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fox -- President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser expressed frustration with Washington on Sunday, saying Republicans are playing politics on national security and making ignorant allegations about the investigation into the Christmas airliner plot.

Saying congressional Republicans are using a "500-mile screwdriver" to criticize the administration about its response to the failed attack in Detroit, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said the GOP is motivated by partisan purposes and second-guessing the case.

"Quite frankly, I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as a political football," Brennan said. "They are going out there. They're unknowing of the facts. And they're making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality."

The fact that Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was read his Miranda Rights is being tried in civilian court instead of a military one has become a big issue on Capitol Hill. Many Republicans say Abdulmutallab belongs in miltiary court under a different set of rules.

And Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, accused the White House of its own political games for revealing that Abdulmutallab was talking to interrogators after saying he had clammed up after being read his rights in the first hour of his containment.

But Brennan said he personally briefed top GOP lawmakers on Christmas night about Abdulmutallab's arrest and that none of them raised objections.

"There's been quite a bit of an outcry after the fact, where again, I'm just very concerned on behalf of counterterrorism professionals throughout our government, that politicians continue to make this a political football and are using it for whatever political or partisan purposes," he said.

Brennan added that the FBI and others involved in his arrest acted appropriately.

"I think those counterterrorism professionals deserve the support of our Congress," he said. "And rather than second-guessing what they are doing on the ground with a 500-mile screwdriver from Washington to Detroit, I think they have to have confidence in the knowledge and the experience of these counterterrorism professionals." ...