CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) & Rep. Rogers (R-MI) Both Say America Is Less Safe From Terrorism Today Than It Has Been in Recent Years … What Happened to Obama’s Claim “Al-Qaeda is on the run”

Looks like Americans were told another lie, I thought President Barack Hussein Obama told us that Al-Qaeda was on the run and on the road to defeat?

This Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, were in complete bipartisan agreement that the United States is less safe from terrorism today than it has been in recent years. Remember when Barack Obama ran on the reelection sound byte that “Al-Qaeda was on the run and on the path to defeat”.  Hmm, too bad this president is all about campaigning to win an election and not about leading to defend America against its enemies.

Americans shouldn’t feel safer today than they did before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees said Sunday.

The country now faces a larger number of threats from splintered terrorist groups and more complex weapons than when the U.S. began combat operations in Afghanistan in 2001, the lawmakers said on CNN’s State of the Union. At the same time, the nation’s spy programs–which can help foil terrorist plots–are under heavy scrutiny that could ultimately lessen their effectiveness.

“The threat is higher today and we’re probably less safe,” Rep.  Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said.

His counterpart in the Senate agreed.

“I think terror is up world-wide,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.). “There are new bombs, very big bombs…and more groups than ever.”

Sen.  Feinstein said advanced weapons make it easier to bring a bomb onto an airplane and make it harder to track possible threats.

Full State of the Union transcript:

CROWLEY: The big question that’s always asked, are we safer now than we were a year ago, two years ago? In general?

FEINSTEIN: I don’t think so. I think terror is up worldwide, the statistics indicate that, the fatalities are way up. The numbers are way up. There are new bombs, very big bombs, trucks being reinforced for those bombs. There are bombs that go through magnatometers. The bomb maker is still alive. There are more groups that ever and there’s huge malevolence out there.

CROWLEY: So congressman, I have to say, that is not the answer I expected. I expected to hear, oh, we’re safer. Do you agree?

ROGERS: Oh, I absolutely agree that we’re not safer today for the same very reasons.

So the pressure on our intelligence services to get it right to prevent an attack are enormous. And it’s getting more difficult because we see the al Qaeda as we knew it before is metastasizing to something different, more affiliates than we’ve ever had before, meaning more groups that operated independently of al Qaeda have now joined al Qaeda around the world, all of them have at least some aspiration to commit an act of violence in the United States or against western targets all around the world.

They’ve now switched to this notion that maybe smaller events are okay. So if you have more smaller events than bigger events, they think that might still lead to their objectives and their goals. That makes it exponentially harder for our intelligence services to stop an event like that.

CROWLEY: Because essentially one person can do a small event.

ROGERS: Absolutely.

CROWLEY: So, one of the things that the senator said was that there is more hatred out there, more – and why is that? (read more HERE)

How’s that post Iraq looking these days? How’s that claim of the defeat of terrorism looking today? How’s that talking with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the very enemy we looked to defeat, for a troop withdrawal looking these days? How is Libya looking? How about Syria? This is what happens when you put a community agitator, presidential novice in the White House.

Wolf Blitzer the Latest in a case of “SWATing” … Hoax Sends Police to His Bethesda, MD Home (Update: Add Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) to the List)

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is the latest to be drawn into the hoax, known as “SWATing”. According to the WAPO, Montgomery County police received an urgent message at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday saying someone had been shot at Wolf Blitzer’s home and responded by sending officers to his Bethesda, MD home.  It is unbelievable that individuals would act so irresponsible to make such faux calls that divert resources that might otherwise go elsewhere to respond and resolve an actual emergency.

Montgomery County police received an urgent message at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday saying someone had been shot at Wolf Blitzer’s home in Bethesda. Officers streamed toward the CNN host’s residence near Congressional Country Club. They set up a perimeter.

But a dispatch supervisor was immediately skeptical, and a call to CNN confirmed it: The message was a fraud. Blitzer was fine — was, in fact, out of town. The authorities were dealing with another case of “SWATing,” in which someone jolts police into action with a fake distress call and technological trickery.

Patterico’s Pontifications as a long list of others who have been “SWATTED”:

 roll call of the SWATted: Wolf Blitzer; Ted Lieu; Erik Rush; Ryan Seacrest; Russell Brand; Selena Gomez; Justin Timberlake; Rihanna; Sean Combs; Chris Brown; Tom Cruise; Paris Hilton; Clint Eastwood; Brian Krebs; the Jenners and Kardashians; Justin Bieber; Miley Cyrus; Ashton Kutcher; Simon Cowell; Aaron Walker; Erick Erickson; Mike Stack; and me.

UPDATE I: Add Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) to the “SWATTING” list via Twitchy.

Last night, SWAT-ting came to Congress. Via Wood TV:

The heavy police presence seen outside of Congressman Mike Rogers’ Howell home on Saturday night was called there because of an “unfortunate prank,” the congressman said in a statement.

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Department told Lansing affiliate WILX that it was “a high-priority situation.” Police cleared the scene by 10:45 p.m. Saturday.

Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, describes it as a “prank.”