped in southwest Pakistan and his driver was shot dead, a U.N. information officer told CNN.

The official’s name has not been released because his family has not been officially informed, said Ishrat Rizvi, a U.N. information officer in Islamabad.

The official was kidnapped in the town of Chaman, near the city of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The exact time of the incident is unknown. Law enforcement agencies are investigating.