Posted on 01/08/2010 6:49:01 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
Eric Holders Justice Department rushed to file an indictment Wednesday against Flight 253 terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The telling document is a monument to lost opportunity. Come hell or high water, the Obama administration will press ahead with its commitment to treat al-Qaedas war against the United States as a crime wave best managed by the federal courts.
Al-Qaeda, in fact, is a term you will not find in the bare-bones, seven-page charging instrument. Nor will you encounter such words as Yemen, jihad, terrorism neither Islamic or Islamist. And if youre looking for the names of any co-conspirators such as the al-Qaeda satellite (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) that has publicly claimed credit for the attempted Christmas Day atrocity, or the enemy combatants whove been running that outfit since their improvident release from Gitmo youd best look elsewhere.
Mentioning enemy combatants, of course, would be tantamount to saying there is an ongoing military conflict. It would be as if Congress had authorized the use of force after an attack against the United States as if we had, say, a couple of hundred thousand American troops in harms way. Theres no hint of that in this indictment. Instead, we helpfully learn that Delta Airlines is a United States commercial airline of which Northwest Airlines [is] a subsidiary. We learn that Northwests Flight 253, along with the 289 passengers and crew onboard, were at all times material to this Indictment . . . in the special maritime jurisdiction of the United States.
That turns out to mean that we can have a civilian criminal prosecution in which venue is proper in the Eastern District of Michigan. What could possibly be more important than that?
Lots of things: gathering intelligence, for one. We have now had confirmed by President Obama himself, along with top White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan that, while Janet Napolitanos system was working so well, Abdulmutallab was an untapped well of operational intelligence.
Hed been training with al-Qaeda for weeks in Yemen, now one of the hottest hubs of terror plotting. He was undoubtedly in a position to identify who had recruited him, who had dispatched him on his mission, and who had trained him in fashioning and detonating chemical explosives. He was in a position to tell us what al-Qaeda knows, that Janet Napolitano apparently doesnt, about our porous airline-security system. He was, moreover, almost certainly in a position to pinpoint paramilitary training facilities, to tell us about other al-Qaeda trainees being taught to do what he was trying to do, and to fill many gaps in our knowledge of the terror networks hierarchy, routines, and governmental connections in Yemen.
That was not to be. The Obama administration decided that forging ahead pell-mell with a criminal prosecution was more important than acquiring every morsel of useful information Abdulmutallab has to give. That meant telling him, immediately upon arrest, that he didnt need to speak to the government at all if he didnt want to. It meant promising to get him a lawyer. It meant he could only be questioned for a few hours by agents who happened to be on the scene but probably didnt know much about al-Qaedas Yemeni operation. It meant the assignment of a defense lawyer and required court appearances that instantly shut down all questioning.
And, yesterday, it meant the Justice Department had to file a stop the clock indictment. Under the Speedy Trial Act, when an arrested person is denied bail, the government has only ten business days to file formal charges. So the government hastily slaps together a very lean indictment. Prosecutors never want to allege anything theyre not positive they can prove. Blunders in an indictment signal that someone may have given false testimony in the grand jury or that the Justice Departments theory of the case is flawed. Such errors are exploited to great effect by defense counsel at trial.
So, at this premature investigative stage, the government alleges only what it knows for sure. Indications are that it doesnt know much. There are only six counts. They all charge Abdulmutallab alone, as if he were the only relevant actor in this conspiracy. Indeed, by the Justice Departments lights, you cant even call the case a conspiracy. DOJ hasnt charged one not with al-Qaeda, not with anyone.
For now, the indictment portrays Abdulmutallab as if he were the lone-wolf terrorist that Obama administration officials, including the president himself, absurdly labeled him to be in the initial hours after his capture, snug in their default denial of the fact that there is a war on and that jihadists still hate us despite all the Cairo speechifying, the bowing, the engagement, and the new tone. Abdulmutallab is accused, by his lonesome, of trying to destroy an airplane, of using explosive devices, and of the attempted murder of 289 people a number that apparently includes the terrorist himself. (Thats not likely to go over well with the presidents fans in the right to die community, but when youre in a mad rush to meet a litigation deadline, these sorts of hiccups happen.)
Rest assured this wont be the final indictment. The investigation is now scorching the earth with subpoenas. Phone and travel records are being combed. Old wiretaps are being scrubbed. Ultimately, there will be a superseding indictment, and it will probably include conspiracy charges. For now, though, the government is playing catch-up with events. More important, it is playing catch-up without Abdulmutallab. Because Obama is going the civilian prosecution route, there is no interrogating him without his lawyers okay and that wont be given unless the Justice Department is willing to plea bargain and make valuable concessions.
And thats the point. Even the current skeletal indictment shows we can easily convict Abdulmutallab and get him sentenced to life imprisonment without knowing a single additional detail. We could do that tomorrow or five years from now. We dont owe this terrorist any concessions. The case and the evidence are not going anywhere.
Prosecutorial success, however, has precious little to do with national-security success. For the latter, we need intelligence. We could have gotten it and gotten it right now, when it would be most useful to U.S. military and intelligence officials trying to protect Americans.
President Obama could have designated Abdulmutallab an enemy combatant, detained him as a war prisoner, denied him counsel, and had him interrogated until wed exhausted his reservoir of information. Indeed, the president could still do that. He could direct the attorney general to table the indictment. Then, some time down the road, he could hand Abdulmutallab back to the Justice Department for prosecution. No, we wouldnt be able to use the fruits of his military interrogation against him. But as the indictment filed Wednesday shows, we dont need those statements to convict him. We could convict him now.
To protect the United States, though, we dont need Abdulmutallabs conviction. We need his information. Wednesdays indictment demonstrates what two weeks of Obamas amateur-hour performance have suggested all along: We dont have it.
Consider the following
Bush was eclected in Nov 2000, took office in Jan 2001, Sept 11th happened 8 months after taking office and the press, media, Democrats cried it was Bush’s fault.
Obama was elected in Nov 2008, usurped the Presidency in Jan 2009, every terrorist attack since then has been labeled Bush’s fault, even after the Ft Hood terrorist attack, which was even 10 months into Obama’s, or in the eleventh month the airliner incident.
Barack Hussein Obama, the terrorists best friend.
There is no proof we will live to see tomorrow either....lying SOBS !!
Next thing you know, Holder will be tapping phones. The horror !
Hammer, meet nail. This guy has it exactly right.
Colonel, USAFR
“Give them civil trials” is going to turn into Obama’s “let them eat cake” moment.
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