Lietzau will be central to decisions about trying the remaining Guantanamo detainees in reformed military commissions or in federal courts, and to the construction of a new terrorism detention policy.

“If all we’re doing is exporting Guantanamo to Thomson for purposes of military commissions and indefinite detention,” said one civil liberties advocate, “we’re very strongly opposed to that.”

“It is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do,” Adm. Mullen said.

“This QDR focuses on the wars we are actually fighting, not the wars we sometimes wished we were fighting,” a Defense Department official said.

Leading defense wonks call the move “ridiculous,” “completely inappropriate” and politically motivated.

Ahead of the State of the Union, top aides contend Obama’s first-year task was to revitalize international support for America that waned during the Bush administration.

The Christmas-time apprehension after Flight 253 landed in Detroit was more ad hoc and chaotic than the administration has portrayed, according to Dennis Blair.

Analysts — those who have worked on al-Qaeda and on other threats — describe themselves as “drinking from a firehose” of information shared with the National Counterterrorism Center by the partner intelligence agencies.

“What you’ll end up doing is opening up the firehose to full blast,” said one member of the intelligence community. “They’re barely able to handle what they have right now.”

“It is my country’s duty to ask for the custody of our detainees, like every country would do,” the Yemeni official told TWI.