John Brennan, deputy national security advisor for homeland security and counter-terrorism, rejected Republican charges that the administration had lost valuable intelligence by prosecuting the accused bomber in a civilian court and informing him of his right to remain silent.

In a commentary in USA Today, he said the threat posed by extremists was serious but should not cause panic and that US government agencies were well able to deal with it.

"Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill," Brennan wrote.

"They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community."

The idea that the country's counter-terrorism officials and justice system "are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd," he said.

After the attempted Christmas Day attack, the administration "thoroughly interrogated" the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US airliner bound for Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Brennan said.

The questioning produced "important information" and "the most important breakthrough occurred after Abdulmutallab was read his rights," he wrote.

Experience in recent years had shown that suspects tended to be more forthcoming in civilian custody as they "did not cooperate when transferred to military custody, which can harden one's determination to resist cooperation," he said.

"It's naive to think that transferring Abdulmutallab to military custody would have caused an outpouring of information."

He also said "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, who tried to set off explosives in his shoe on a flight in December 2001, was read his rights five minutes after he was detained.

"The same people who criticize the president today were silent back then," he wrote.

Brennan, who usually does not take part in partisan clashes, blasted Republican lawmakers over allegations the White House had botched the handling of the suspect.

"Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda," he wrote.

On Sunday, Brennan told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he informed Republican lawmakers soon after the attack that the suspect was in FBI custody and they did not raise concerns about military courts or legal rights.

Under US law, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has to inform a suspect in its custody that he has the right to remain silent.

Republican leaders did not dispute Brennan had phoned them about the accused bomber's detention, but called his commentary a "political smear."

"This administration has no clear plan to identify, confront and defeat avowed terrorists as terrorists instead of treating them as common criminals," the Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, and the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, said in a statement.

"The administration needs to demonstrate that it is willing to take responsibility for leading a nation at war against a violent, radicalized and extremely capable and adaptive threat," said the statement.

But Brennan dismissed demands that terror suspects should only be tried in military courts, saying the military tribunal system set up after the September 11 attacks of 2001 had only secured three convictions.

Civilian criminal courts, however, had convicted "hundreds" of terror suspects, including major cases such as Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, he said.

Citing successful efforts by the Obama administration to disrupt "dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland" and target senior figures in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, Brennan said: "We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war."

US officials accuse Abdulmutallab, allegedly trained in Yemen by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, of trying to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on a Northwest Airlines plane approaching Detroit on December 25.

Among the items written on his hand, he said, were "eggs, milk" and "bread." He said he'd crossed off "toast," and then added "hope" and "change."

He said he'd added "hope" and "change," "just in case I forgot that."

Palin had written "Energy," "Budget cuts" (crossed out), "Tax," and "Lift Americans Spirits" on the palm of her left hand, CBS notes. She later added "Hi, Mom!" in a bout of self-mockery.

Gibbs also poked fun at the Tea Party itself, saying the tea party was a successful private enterprise and there seemed to be fewer unemployed speech makers due to it.

Gibbs isn't the first to mock Palin by writing on his hand.

On Monday, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell said she'd written on her hand in honor of Palin's "tele-palm."

"If Mitt Romney had notes on his hand, wouldn't we take it pretty seriously?" NBC's Andrea Mitchell asked Chuck Todd and his co-host.

"She does, sort of, get played," Todd retorted. "She has different rules."

Palin took flak for the notes on her hand because she'd criticized Obama for relying on teleprompters at the same event.

The Detroit alternative rock duo consisting of Jack and Meg White has lashed out at the United States Air Force for using their song "Fell In Love With A Girl" in a recruitment ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

Posted on their main page whitestripes.com is a cutting letter explicating in no ambiguous terms the band's dissatisfaction with the Air Force's use of their works without permission. The duo said they "have not licensed" the song and "plan to take strong action" if the ad isn't pulled.

The band posted a clip of their song and a link to the Air Force ad on top of their Web site.

"The White Stripes take strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserves presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war that we do not support," read the statement.

The Air Force appears to have adhered to their demand, pulling the ad from the Web page at which it was previously located.

Shielding in advance any criticisms that they don't back the troops, the duo clarified that they "support this nation's military" but "simply don't want to become a cog in the wheel of the current conflict."

The band has over the years released several commercially successful albums as well as earned respect in the underground rock community. The song in question appeared on the band's 2002 album White Blood Cells.

The following is a screen capture of the message posted on the band's Web site.

U.S.-led NATO forces are planning one of the 8-year-old war's biggest offensives to seize Marjah, a patchwork of desert canals and opium fields that is now the last large Taliban-held bastion in Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.

The assault, the first since U.S. President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in December, is the start of a campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas this year, before U.S. forces start to draw down in 2011.

Western countries hope military success this year will persuade Taliban fighters to lay down arms and their leaders to accept invitations to talk.

Hundreds of civilians have fled, but most of the area's population, estimated at up to 100,000, remain in their homes in the face of what could be an unprecedented level of fighting.

NATO civilian representative Mark Sedwill said "sufficient" plans were in place to feed and house any civilians who flee, but declined to give details of how many displaced people NATO or the Afghan authorities had the capacity to assist.

"There are good reasons not to go into the exact numbers of details of the operation at this stage," Sedwill, a former British ambassador who arrived this week to take up the beefed-up post of chief NATO civilian in Kabul, told a news briefing.

"What we can say is that we are confident there are sufficient resources there to accommodate and feed anybody who chooses to leave the area," he said.

Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, said so far about 164 families have fled the area in recent days. A commission had been set up that has the capability to cope with any crisis, he said.

NATO forces have decided to advise civilians in Marjah not to leave their homes, although they say they do not know whether the assault will lead to heavy fighting.

HEADS DOWN, STAY INSIDE

"The message to the people of the area is of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead," Sedwill said.

"We very much hope that the military phase of this operation will go ahead swiftly and with as little incident as possible. This of course very much depends on the conduct of those people who are in Marjah at the moment, their choices about whether to resist or to lay down their weapons."

Unlike previous military operations, the assault on Marjah has been widely flagged for months. Commanders say they hope this will persuade many fighters to lay down their arms or flee, reducing the eventual death toll.

Civilians who have left the area, however, report that fighters are digging in and preparing for battle.

Under international law, NATO forces are obliged to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who chooses to flee the assault, said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.

Having advised civilians to stay instead -- helping ensure the area remains heavily populated during the offensive -- they bear an extra responsibility to control their fire and avoid tactics that endanger civilians.

"I suspect that they believe they have the ability to generally distinguish between combatants and civilians. I would call that into question, given their long history of mistakes, particularly when using air power," Adams said.

"Whatever they do, they have an obligation to protect civilians and make adequate provision to alleviate any crisis that arises," he said. "It is very much their responsibility.... They are going to be carrying the can if this goes badly."

Members of Inhofe's family braved the historic snow storms crippling the nation's capital and other northeastern cities to build a sizable igloo near the Washington National Mall in honor of the outspoken climate activist and former vice president.

Atop lies a sign at reads "AL GORE'S NEW HOME!" on one side and "HONK IF YOU [HEART] GLOBAL WARMING" on the other.

Central to the pre-text behind Inhofe's family excursion is the notion that heavy snow storms challenge, if not refute, the science behind global warming. In fact, Inhofe, the ranking member of the senate environment committee, makes no secret of his aims.

He posted photos of the igloo on his Facebook fan page, describing them as, "Senator Inhofe and his family were in Washington DC this weekend as the blizzard hit the DC area. The Inhofe family had a little fun at the expense of Al Gore and global warming.

Climate policy wonk Brad Johnson of Think Progress countered his point by noting that global climate change has long been expected to polarize weather patterns.

"In reality, winter snows do not invalidate the reality that the planet just experienced the hottest decade on record," Johnson said. "Scientists have been warning for decades that global warming would increase the severity of winter storms."

So resolute is Inhofe's stance against taking steps to cut carbon emissions that he said this summer there's no conceivable way he'll support climate change legislation.

In anticipation of the historic snow storm that has crippled Washington, D.C. since this weekend, the Virginia Republican Party last Friday released an advertisement mocking global warming and urging their constituents to oppose cap and trade energy legislation.

Party Chairman Jim Greer is resigning after it was revealed that he had entered into a secret contract with a dummy corporation set up by the Florida GOP's executive director, Delmar Johnson. Under that agreement, Johnson would collect 10 percent of "all major donations" to the party, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Greer and Johnson's spending on GOP credit cards has also come into question. Documents obtained by the Times and the Miami Herald show that, among other things, Johnson spent $15,000 on a chartered flight to attend the swearing-in of Florida's temporary senator, George LeMieux. Johnson spent $1,800 on in-flight catering. In all, the party's executive director racked up more than a million American Express points.

For his part, Johnson has been accused of padding his $100,000 salary as executive director with a $260,000 fundraising contract, on top of having charged $42,000 to the party for expenses.

"The revelations have rocked the once disciplined Florida GOP, which finds itself consumed with turmoil and controversy when it should be focused on electing Republicans," the Times reports.

Making it all worse is the fact that the Florida GOP was "hemorrhaging money" as Greer and Johnson reportedly padded their salaries with lavish spending.

In fact, last fall, "Greer made a show of rescinding the party credit cards of top elected officials and cutting up his American Express card last summer to stem criticism of party spending," the Times reports. But the spending continued.

Republican Florida lawmakers are distancing themselves from the scandal-plagued operatives.

Governor Charlie Crist has called for the party to release its credit card records. But the state's attorney general, Bill McCollum, who himself has gubernatorial ambitions, has disputed that, saying that the party's internal finances are its own business, the Associated Press reports.

The party operatives hoping to replace Greer as chairman are pushing for more transparency.

"It's time to come clean," state Sen. Paula Docker declared, arguing the party should release all its financial records.

The financial scandals could also have a negative effect on Gov. Crist, who hand-picked Greer for the state party chairman job. Crist admitted Tuesday that the revelation about Johnson "doesn't look good," and was noncommittal when asked if he still thought Greer was the right choice.

"Well, you know, I think originally he did a great job, worked very hard, and tried to do the very best that he could," Crist said, as quoted at Tampa Bay's Buzz blog.

When a cigarette burns, nicotine is released in the form of a vapor that collects and condenses on indoor surfaces such as walls, carpeting, drapes and furniture, where it can linger for months, said the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs," said Hugo Destaillats, a corresponding author of the study.

"TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke," he said.

The most likely human exposure to TSNAs is through either inhalation of dust or the contact of skin with carpet or clothes -- making third-hand smoke particularly dangerous to infants and toddlers.

Opening a window or turning on a fan to air out a room while a cigarette burns does not eliminate the hazard of third-hand smoke. Smoking outdoors doesn't help much either.

"Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker's skin and clothing," said Lara Gundel, a co-author of the study.

"Those residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere. The biggest risk is to young children," she said.
"Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child's skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, then TSNAs will be formed."

Substantial levels of TSNAs were also found in the truck of a heavy smoker, the study says, adding that most vehicle engines emit some nitrous acid that can infiltrate the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory led the study, which they say is the first to quantify the reactions of third-hand smoke with nitrous acid.

Many observers give the libertarian from Texas credit for having sparked the Tea Party movement in 2007 when he held a "money bomb" fundraiser on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, raking in some $6 million for his presidential run in one day.

But, as the Dallas Morning News reported earlier this week, Paul is facing three primary challengers -- more than he has faced in the past six primaries combined. And every one of the challengers is linked to the Tea Party movement.

Washington Independent contributor David Weigel told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Monday night that the Tea Party movement of today has little in common with that fundraiser in 2007.

"Those libertarian ideas [may be] popular at the Cato Institute, [but] they're not really popular with Tea Party activists," Weigel said.

As the Morning News put it, Tea Partiers say Paul is "too focused on his national ambitions; that his views are too extreme; that he doesn't support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; that he votes 'no' on everything, including federal aid for his district after Hurricane Ike."

By comparison, "the Sarah Palin version of Tea Party conservatism is a little bit less specific," Weigel said. "It's more slogany. You can write the talking points on your hand if you want to."

That the Tea Party movement has become a threat to Paul is not lost on the congressman.

The Morning News reports that, in December, Paul sent out a letter to supporters saying that his opponents "turned their attack dogs loose on me," and warned that the anti-incumbent mood among voters could affect him as well.

"There is one thing Paul does that might backfire," Weigel wrote at the Washington Independent. "While Paul votes against basically all spending bills, he notoriously gets earmark requests into those bills, so that local projects survive when other members vote those bills through. That barely dinged Paul in 2008, but it may become an issue now."

This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Feb. 8, 2010.

Download video via RawReplay.com

On Sunday, however, Palin may have taken it too far. Speaking to Fox News' Chris Wallace, the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee signaled that she supported war with Iran, referring to a recent online column by conservative Pat Buchanan.

"Say he played, and I got this from Buchanan, reading one of his columns the other day," Palin quipped. "Say he played the war card. Say he decided to declare war on Iran, or decided to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do. But that changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years."

Only, Buchanan said the opposite thing.

"Should war come," he wrote Friday, "that would be the end of GOP dreams of adding three-dozen seats in the House and half a dozen in the Senate."

In addition to costing the GOP politically (the speechwriter turned pundit said that war would ensure the reelection of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Buchanan said war with Iran was simply unwise -- and even more than that, unfounded.

"Despite the hysteria about Iran's imminent testing of a bomb," Buchanan wrote, "the U.S. intelligence community still has not changed its finding that Tehran is not seeking a bomb."

"And if Iran is hell-bent on a bomb," he added, "why has Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair not revised the 2007 finding and given us the hard evidence?"

Palin, seemingly misreading Buchanan's piece, remarked, "Things would dramatically change if he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies."

Palin's remarks come about 3:15 into the following YouTube video. The exchange -- and the column by Buchanan -- was first noted by Talking Points Memo.

Rep. John Murtha's sudden death Monday may have been due to a surgical error, according to a source close to a congressman. Murtha was admitted to the hospital on Jan 31. after suffering an infection resulting from gallbladder surgery. He died days later.

"This should have been a really simple surgery. Laparoscopic gallbladder removal usually is no big deal," reported CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. "Many times people don't even get admitted to the hospital."

But a source told CNN that the congressman may have died after his intestines were nicked during the procedure. "He went in for a routine minimally invasive surgery, was discharged, they hit his intestines, [he] was taken to the hospital two days later," the source told CNN.

"Nicking the intestines is a known complication of gallbladder surgery," Cohen added. "When you nick the intestines a person can get an infection and can die."

It's not unusual for complications to arise during routine surgery. In a recent survey at the Mayo Clinic, nine percent of doctors admitted making a major error during the last 3 months. Seventy percent of those doctors say that they were at fault for the error.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was able to confirm that Murtha died due to an infection caused when doctors nicked his intestines during surgery.

Mr. Murtha was first hospitalized with gallbladder problems in December. He had surgery Jan. 28 at the National Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He went home, but was hospitalized two days later when complications developed. According to a source close to Mr. Murtha -- confirming a report in Politico -- doctors inadvertently cut Mr. Murtha's intestine during the laparoscopic surgery, causing an infection.

DEVELOPING...

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Feb. 9, 2010.

Download video via RawReplay.com