Why are Conservatives Afraid of the American Justice System?

Christmas Day (attempted) underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was taken into custody by the FBI on December 25, 2009. This is certainly not an unusual occurrence. In fact it happens all the time, and should.                                               

In fact, the mission Statement of the FBI is: To protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners. (I didn’t make this up you can look it up for yourselves).

On the evening of December 25, 2009 John Brennon, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security called a number of senior members of Congress and spoke to Senators McConnell and Bond. Mr. Brennon also spoke to Representative Boehner and Hoekstra and explained to them that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was in F.B.I. custody. That Mr. Abdulmutallab was in fact talking. That he was cooperating at that point. Mr. Brennon went on to say “They knew that in FBI custody there is a process that you follow. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at this point,” Brennan said. “They were very appreciative of the information.”

OK, so an individual is taken into custody (ON US SOIL) and arrested after attempting to blow up Flight 253. Check!
Congressional leaders are notified. Check!
The suspect is interrigated by the FBI and is talking Check!
The suspect is read his Miranda Rights. Check!

Everything is fine and appropriate according to the law, and then comes the shit storm from the political right. Virtually all the Republican leadership in Congress criticized the Obama administration for not turning over Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to the United States Military for interrogation (We all now these wing nuts mean turned over to the United States Military so he could be secreted away, held without charges and possibly tortured).

 Anyone arrested on United States soil (anywhere outside of a military installation) whether they are a United States citizen or foreigner is constitutionally and by long standing practice the jurisdiction of the FBI and not the Military.

The United States Military’s jurisdiction is outside the borders the United States, to defend the United States from foreign enemies and only on the orders of the Commander in Chief. If you were to stretch the military’s authority and jurisdiction to anyone inside the United States who was deemed to be a terrorist then where would it stop? Don’t we all have constitutional right from being unlawfully imprisoned? Don’t we have the right to an attorney? And the right to a fair trial? No matter what crime we may have committed. Is this basic concept even in question? If it is we need to be afraid, very afraid.

Of course my favorite rant not surprisingly was form the very “intellectually challenged” (notice the political; correctness here) right wing nut, Sarah Palin from Alaska.

In her speech to the Tea Party convention Sarah Palin said: “What followed was equally disturbing after he was captured. He was questioned for only 50 minutes. We have a choice in how to do this. The choice was only question him for 50 minutes and then read his Miranda rights. The administration says then there are no downsides or upsides to treating terrorists like civilian criminal defendants. But a lot of us would beg to differ. For example, there are questions we would have liked this foreign terrorist to answer before he lawyered up and invoked our U.S. constitutional right to remain silent.”

Of course Sarah Palin failed to mention he was only questioned for 50 minutes because he had to be sent for medical treatment. Only then was he read his Miranda Rights. Or is she insinuating that the United States should deny anyone in their custody basic medical care? Or maybe the largest Democracy should have tortured an injured man (terrorist or not). How does that make us any different from our enemies?

It’s easy to dismiss Sarah Palin because she always rants about issues she knows nothing about and continues to display a profound ignorance if the issues and/or the law. Actually I am beginning to believe that Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman both are part of some alternate universe as both of them have a tenuous grasp on reality.

But what is disturbing were statements made by the Republican leadership in congress. The four Republicans immediately took umbrage at Brennan’s comments, saying they were not told of any decision to read Miranda rights to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the attacker. E.g.-

“Brennan never told me any of plans to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber — if he had I would told him the administration was making a mistake,” Bond said.

Spokesmen for McConnell and Boehner described brief or “courtesy” calls on Christmas Day that did not amount to a full briefing. “During a brief call from the White House, McConnell was given a heads up that Abdulmutallab was in custody, but little else. He wasn’t told of the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab,” said Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman.

Kevin Smith, spokesman for Boehner, said the congressman received a short, unclassified, non-secure call on his cell phone in which he was not told that Abdulmutallab was read Miranda rights.

Seriously, other then Sarah Palin is there anybody in this country that doesn’t know that the FBI always gives suspects in their custody their Miranda Rights? Everyone knows this. These people very obviously should know, and if they don’t know once again we should be afraid, be very afraid.

John Brennon fired back at these wing nuts on Meet the Press and other subsequent statements.

USA Today reports: Obama's top counterterrorism adviser responded to critics of the administration's policies and defended its handling of the failed Christmas day bomber.


Echoing comments he also made on "Meet The Press" John Brennan, the assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for homeland security, said that most critics to the president were "misrepresenting the facts to score political points, instead of coming together to keep us safe."


"Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall," Brennan said.


Brennan said that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was "thoroughly interrogated and provided important information," and that senior officials from the White House, the intelligence community and the military also supported the decision to charge him in criminal court.


Brennan also defended the decision to read Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights, something that Republicans have harshly criticized. Brennan said the decision to do so was "a long-standing FBI policy that was reaffirmed under Michael Mukasey, President Bush's attorney general."


He added that the most important information was actually obtained from Abdulmutallab after he was read the rights.


"The critics who want the FBI to ignore this long-established practice also ignore the lessons we have learned in waging this war: Terrorists such as Jose Padilla and Saleh al-Mari did not cooperate when transferred to military custody, which can harden one's determination to resist cooperation."


Brennan said it was "naïve" to think Abdulmutallab would have been more prone to dispel valuable information if he was transferred to military custody.


"There is little difference between military and civilian custody, other than an interrogator with a uniform. The suspect gets access to a lawyer, and interrogation rules are nearly identical," he said.


"The notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd," Brennan added.


Brennan also charged that critics were being hypocritical, saying that "would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid was read his Miranda rights five minutes after being taken off a plane he tried to blow up. The same people who criticize the president today were silent back then."


Brennan also sought to highlight successful actions taken by the administration, saying their efforts have "disrupted dozens of terrorist plots," and that they have been responsible for "killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists."


"We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war," he added.

Mr. Brennan said that Abdulmutallab was treated no differently than any other terror suspect arrested on U.S. soil and 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."

Good for you Mr. Brennon, your obviously a voice of reason and sanity.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the Senate that the alleged underwear bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab was talking to intelligence and law enforcement authorities.

"It is a continuum in which over a period of time, we have been successful in obtaining intelligence, not just on day one, but on day two, day three, day four, and day five, down the road," Mueller said. Charlie Savage and Scott Shane at the New York Times subsequently reported that Abdulmutallab's cooperation had been secured in part by the influence of his family, who had been flown in”.

See it just goes to show that bringing in your mother is a better method to get actionable information then any kind of torture. After all no one ever wants to disappoint their family, especially their mother.

And, even more telling, as if that wasn’t enough. The Huffington Post reports: As Republicans take full aim at the Obama administration's decision to let the Department of Justice oversee the prosecution of terrorism cases; it is worth recounting that this is largely a continuation of its predecessor's policies.

On Tuesday, both Newsweek and the Huffington Post reported that GOP lawmakers were wrong to question Attorney General Eric Holder's statement that more than 300 individuals have been tried successfully on terrorism-related charges in criminal court settings. The number may have been exaggerated to make DOJ seem more effective -- but it was a figure used by the Bush administration.

A document from John Ashcroft's Department of Justice in 2005 praises the work done by criminal prosecutors to put terrorists behind bars. "Altogether, the Department has brought charges against 375 individuals in terrorism-related investigations, and has convicted 195 to date," the 24-page memo reads. "While every component within the Justice family has contributed to the fight against terror, the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, the U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review have led the Department's work to protect America from terror."

So to the Republican leadership and critics of the Obama Administrations policy of lawfully detaining suspects (any suspects terror related or not) Stop playing political games with our National Security. Scare tactics won’t solve the problem. Either get your facts straight and engage in honest and thoughtful political discussion, or SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

Regards,

Tom