PITTSBURGH — Criticism by some senators of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to treat attempted airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a prisoner to be handled according to American standards of justice is entirely unjustified.
When Mr. Abdulmutallab was arrested Dec. 25 he was questioned briefly and read the Miranda rights that cover anyone arrested on American soil. According to Mr. Holder, he made the decision to handle Mr. Abdumutallab in that fashion after consultation with the FBI. The Nigerian was clearly both an alleged criminal and a potential source of intelligence.
The charge by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and others is that in dealing with Mr. Abdumutallab in that fashion — as opposed to labeling him an enemy combatant, turning him over to the military and the CIA, and likely grilling him with irregular methods such as waterboarding (as might have been his fate during the Bush administration) — the attorney general risked losing useful intelligence that could possibly have been extracted from the Nigerian.
To read more click here.
