WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Jim Kouri
Date:  January 4, 2007

Topic category:  Other/General

Al Qaeda's Man in Washington?

by Jim Kouri

Now that the Democrats are in control of both houses of congress, Americans can look forward to their leadership putting their own interests ahead of the safety and security of citizens during the war on terrorism. In her recent column, Ann Coulter, in her usual hyperbolic style, called the Democrat Party a "sleeper cell." A good example of that is the recent actions of Senator Levin.

In August, 2006, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) arrogantly refused to stop blocking the Senate's confirmation of the head of the Justice Department's new antiterrorism division, a position that's important in a time of war with terrorist groups who wish to attack the United States.

However, it wasn't because of any complaint about the nominee, rather it's an effort to try to force the Justice Department to turn over information Levin can use to bash his own country and the US military.

Levin has been demanding that the Bush administration supply more information from FBI agents who reported witnessing aggressive interrogations of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military detention center.

In fact, nominee Kenneth Wainstein has no opposition for his nomination and is only waiting for the Senate to confirm him as the head of the all important DoJ antiterrorism division.

Yes, dear reader, Senator Carl Levin, with those dopey reading glasses practically pasted on his schnoz, puts national security in a time of war in the back-seat to his wish to provide enemies of the US with more talking points.

As when his partner in treason -- Democrat Senator Dick Durban -- used Guantanamo to denigrate America's heroes when he labeled them Nazis and called Guantanamo a gulag, Levin is attempting to open that wound once again.

Clear thinking Americans should be outraged by Levin's behavior. In an effort to provide even more protection to the American people, the Justice Department is working on developing a special antiterrorism division. Yet Levin's partisan strategy to garner more power for himself and his party is what's important to him and far too many other politicians such as Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.

The nominee to head that newly formed unit, with prosecutors experienced in terrorism cases, is by all accounts a superior individual with support emanating from both sides of the aisle. Yet, according to Senate rules, one lone Senator can prevent an up-or-down vote to confirm Kenneth Wainstein.

Let's compare Levin with Wainstein:

Wainstein was confirmed on October 7, 2005, to be the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He served as the Interim United States Attorney prior to his confirmation. Prior to his appointment as Interim United States Attorney in May of 2004, Mr. Wainstein served at FBI Headquarters.

He was Chief of Staff to Director Robert S. Mueller, III, from March 2003 to May 2004 and General Counsel of the FBI from July 2002 to March 2003. From August 2001 to July 2002, he served as Director of the Justice Department's Executive Office for US Attorneys, where he provided oversight and support to the 94 United States Attorneys' Offices around the country.

Ken was the Interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia between April and August of 2001.

Wainstein is a 1984 graduate of the University of Virginia, and a 1988 graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He clerked for Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia before beginning his Justice Department career as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York in 1989. While in the Southern District, he handled a variety of prosecutions, including narcotics, fraud, and public corruption cases.

In 1992, Ken transferred to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, where he served for nine years before his first appointment as Interim United States Attorney. As a line prosecutor and Deputy Chief of the Homicide Section between 1994 and 1999, he specialized in the prosecution of federal racketeering cases against violent street gangs. He later served as Deputy Chief of the Superior Court Division and Principal Assistant US Attorney, and was awarded the Director's Award for Superior Performance in 1997 and 2000.

That's what Wainstein brings to the table to help this nation fight terrorists.

Carl Levin was born in 1934 in Detroit, where he graduated from Central High School. In 1956, he graduated with honors from Swarthmore College and graduated from Harvard University Law School in 1959.

He practiced and taught law in Michigan until 1964 when he was appointed an assistant attorney general of Michigan and the first general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

He then helped establish the Detroit Public Defender's Office and led the Appellate Division of that office, which has become the State Appellate Defender's Office. He won election to the Detroit City Council in 1969, becoming its president in 1973 by winning the most votes citywide. In 1978, he won an upset victory over the number two Republican in the US Senate. He was reelected in 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002.

In other words he's a left-wing political hack who once worked as a slip-and-fall lawyer in Detroit, a city that for the most part resembles a Third-World nation. You decide. Who's more important to the security and safety of the American people: A man who leads an antiterrorism unit or a political windbag whose words are repeated by terrorist leaders?    

Jim Kouri
Chief of Police Magazine (Contributing Editor)


Biography - Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for a number of organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional.


Copyright © 2007 by Jim Kouri
All Rights Reserved.


© 2004-2007 by WEBCommentary(tm), All Rights Reserved