Video: Yemen Focus Of Politics On Terror
The weather in Washington might be cold, but the heat is on for President Obama as he returns from Hawaii and faces a growing crisis with al-Qaeda in Yemen. John Dickerson spoke with CBS News Pentagon Correspondent David Martin and Politico Senior Writer Jonathan Martin.
Florida GOP chief out, twine unwinding?

by Mark Silva

Jim Greer -- and the Swamp will remember him today as the fellow who criticized President Barack Obama's back-to-school speech to students last fall as a platform for the president's "socialist ideology'' -- resigned today as chairman of the Florida GOP.

This alone may not sound very significant.

But when taken as another piece of the unraveling twine which is the career of the long-popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (pictured here), it is significant. Greer, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, was Crist's man. And some complained that Greer was playing favorites in his role as party chairman in the midst of an increasingly heated party primary for an open Senate seat.

Crist, the former state legislator known as "chain-gang Charlie'' for his promotion of hard-time for prison inmates, the former attorney general known for environmental and antitrust-busting activities popular with consumers and the Republican governor perhaps best remembered lately for wrapping his arm around Obama as the president promoted his economic stimulus spending plans in Florida last year, is having some trouble with a GOP Senate primary which, a year ago, would have seemed his for the taking.

Crist is a moderate to progressive Republican, criticized in some circles for bending to whatever the popular wind is. A conservative Republican from Miami, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, is giving the governor a run for his life in the primary for a seat vacated by former Sen. Mel Martinez -- a Republican who had forfeited his own co-chairmanship of the RNC when his own political fortunes were failling -- a seat that is being held by a Crist-appointed place-holder, Sen. George LeMieux, until November's elections.

The conservative Club for Growth has weighed in against Crist in the primary, in another match pitting the farthest-right wing of the party against its center. And Greer, who steps down on Feb. 20, called himself a victim of that fight today.

"As you know, there is a great debate in our party on the direction, moderates vs. conservatives, whether we should have a big tent or a small tent," Greeer said. "And while I have made it my utmost concern to try and keep those arguments and discontents out of the Republican Party of Florida, over the last six months there has been a very vocal group within our party that has become very active in seeking an effort to oust me as chairman. They have distorted facts, they have talked about misspending of money, when the facts have been shown over and over and over that that's not true. They have talked about my support of Gov. Crist for the U.S. Senate race. They have, as they say, thrown everything up against the wall as they possibly can, to either embarrass me or embarrass the Republican Party of Florida."

Crist himself has conceded in an interview with reporters that he has not been "on my game'' all the time lately.

Greer wasn't always on his game, either. "As the father of four children,'' he said of the president's plans to address school-children nationally last fall, "I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology.''

Early handicapping for Greer's replacement: State Sen. John Thrasher, a former House speaker there (they term-limit their lawmakers to eight years, which sends a lot of House leaders into the Senate, and vice versa) and ex-lobbyist for the Florida Medical Association. He's a gregarious, moderate fellow. And he campaigned against Crist.

(Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, long-popular but now fighting for his party's Senate nomination, is pictured above at a crossroad. Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

In Texas House Speaker, GOP Sees A Star

When Republicans go looking for leaders, Texas has long been one of their first stops. One of the newest stars there is Joe Straus, who is just finishing his first year as speaker of the Texas House. But whether he will appeal to a party pushed further to the right remains to be seen.

Clinton: Yemeni Extremists a Global Threat
Top Diplomat Praises Yemeni Government's Recent Steps to Curb Terrorism, Promises U.S. Backing
State Dinner 'gate-crashers' not alone

by Mark Silva

It turns out that Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the Virginia couple who made their way into the White House's first State Dinner without invitations, weren't alone.

A third attendee arrived without an invitation, and entered with the official delegation of Indian Prime Manmohan Singh, for whom the dinner was held in November.

The Secret Service said today that an investigation into the security breach that enabled the Salahis to waltz into the White House and shake hands with the president and pose for pictures with other White House officials "has revealed that a third individual, who was not on the White House guest list, entered the State Dinner.''

There is no indication, however, that the individual had any contact with President Obama, the agency said.

The publicly unidentified person, who traveled with Indian officials from the hotel where they were staying, "went through all required security measures along with the rest of the official delegation at the hotel, and boarded a bus/van with the delegation guests en route to the White House," the Secret Service said in a statement.

Ed Donovan, Secret Service spokesman, declined to "get into all the particulars" on the discovery of a third gate uninvited guest. The Service already has disciplined some officers involved in the Salahi's now-notorious gate-crashing of the Indian dinner.

Congress is looking into the Salahis' far more public appearance. The couple have maintained that they thought they were entitled to attend the dinner, based on email correspondence with a friend at Defense who was attempting to help them attend an arrival ceremony. They have taken the "Fifth,'' however, in declining to appear before Congress. And the White House has cited executive privilege in declining to let Social Secretary Desiree Rogers appear before a congressional committee.

Wire services contributed.

CBS News' Predictions for 2010

CBS News' Predictions for 2010
Correspondents Offer Their Forecasts on What to Expect Over the Coming Year
White House: 'No smoking gun'

by Jim Tankersley

President Obama's leading counterterrorism advisor said this morning that human errorbut not turf battles between federal intelligence officialsallowed an al Qaeda-trained operative to carry out an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day.

Deputy National Security Advisor John O. Brennan, in appearances on several Sunday morning television news programs, also said there was "no smoking gun" of intelligence gathered by American officials that would have directly suggested the Flight 253 attack by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was imminent.

"There was no piece of intelligence that said, 'this guy's a terrorist. He's going to get on a plane'," Brennan said. Later, he added: "It was the failure to integrate and piece together those bits and pieces of information."

Brennan is leading the Obama-ordered review of intelligence-gathering and watchlisting efforts, which failed to block Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane despite several red flags known to U.S. officialsincluding a personal warning from Abdulmutallab's father that the young man was displaying extremist tendencies.

Brennan said the review had so far yielded no evidence that various agencies withheld that intelligence from one another, as was the case with rival agencies in the lead-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"There is no indication whatsoever that any agency or department was not trying to share information" on Abdulmutallab, Brennan said. "There (were) some lapses. There was some human error."

Brennan defended the sophistication of the government's anti-terror system, after one interviewer questioned if it could stack up to Facebook, the popular Internet social networking site.

More broadly, he defended the Obama administration's anti-terror efforts, including its decision to charge Abdulmutallab in criminal court and its plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He said Obama would still consider returning ex-Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen.

He explained the decision to close the U.S. embassy in Yemen today by saying intelligence officials believe there is threat of another al Qaeda attack there.

And he said there was evidence that al Qaeda is training new operatives in Yemen to send "to the West" for possible attacks.

"We are doing everything possible to scour all the intelligence to see if there is another Abdulmutallab out there," Brennan said.Brennan spoke on "Fox News Sunday," CNN's "State of the Union," ABC's "This Week" and NBC's "Meet the Press."

In several instances, Brennan was followed by congressional Republicans who criticized his comments and the administration's national security policies.

The top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, said on Fox that he was "very disturbed" that Obama would consider releasing Guantanamo detainees to any other country, in light of reports that several al Qaeda leaders in Yemen are former Guantanamo prisoners released during the Bush administration.

"If we don't stop the practice of releasing Gitmo detainees, to Yemen or to other countries ... we're asking for even more trouble," Bond said.On CNN.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), said Brennan "seems to have a hard time saying (the bombing attempt) was an act of terror.""This threat is real," DeMint said, "and we need to make some very real changes."

Other Republicans were more measured. On CNN, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the chairman of the 9/11 Commission, praised Obama's reaction to the Flight 253 attack. But he said it was clear that until Christmas, the administration was "distracted" by health care, the economy, global warming and other issues and not "focused as it should be on terrorism."

In his interviews, Brennan rebutted one Republican charge repeatedly: former Vice President Dick Cheney's accusation last week that Obama is "pretending" that the United States is not at war with terrorists.

Cheney is either "willfully mischaracterizing" Obama's position, Brennan said, or "ignorant of the facts." The administration, he said, is "determined to destroy al Qaeda, whether it's in Pakistan, Afghanistan or in Yemen. We will get there."

Clinton Charity Draws Eclectic Donors

Clinton Charity Draws Eclectic Donors
Funders of Foundation Include Norway, Bill and Melinda Gates, Conservative Who Bankrolled Anti-Clinton Campaigns
01022010, 12:00:00, 0*, Full moon waning

by Mark Silva

It's high noon, with a leftover blue moon, on the cold day of the new year (and decade, we hold here) noted as 01/02/2010.

There's a certain equilibrium here at the moment.

What's past is passed, what's ahead will unfold.

We're trusting that 01022010 is not a midpoint.

The clock and the calendar do not roll backward.

But for now, all is in balance. The blue moon of New Year's Eve shone brightly overhead here, and we'll see it waning tonight.

iI's freezing in Washington as well:

Zero Celsius.

If you'd like to drop off your favorite palindrome here, we'll take it.

Obama: Al-Qaida Link To Christmas Bomb Suspect

President Barack Obama laid blame Saturday on an al-Qaida affiliate for a Christmas Day terrorist attack that has prompted a top-to-bottom review of how the nation's intelligence agencies failed to prevent the botched bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

Clinton Charity Draws Eclectic Donors

Clinton Charity Draws Eclectic Donors
Funders of Foundation Include Norway, Bill and Melinda Gates, Conservative Who Bankrolled Anti-Clinton Campaigns
01022010, 12:00:00, 0*, Full moon waning

by Mark Silva

It's high noon, with a leftover blue moon, on the cold day of the new year (and decade, we hold here) noted as 01/02/2010.

There's a certain equilibrium here at the moment.

What's past is passed, what's ahead will unfold.

We're trusting that 01022010 is not a midpoint.

The clock and the calendar do not roll backward.

But for now, all is in balance. The blue moon of New Year's Eve shone brightly overhead here, and we'll see it waning tonight.

iI's freezing in Washington as well:

Zero Celsius.

If you'd like to drop off your favorite palindrome here, we'll take it.

Obama: Al-Qaida Link To Christmas Bomb Suspect

President Barack Obama laid blame Saturday on an al-Qaida affiliate for a Christmas Day terrorist attack that has prompted a top-to-bottom review of how the nation's intelligence agencies failed to prevent the botched bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

Iraq Dismayed by Blackwater Dismissal
Relative of Civilians Among 17 Killed by U.S. Contractors Calls Judge's Decision to Dismiss Charges a "Farce"
TSA: Questions of screening and memory

by Mark Silva

The blocked nominee for chief of the Transportation Security Administration may face more than controversy over the unionization of the nation's airport screenershe now finds himself explaining his own only recently refreshed memory of some screening that he had undertaken on his own:

Background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend some 20 years ago.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and now assistant chief of the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, had informed senators reviewing his nomination by President Barack Obama to head the TSA of a regrettable incident long ago for which he had been rebuked.

He also said he'd only done so once.

Until following up with another letter to senators after his committee confirmation hearing acknowledging that there was one other time, too.

The White House is standing by its delayed nominee.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina had put a hold on Senate confirmation of Southers, contending that he is more interested in fulfilling an Obama campaign promise to unions than protecting national security. In the aftermath of the near-catastrophic lapse in intelligence and security that enabled a known threat to board a U.S.-bound airliner with explosives on Christmas Day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to push Southers' confirmation as soon as the Senate returnshe will invoke cloture.

Southers had given senators a letter in Novemberit was revealed just this week on the Washington Post's Web-sitecorrecting what he called a distortion in his record.

"I am distressed by the inconsistencies between my recollection and the contemporaneous documents, but I assure you that the mistake was inadvertent, and that I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment," Southers wrote in a letter to Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.) chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

"This incident was over 20 years ago, I was distraught and concerned about my young son, and never in my career since has there been any recurrence of this sort of conduct."

In an October affidavit for the Senate committee, the nominee initially had said that he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by his FBI superiors. He called it an isolated instance. But a day after the committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate, he wrote that he twice had run checks himself.

He said he had forgotten the incident in 1987 or '88.

The letter was first reported by he Post on Thursday. It was dated Nov. 20.

Lieberman aide Leslie Phillips said the senator supports Southers.

"Twenty years ago, Mr. Southers committed a serious error in judgment," Phillips said. "He admitted that error and was disciplined for it. He went on to develop broad knowledge and build an excellent reputation in the areas of security and law enforcement. Mr. Southers was forthcoming about his past censure during his nomination process and about errors he made in recalling the details."

White House officials also are backing him up.

"Southers has never tried to hide this incident and has expressed that these were errors he made in judgment that he deeply regretted and an error that he made in an account of events that happened over 20 years ago," said Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman traveling with Obama on vacation in Hawaii. ""Southers' nomination has not been held up over this as he has been entrusted with significant and increasing responsibilities in the area of homeland security over the years since, but he is being held up by Sen. (Jim) DeMint over a political issue."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also is behind him.

"Erroll brings vast homeland security experience at the federal, state and local levels, along with hands on airport security expertise," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "California is safer and better prepared because of his hard work and dedication. Erroll is a committed public servant and highly qualified for the role."

To Avoid Raising Taxes, States Try To Rack Up Fees

Many states want to avoid raising taxes on residents during a recession. But with widespread budget deficits, states are trying to increase revenue by turning to special fees — on hunting and fishing licenses, for example — or by increasing taxes paid by visitors on hotel rooms and rental cars.

Iraq Dismayed by Blackwater Dismissal

Iraq Dismayed by Blackwater Dismissal
Relative of Civilians Among 17 Killed by U.S. Contractors Calls Judge's Decision to Dismiss Charges a "Farce"
TSA: Questions of screening and memory

by Mark Silva

The blocked nominee for chief of the Transportation Security Administration may face more than controversy over the unionization of the nation's airport screenershe now finds himself explaining his own only recently refreshed memory of some screening that he had undertaken on his own:

Background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend some 20 years ago.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and now assistant chief of the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, had informed senators reviewing his nomination by President Barack Obama to head the TSA of a regrettable incident long ago for which he had been rebuked.

He also said he'd only done so once.

Until following up with another letter to senators after his committee confirmation hearing acknowledging that there was one other time, too.

The White House is standing by its delayed nominee.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina had put a hold on Senate confirmation of Southers, contending that he is more interested in fulfilling an Obama campaign promise to unions than protecting national security. In the aftermath of the near-catastrophic lapse in intelligence and security that enabled a known threat to board a U.S.-bound airliner with explosives on Christmas Day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to push Southers' confirmation as soon as the Senate returnshe will invoke cloture.

Southers had given senators a letter in Novemberit was revealed just this week on the Washington Post's Web-sitecorrecting what he called a distortion in his record.

"I am distressed by the inconsistencies between my recollection and the contemporaneous documents, but I assure you that the mistake was inadvertent, and that I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment," Southers wrote in a letter to Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.) chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

"This incident was over 20 years ago, I was distraught and concerned about my young son, and never in my career since has there been any recurrence of this sort of conduct."

In an October affidavit for the Senate committee, the nominee initially had said that he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by his FBI superiors. He called it an isolated instance. But a day after the committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate, he wrote that he twice had run checks himself.

He said he had forgotten the incident in 1987 or '88.

The letter was first reported by he Post on Thursday. It was dated Nov. 20.

Lieberman aide Leslie Phillips said the senator supports Southers.

"Twenty years ago, Mr. Southers committed a serious error in judgment," Phillips said. "He admitted that error and was disciplined for it. He went on to develop broad knowledge and build an excellent reputation in the areas of security and law enforcement. Mr. Southers was forthcoming about his past censure during his nomination process and about errors he made in recalling the details."

White House officials also are backing him up.

"Southers has never tried to hide this incident and has expressed that these were errors he made in judgment that he deeply regretted and an error that he made in an account of events that happened over 20 years ago," said Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman traveling with Obama on vacation in Hawaii. ""Southers' nomination has not been held up over this as he has been entrusted with significant and increasing responsibilities in the area of homeland security over the years since, but he is being held up by Sen. (Jim) DeMint over a political issue."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also is behind him.

"Erroll brings vast homeland security experience at the federal, state and local levels, along with hands on airport security expertise," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "California is safer and better prepared because of his hard work and dedication. Erroll is a committed public servant and highly qualified for the role."

Clinton Donor List Doesn't Say Who Gave In '09

The donor list disclosed by the William J. Clinton Foundation did show that conservative Richard Scaife, who bankrolled anti-Clinton investigations in the 1990s, pitched in money. Several other foreign governments, including Kuwait, Norway and Saudi Arabia participated. The biggest donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave more than $25 million.