Congress Will Focus on Terrorism This Week With Hearings on Domestic Attacks

Congress will turn its eye to terrorism this week with a buffet of high-profile hearings on domestic terror attacks.

Republicans are expected to bring tough questions for intelligence officials and the Obama administration on the politically sensitive topic of how to deal with suspected terrorists -- as enemy combatants or as criminals.

The hearings are expected to range far beyond the attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing, as Republicans made clear Tuesday.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will use the hearing on the botched Northwest Airlines attack to draw a distinction between anti-terror policies under President Bush and those under President Obama.

The hearing will "provide a forum to discuss the national security policies of this administration, policies that I believe are moving us back toward the failed approach in place before 9/11," Sessions said.

It has been nearly a month since student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to bomb the trans-Atlantic Northwest flight Dec. 25. The Nigerian student sits in federal custody in Michigan after pleading not guilty to terrorism charges.

But today will mark the first opportunity for lawmakers to publicly grill bureaucrats and administration officials on the incident.

One Senate committee will hear today from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which has been under scrutiny for not linking intelligence information to detect Abdulmuttallab.

Obama admitted that a "failure to connect dots" allowed Abdulmutallab to bypass security measures and board Northwest Flight 253.

source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republica...id=9605025