Posted on 01/24/2010 7:47:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Washington Post supported the Obama administration's treatment of Christmas day bomber Umar Abdulmuttalab as a criminal rather than as an enemy combatant. In an editorial published yesterday, It has nevertheless retracted its support. The Post writes that it "originally supported the administration's decision in the Abdulmutallab case, assuming that it had been made after due consideration. But the decision to try Mr. Abdulmutallab turns out to have resulted not from a deliberative process but as a knee-jerk default to a crime-and-punishment model."
The Obama administration's treatment of Abdulmutallab as a criminal accorded the constitutional rights of an American citizen is absurd and indefensible. Yet the administration persists in it.
It is highly unusual to see a prominent newspaper editorial board publicly change its mind. The stated ground for the Post's original editorial position is lame. It criticizes the decision on procedural grounds. Is the Post incapable of judging its substance?
A defective decision making process is more likely to have resulted in a defective decision, but who cares what process the Obama administration used to come to the wrong decision? The administration is full of world-class liberal chin pullers who would come to the same decision if they had taken more time to think about it. They are simply on the wrong track.
Yesterday's Post editorial also concludes on a lame note. The Post can't quite bring itself to the conclusion that the Obama administration's treatment of Abdulmutallab as a criminal is in fact a mistake. Maybe, maybe not. It professes to have an open mind on that question.
It notes, on the one hand: "The administration claims Mr. Abdulmutallab provided valuable information -- and probably exhausted his knowledge of al-Qaeda operations -- before he clammed up. This was immediately after he was read his Miranda rights and provided with a court-appointed lawyer."
That sounds bad. Abdulmutallab was singing like a bird until the FBI read him a Miranda warning. Reasonable people would conclude that he stopped singing because of the warning.
But here the Post injects a note of epistemological uncertainty befitting a college philosophy class. The Post asserts, on the other hand: "The truth is, we may never know whether the administration made the right call or whether it squandered a valuable opportunity." The truth is, we may never know this only if we are prohibited from employing the most basic common sense to assess the situation.
More importantly, however, the administration's decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal is mistaken on its face. It cannot be defended on the merits in principle and the administration has not chosen to do so. It is an obvious mistake that can be rectified -- the administration can dismiss the criminal proceedings and remit Abdulmutallab to the custody of the armed forces as an enemy combatant -- but it would be helpful to have reasonable administration allies like the Post editorial board say that it should do so forthrightly.
If the administration now chose to treat Abdulmutallab as an enemy combatant, he might well remain "clammed up." At that point we would have a good case in which to debate the folly of the administration's abandonment of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program.
Abdulmutallab’s Encounter With the “Clean Team”
Before being Mirandized, he was singing like a canary.
BY Stephen F. Hayes
January 23, 2010 8:11 PM
The Associated Press has a fascinating blow-by-blow account of the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that adds several new details to previous reports on his handling. Overall, however, this news does not change the disturbing picture of the reflexive, law-enforcement-first approach the Obama administration took with the al Qaeda operative. And with the new details come new troubling questions.
The story tells us that Abdulmutallab was Mirandized approximately 10 hours after he was taken into custody. Before then, he received medical attention and was interrogated twice. The first interrogation was conducted by local FBI agents and included a Customs and Border Protection official and an agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. The first interview lasted 50 minutes, and Abdulmutallab reportedly talked freely. The second interview, five hours later, the FBI used a “clean team” that included elements of local joint terrorism task force. The second interrogation yielded nothing. When Abdulmutallab was Mirandized, he stopped cooperating altogether.
The story is fascinating both for what is in it and for what is not. Nowhere in the detailed narrative do we learn about contact with intelligence officials in Washington. And several senior counterterrorism officials testified in Congress on Wednesday that they were not consulted about the interrogation process.
TWS reported that the FBI officials who interrogated Abdulmutallab did not draw on the many pieces of intelligence that had been collected by the US intelligence community over the previous several months.
The bottom line: Abdulmutallab’s cooperation was limited to a 50-minute preliminary interview conducted by local agents as he waited for pain meds and more treatment. The second interview produced nothing and he has exercised his newfound right to remain silent ever since.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/abdulmutallabs-encounter-clean-team
BUMP!
Why doesn’t The 0ne just go and talk to the perp?
And indeed, the AP story reports: "The suspect spoke openly, said one official, talking in detail about what he'd done and the planning that went into the attack. Other counterterrorism officials speaking on condition of anonymity said it was during this questioning that he admitted he had been trained and instructed in the plot by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen."
If Abdulmutallab provided such valuable intelligence on AQAP and its role in his attack in just 50 minutes, why would the Justice Department allow him to be Mirandized. And why, three days after Abdulmutallab gave his interrogators such detailed information on the attack, did the president say three days later that he was an "isolated extremist?"
:-)
OH, I was guessing that you’re upset over the football game.
Osama bin laden calls AbdulMutallab hero
According to a Sky News report, bin Laden, in the new recording obtained by Al Jazeera TV, warns Obama that attacks against the US would continue.
The message sent to you with the attempt by the hero, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, is a confirmation of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of September 11.
America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine.
God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis continue, the audio said.
The officials who spoke to AP said on-scene investigators never discussed turning the suspect over to military authorities. Their accounts show that as the hours passed, the FBI turned to its own expert counterterror interrogators and made no effort to involve the special unit, which was not yet up and running.
They provided an account of the law enforcement response to the holiday bombing on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose details of the investigation.
According to them, after being restrained and stripped bare by fellow passengers and crew, AbdulMutallab was handed over to Customs and Border Protection officers and local police.
The officers decided the suspect needed immediate medical attention, and an ambulance crew took him to the burn unit at the University of Michigan Medical Centre.
Investigators are allowed to question a suspect without providing a Miranda warning if they are trying to end a threat to public safety.
The group said it considered the language a possible indicator of an upcoming attack in the next 12 months.
This phrase, Peace be upon those who follow guidance, appears at the beginning and end of messages released in advance of attacks that are designed to provide warning to Al-Qaedas enemies that they need to change their ways or they will be attacked, the group said.
In a statement carried by Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden praised the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a US airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day.
He warned the United States that, God willing, our attacks against you will continue as long as you maintain your support to Israel.
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201001253183423
That, and they are waking up to how dangerous his decisions are for the country in general. I wonder if Holder can count on obama not firing him.....somehow, I think he can.
I just saw your "yes" and decided to bug you.
;-)
IIRC, it came out recently that they never actually created it.
Well, the interrogation of the Nigerian has gone from 30 hours down to 50 minutes. LIARS all.
Not that I've heard.
But, if something has to go . . .
Whatever the combo, we're gonna be sucking wind for a while still.
Along with that other twin tower of journalism from New York..........
by month end not year end. More coming out this week.
Strange thing going on with the forum, the posts only show through the pings tab now.
Is that right?
*Fetching gun to threaten computer*
Oh noez! Save your weapon for the enemy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.