Senator Bond: Security over politics

White House Cites Information Obtained From Christmas Day Bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab As Justification For Mirandizing Terror Suspects

Senator Kit Bond has issued a letter to President Obama, in which he protests the White House media briefing concerning the renewed cooperation of the Christmas Day terror suspect. Such a briefing says Senator Bond, serves only to alert our enemies with no other purpose achieved. In the case of Abdulmutallab, vital and actionable information was lost through the five week gap between the attempted plane bombing and his renewed speaking with the authorities.

Family Played A Key Role

While using the sudden urge of the suspect to talk as justification for treating terror suspects as criminals rather than enemy combatants, the reality in this case is that the family of Abdulmtallab played the key role in getting him to open up. By issuing Miranda rights less than an hour after capture, any immediate knowledge the suspect had as to terrorist locations, strategies and personnel is lost. Unless family can be counted on in every case to be there at the time of capture, ready and able to convince the captive to speak, the mirandizing of suspects puts the country in greater danger and goes against the concept of national security.

Some of the Senator's Comments

"...It is deeply disturbing to me that the Intelligence Committee would be advised of sensitive information, and told of the vital imperative to keep such information secret for the sake of national security, only to see this information – less than twenty-four hours later –broadcast to the world from the White House.  This distortion of the congressional notification process suggests that other considerations are taking precedence over keeping timely and sensitive information away from our enemies.

Some have tried to use Abdulmutallab’s sudden cooperation as a justification for prosecuting this foreign terrorist in an Article III court, but I believe this development supports an opposing view.  Because we treated him in this fashion, we followed Miranda and advised him of his right to remain silent, losing five crucial weeks for obtaining imminent threat information.  Miranda is issued when statements from the accused are needed to obtain a conviction, but in this case we did not need his own statements as the chemical evidence he was wearing and over 200 witnesses would ably suffice; hence, the decision to Mirandize made no sense on a practical or strategic level.  Additionally, Abdulmutallab’s family was key in gaining his cooperation, and in most cases the suicide bomber does not have a moderate Islamic family willing to work with the United States; in fact, the opposite is most often the case (as with the suicide bomber that killed seven CIA officers in Khost, whose wife applauded her husband’s actions)..."

From Examiner.com