Posted on 01/21/2010 8:58:49 PM PST by smoothsailing
January 22, 2010
It seems like a pretty simple question. Who made the decision to charge Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused terrorist arrested for trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, as an everyday criminal, as opposed to an enemy combatant?
After all, Abdulmutallab was trained by al Qaeda, equipped with an al Qaeda-made bomb, and dispatched by al Qaeda to bring down the airliner and its 278 passengers. Even though the Obama administration has mostly abandoned the term "war on terror," the president himself has said clearly that the United States is at war with al Qaeda. So who decided to treat Abdulmutallab as a civilian, read him the Miranda warning, and provide him with a government-paid lawyer -- giving him the right to remain silent and denying the United States potentially valuable intelligence that might have been gained by a military-style interrogation?
This week that simple question -- Who? -- became more complicated after several of the administration's top anti-terrorism officials testified on Capitol Hill. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, said he wasn't consulted before the decision was made. The director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, said he wasn't consulted, either. The secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said she wasn't consulted. And the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, said he wasn't consulted.
"The decision was made by the agents on the ground," Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, referring to the officials who apprehended Abdulmutallab when the plane landed in Detroit. American agents questioned the accused terrorist briefly before he was taken to a hospital to be treated for burns suffered in the attempt to set off explosives hidden in his underwear. After that, Mueller testified, "in consultation with the Department of Justice and others in the administration," the agents read him his rights.
And that was that. "Isn't it a fact, that after Miranda was given ... the individual stopped talking?" Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions asked Mueller.
"He did," Mueller answered. But Mueller declined to say who made the decision to grant Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent.
The issue is enormously important because Abdulmutallab, newly trained by al Qaeda in the terrorist group's latest hot spot, Yemen, likely knows things that would be very useful to American anti-terrorism investigators. He's not some grizzled old terrorist who's been sitting in Guantanamo Bay since 2003 and doesn't have any new intelligence. He's fresh material. Yet he is protected by U.S. criminal law from having to answer questions.
Why? Republicans on the Judiciary Committee increasingly believe there is only one person who can answer: Attorney General Eric Holder.
It was Holder who made the decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a criminal trial in New York. It is Holder who has expressed his desire to grant full American constitutional rights to foreign terrorists. It is Holder who is leading the administration's sputtering effort to move some Guantanamo inmates to the United States. And it is Holder who is apparently cutting other parts of the government out of crucial terrorism decisions like the treatment of Abdulmutallab.
"These days, all roads lead to the attorney general," says one well-placed Republican source in the Senate. "They seem to have aggregated quite a bit of power inside Main Justice." The problem is, the Holder Justice Department appears to be handling terrorism issues from a defense-attorney perspective, and doing so without the input of the government's other terrorism-fighting agencies.
That was the message of Wednesday's testimony from Blair, Leiter, Napolitano, and Mueller, all of whom were out of the loop on the Adbulmutallab decision. Their accounts left a number of Republican senators shaken; as the GOP lawmakers see it, the decision to read Abdulmutallab Miranda rights was a dreadful mistake, one that could have serious consequences down the line. There should be some accountability.
So on Thursday all seven Republicans on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Holder asking for a full explanation: Who made the decision and why, and whether the administration now has "a protocol or policy in place for handling al Qaeda terrorists captured in the United States."
Republicans were troubled by the decision even before Wednesday's testimony showed that major administration figures knew nothing about it. Now, the lawmakers want to know what happened, and they believe the only person who can tell them is Holder.
Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on www.ExaminerPolitics.com ExaminerPolitics.com.
I certainly agree that muslims are the enemy. Their allies are “political correctness” and “sensitivity awareness” that the Left infects American minds with from our schools to our politics.
Hey, Zer0 decided to go on vacation; Biden was on vacation; Pelosi was on vacation; Hitlery was in Chappaqa cleaning up Bill’s semen stains; Homeland Security was off meeting with her girlfriend; national intelligence was skiing with his kids. So, who’s to blame???
Since Bush was in Texas, the blame shifts to the kid in Concourse C!
These idiot dolts didn’t have anybody of power manning the controls during Christmas!
EXCERPT Several of Obama's top anti-terrorism officials testified on Capitol Hill that they were not consulted about charging accused terrorist Abdulmutallab as an everyday criminal, as opposed to an enemy combatant.......
The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, said he wasn't consulted, the director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, said he wasn't consulted, either, Homeland Security Secy Janet Napolitano, said she wasn't consulted, head of the FBI, Robert Mueller said he wasn't consulted.......
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A VERY DISTURBING GOVERNMENT MINDSET INSIDE OUR WHITE HOUSE
The undie bomber is mollycoddled and given the cover of our laws BUT Obama-Incompetano pulled out all the stops to "nail" Americans few months back when these nitwits profiiled American citizens as “rightwing extremists.”
On April 7, 2009, the admin's hatred of Americans spewed forth as Incompetano's Office of Intelligence and Analysis sent out a nationwide alert to US L/E to act against "evil" conservatives......DHS identified “rightwing extremists” as a "danger" and defined “rightwing extremists” in a footnote, as follows.
EXCERPT--- DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis nationwide alert to US L/E. Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
DHS later said that the report was not an attempt to squash First Amendment Rights for conservatives----only "hate groups"---- but, there was NO attempt to exempt anyone from these broad generalizations. Obama/Incompetano's report paints EVERY ASPECT OF AMERICAN CONSERVATISM as "suspect."
This is indicative of a very disturbing government mindset. Obama-Incompetano's documented hatred of Americans, and ordering L/E to surveil and supress Americans......contrasts sharply with their kid glove handling of terrorists bent on violence and destruction.
EXCERT FROM SEN BROWN"S VICTORY SPEECH Healthcare, yes......but Sen-elect Scott Brown also tapped into America's disgust with this admin's coddling of terrorists. "And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them."
Nice how Brown slapped down an arrogant SOB posing as a president and Eric Holder---the dumbest USAG America has ever seen.
Eric the RED Holder is DANGEROUS for AMERICA!!
Thanks for the ping, Liz - and for all the good work on this latest atrocity by the Nobama administration.
Holder needs to be accused of and arrested for treason. (Chances are better for this to happen for him than for his boss who of course is behind it all).
I hope very much that new Senator Scott Brown and all the Congressional Republicans and EVERY Republican on the national scene will NOT STOP calling for Holder’s resignation, followed by an investigation of charges of treason against him.
I further hope - on another note - that the Republicans, inspired by Senator Brown’s great victory - to hold an immediate summit about the American economy, and lay out for the nation four or five clear measures MUST BE DONE urgently in order to try to turn the economy around as quickly as possible before so much damage is done that we cannot recover and millions more Americans will suffer because of the economic destruction being wrought by the Demonrats on this country.
Senator-elect Brown spoke of across the board tax cuts for businesses and individuals.
THIS SHOULD BE THE NUMBER ONE MEASURE PROPOSED BY EVERY REPUBLICAN IN EVERY POSITION - STATE AND NATIONAL - STARTING TODAY AND NOT SHUTTING UP NO MATTER HOW THE LEFTISTS SCREAM THAT IT WILL INCREASE THE DEFICITS.
Bull malarkey - we MUST do this - NOW! Do encourage everyone you know to call for both (HOlder’s resignation and immediate and across the board tax cuts for businesses and individuals - and don’t stop doing so until these actions are taken.
I think it’s quite apparent this was Holder’s doing with Obama’s seal of approval. The high-value whatever bureaucracy was not in place after months because they couldn’t care less about it. “We are not at war with islam”.
"General, I just got back from the Omaha Beach. A cargo ship has landed and the president has ordered all men to report to the ship to exchange uniforms and equipment. We are going to be issued these new uniforms, stun guns and handcuffs. The orders are to use the stun guns to subdue the enemy combatants, hand cuff them and send them to New York for trial."
Think of the billions of dollars we would save with firing all these bureaucrats that missed the crouch bomber on the plane and weren't even asked what to do with him when caught!!
There might be enough money to pay for healthcare.
I fully support the reading of Miranda rights...for Holder, Napolitano, et al.
“EXCERT FROM SEN BROWN”S VICTORY SPEECH Healthcare, yes......but Sen-elect Scott Brown also tapped into America’s disgust with this admin’s coddling of terrorists. “And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.”
Gotta love it!
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