Underpants bomber talking
According to testimony to the Senate yesterday as reported in the Washington Post, the Underoos bomber is talking again;
Separately, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told senators at an intelligence committee hearing that Abdulmutallab was giving information to investigators. Mueller did not elaborate.
The disclosures that the Nigerian student is cooperating with criminal investigators come amid a fierce debate in Congress over the Obama administration’s handling of the case and, more broadly, its approach to national security.
A report from Associated Press;
The break came when US interrogators brought Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s family to the US to convince him to cooperate.
U.S. investigators flew members of Abdulmutallab’s family from Nigeria to the United States on Jan. 17, the senior administration official said. The family members have proved vital in getting Abdulmutallab to talk, he said — indicating that it would have been counterproductive to interrogate him under military rules, as some have suggested.
They act like this makes up for Underoo’s clamming up after he was read his Miranda rights. Hardly. Do they think that terrorists don’t read newspapers? Any intelligence he could have provided after those first 50 minutes is now stale. Any training locations have certainly been dismantled, any trainers and contacts are in the wind. So why would they bother interrogating now? To build future legal cases.
It’s all such a waste of time.
ADDED: Of course dicksmith sees this as a vidication of Tony Camerino’s assertion that we don’t need enhanced interrogation techniques to extract information;
Silly me, I thought only torture techniques like water boarding, slamming into walls, sleep deprivation for 180 hours, placement in insect boxes or food deprivation above 1,000 calories a day could get a suspected al Queda [sic] terrorist to give reliable intelligence.
But we’re getting this information a month after it’s already stale. As DrewM at Ace of Spades accurately points out, this is a unique case. How many family members of these goat ropers are willing to help the US? Of course, we’re extracting old information – so what’s to celebrate?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
The real question is what did we have to give up to get him talking? Unless you believe the Nigerian family flew to the US to convince their son to talk just for the patriotic good of America, there must have been some offer of a deal.
No death penalty? No life in prison?
My point is that the administration bargained for the (now stale) info that we could have gotten for nothing had the military or CIA had custody of him from the start.
Everything they got in the 50 minutes will be ruled inadmissible, anyway. They didn’t Mirandize him from the start, so any court hearings will be moot.
Not that I think he should have been given Miranda Warnings, but when President “Justice” wants to try him in civilian court, he won’t get a conviction.
OOOps…I guess he wasn’t done talking avfter that first hour.
The Administration should be strung up and then shot.
I wonder if he sounds like a castrati?
As a lawyer myself (I know, I know, always a dangerous opening to any sentence), I wonder why the FBI thought they had to Mirandize this guy in the first place? The physical evidence, the videotape made by the passengers showing the Nigerian nad-roast, and the statements from the eyewitnesses on the plane are more than enough to convict.
Prosecutors didn’t need his admission for a conviction. They needed timely intelligence, and they lost that by Mirandizing this guy.
So they fail to Mirandize him? Big deal. His statements are excluded as evidence, but they have overwhelming physical evidence, documentary and eyewitness testimony.
Who ever ran this investigation needs to turn in his badge and rubber gun.
AP, exactly right. And, they don’t need to offer him any kind of a deal. Like you said, the video of the nad-roast and the statements of the witnesses are more than enough for a conviction, either in court or at a tribunal.
So ask away, if you don’t need his statements in court, it can’t hurt anything.
Enough evidence to convict? Hell, take a look at his burnt up winkie. (or don’t….DADT is still in effect) They carried him off the plane still smoking!!!!
I guess the airline coffee [b]was[/b] really hot..
He’s a friggin’ emo shit. Pat him on the shoulder and tell him we understand his problems. He’ll cry his heart out. I’ll betcha’ anything that is what they are doing with him. Some people really do need to attempt to deep throat a 12 guage.