Israel Matzav

Lieberman, Collins urge moving Abdulmutallab to military custody

Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-Ct) and Susan Collins (R-Me) have urged the Obama administration to transfer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a Delta/Northwest Airlines jet on its Christmas Day approach to Detroit, into military custody. Lieberman is the Chairman, and Collins is the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Here is part of the letter they sent the Obama administration.

The President has affirmed repeatedly that we are at war with al-Qaeda and, as you well know, Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, was trained and sent by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to ruthlessly and mercilessly kill hundreds of innocent civilians, including the Americans on Flight 253 and many more on the ground. Osama Bin Laden also claimed yesterday that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack.

Nevertheless, once Abdulmutallab was in custody, federal law enforcement officials on the ground in Detroit read the terrorist his Miranda rights. According to press reports, by the time the Miranda rights were read and Abdulmutallab went silent, he had been questioned for just under an hour, during which time he had been speaking openly about the attack and AQAP’s role. The decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal rather than a UEB almost certainly prevented the military and the intelligence community from obtaining information that would have been critical to learning more about how our enemy operates and to preventing future attacks against our homeland and Americans and our allies throughout the world.

During a hearing before our Committee last week titled Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack, we were told that the Department of Justice did not consult with leadership in the intelligence community and the Department of Defense for their input on whether or not to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal and read him his Miranda rights. In addition, in the aftermath of the hearing, we learned that the so-called High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which the Department of Justice announced last August - more than four months ago – is not yet operational.

Though the President has said repeatedly that we are at war, it does not appear to us that the President's words are reflected in the actions of some in the Executive branch, including some at the Department of Justice, responsible for fighting that war. The unilateral decision by the Department of Justice to treat Abdulmutallab - a belligerent fighting for and trained by an al-Qaeda franchised organization - as a criminal rather than a UEB and to forego information that may have been extremely helpful to winning this war demonstrates that very point.

The Administration can reverse this error, at least to some degree, by immediately transferring Abdulmutallab to the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense has the authority and capability to hold and interrogate Abdulmutallab and try him before a military commission. We urge you to take that course of action immediately and to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to avoid repeating such mistakes in the future.

America is in good hands. What could go wrong?

UPDATE 8:31 AM

Here's an indication of just how badly the US government messed up with Abdulmutallab.

On "Fox News Sunday," Chris Wallace asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs whether the President was told that Abdulmutallab was Mirandized after only 50 minutes of interrogation. Mr. Gibbs said the decision was made "by the Justice Department and the FBI" and insisted they got "valuable intelligence."

This is awful. This talky terrorist should have been questioned for 50 hours, not 50 minutes. More pointedly, Abdulmutallab should not have been questioned by local G-men concerned principally with getting a conviction in court. He should have been interrogated by agents who know enough about the current state of al Qaeda to know what to ask, what names or locations to listen for, and what answers to follow up. The urgent matter is deterring future plots, not getting Abdulmutallab behind bars.

It gets worse. Appearing before Congress last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted that the HIG group [High Value Detainee Interrogation Group. CiJ] essentially doesn't even exist yet. They haven't pulled it together.

Recall that in August Mr. Obama announced the intention to create a multi-agency HIG, transferring lead responsibility for interrogations away from the CIA and into the FBI, with techniques limited to the Army Field Manual.

And worse. As a Wall Street Journal account of last week's Senate Judiciary hearings noted, the HIG team is intended only for interrogations overseas; the Administration hasn't decided whether to use it domestically. In any event, that's moot until there is an HIG team.

...

Ultimately, the national security bureaucracies take their signals from the top. In August Mr. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that their war on terror would be fought inside the framework of Miranda and the civilian justice system. Before Justice ordered him Mirandized, would-be suicide bomber Abdulmutallab thus gave us 50 minutes in the mortal war against al Qaeda.

It has to get better than this. But it won't unless the President throws his weight publicly behind the officials who want to make it better than this.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:23 AM