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May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review February 10, 2010 / 26 Shevat 5770

Weakling protectors

By Jack Kelly

>



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | John Brennan, a career CIA officer before becoming Deputy National Security Adviser, has the best resume of any member of the Obama administration's national security team, save for Bush holdover Robert Gates as Defense secretary, and his boss, National Security Adviser Jim Jones, who was both the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the commander in chief of NATO.


This is in part damning with faint praise. Admiral Dennis Blair, who President Obama chose to be Director of National Intelligence, had been a consumer of intelligence, but not a collector nor interpreter of it. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and CIA Director Leon Panetta had no relevant experience before being picked for their present posts.


Experience, in itself, is no guarantee of competence or sound judgment. There's a lot that's wrong with the CIA, as books and articles by former CIA undercover officers "Ishmael Jones" (The Human Factor) and Reuel Marc Gerecht make chillingly clear.


Michael Scheuer, who was head of the CIA's bin Laden unit during the Clinton administration, thinks Mr. Brennan was part of the problem. In an interview with Gloria Borger of CNN Jan. 3, Mr. Scheuer said Mr. Brennan put the kibosh on an operation in 1998 that would have resulted in the death or capture of Osama bin Laden. He described his former superior as a bureaucrat more concerned with political correctness than with protecting Americans.


More share Mr. Scheuer's view of Mr. Brennan after Mr. Brennan's most recent appearances on the Sunday talk shows.


The "normally reclusive" Mr. Brennan sallied forth Jan. 3 to defend the administration's decision to try Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted the Christmas bombing of a Northwest Air Lines flight, as a criminal defendant. He did so unpersuasively, dancing around rather than answering the questions posed by interviewers.


"We now have a pretty good idea of why Brennan is 'normally reclusive,'" wrote Paul Mirengoff of the blog Power Line.


We know now that Mr. Abdulmutallab was read his Miranda rights less than an hour after his arrest and promptly stopped talking. The decision to treat Mr. Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal defendant was made by Attorney General Eric Holder, apparently without consulting Mr. Blair, Ms. Napolitano, or FBI Director Robert Mueller.


At a hearing Jan. 20, Admiral Blair said Mr. Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), to which President Obama had assigned responsibility for interrogating captured terrorists after he took it from the CIA. But we learned later the HIG wasn't operational at the time he was captured.


The manner in which the Abdulmutallab case has been handled has, understandably, drawn criticism from Republicans, and not only from them. In a Rasmussen poll released Dec. 31, 71 percent of respondents said Mr. Abdulmutallab should be turned over to the military. Only 22 percent wanted him tried in a civilian court.


The administration has fought back in a variety of clumsy ways. First, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr. Abdulmutallab had given up all the useful information he had in the 50 minutes before he was Mirandized, a statement so preposterous it was not repeated.


Now the administration is saying Mr. Abdulmutallab has, at the insistence of his family, resumed talking. If this is true, it shouldn't be announced publicly. Al Qaida can read newspapers, too. And if true, it doesn't mitigate the harm done when Mr. Abdulmutallab clammed up. The difference between "actionable intelligence" and "history" is often only a few hours.


On "Meet the Press" Sunday and in a column in USA Today Tuesday, Mr. Brennan described critics of the way the Abdulmutallab case has been handled as "partisans" who are "politicizing intelligence" and serving "the goals of al Qaida." Actually, since the critics include Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (California), Jim Webb (Virginia) and Joe Lieberman (Ct), it's been about the most bipartisan thing in Washington in the last year.


Grotesque overstatement and outright lies from a hack flack are one thing; from the administration's counterterrorism czar, quite another.


"It's hard to trust anyone in the White House right now," Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told National Review Online. "The national security team has become a bench of political spokespeople."

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.

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