RRW goes to Washington for Senate Homeland Security hearing

http://www.youtube.com/watch? I got up very early yesterday and joined thousands of commuters from western Maryland to make the trek to Washington, DC (lucky for me it’s only the rare occasion that I join them!) As I reported here last night, Senator Joe Lieberman’s Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on the missing Somali “youths”, former refugees or the children of refugees, who have reportedly left the US to join the terrorist group al Shabaab.
I arrived early enough to have chosen a seat anywhere in the room but foolishly sat near the back. When the room quickly filled to standing room only and the hearing began, my choice of a seat turned out to be a rotten one because I couldn’t see which witness was speaking.
A little aside: The press tables on both sides of the room were soon filled with journalists from all sorts of media outlets. They signed in and received a copy of each of the witnesses written testimony (not available to the public but supposedly will be on line). I wondered if the time would come when bloggers would be official journalists. After giving it some thought, I realize that I don’t want that time to come. We know that some leftwing bloggers have become not only journalists but advisors to Presidential campaigns and I think that is a mistake. There is enormous freedom with blogging— to be only a lowly citizen reporting what one learns and sees is a good thing. I want to keep it that way, at least for me.
Now, back to the hearing. I’m going to just have to give you bullets of information as they occured in the hearing and throw in my observations from time to time. If I write this as a reporter might, it will take me all day and you would be bored with too lengthy a narrative (it will be long enough even in the bullet format).
I’ve already mentioned Senator Lieberman. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) was a key player and very knowledgeable. Entering a little later three other Senators showed up for brief visits: Senator Rowland Burris (D-IL), Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah). Excepting Lieberman in Connecticut, all of the other Senators have significant Muslim Immigrant populations in their states. I wondered if Senator Collins was thinking about Portland and Lewiston throughout and whether this could happen to her Somali population.
So here goes:
* Senator Lieberman in opening remarks said this was the most significant case of terrorist recruitment in the US, although a less severe case than Europe is experiencing...more..http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/rrw-goes-to-washington-for-senate-homeland-security-hearing/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?