Full Statement From Shelby's Office On The Blanket Hold

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo sent TPM the following statement this morning on Shelby's decision to place holds on a number of Obama's nominees Thursday:

Sen. Shelby has placed holds on several pending nominees due to unaddressed national security concerns. Among his concerns is that nearly 10 years after the U.S. Air Force announced plans to replace the aging tanker fleet, we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward. The Department of Defense must recognize that the draft Request for Proposal needs to be significantly and substantively changed.

Sen. Shelby is also deeply concerned that the Administration will not release the funds already appropriated to the FBI to build the Terrorist Explosives Devices Analytical Center. This decision impedes the U.S. military, the intelligence community, and federal law enforcement personnel in their missions to exploit and analyze intelligence information critical to fighting terrorism and ensuring American security worldwide. The Obama Administration wants to read terrorists our Miranda rights and try them in U.S. courts but is impeding the processing of evidence that could lead to convictions. If this administration were as worried about hunting down terrorists as it is about the confirmation of low-level political nominations, America would be a safer place.

The administration claims to take a tough stance in fighting terrorism, yet the fiscal year 2011 budget request proposes to rescind these funds, contradicting the concerns of the FBI Director and the commander of the U.S. Army's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), both of whom are responsible for the safety of soldiers and agents fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is currently a 20-year backlog of forensic evidence that has been extracted from explosive devices, many of which were used to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. JIEDDO projects that submissions to the FBI could reach as high as 1,500 to 2,500 boxes per month when the war-fighting season in Afghanistan resumes in the Spring of 2010.

Evidence from the backlog examined by the FBI has matched the fingerprints of individuals applying for positions with the Iraqi National Police force, as well as individuals who have moved to the United States. The backlog continues to grow, sitting idly filling multiple warehouses, as the administration proposes to cut funding for the FBI that would allow them to more expeditiously process this evidence.

Sen. Shelby will continue to work with the FBI to give them the capability to coordinate intelligence as well as forensic and technical exploitation related to IEDs, but this administration's coddling of terrorists makes this an uphill effort. He has made the Administration aware of these concerns and is willing to discuss them at any time.