Free Republic

By the U-Bomber’s concept of justice, one he shares with millions of jihadists around the world, an aggressive act is a permissible “defensive” act when waged against anyone defaming Muhammad. So fundamental a truth is this in the U-Bomber’s mind that he sees no need to include in his motion any details, real or invented, of any wrongdoing or provcative behavior on the part of the officers that could explain his outbrust of violence. He never says the officers flushed his Koran, or called him an Islamophobic name, or tried to read to him from the polytheist Bible. What he...

Obama says he has not made a final decision to move the 9/11 trial out of New York City but he indicates the trial and security costing a mere billion dollars from “his stash,” i.e. taxpayer dollars, will not be the deciding factor. Wherever it is held, Attorney General Eric Holder wants transparency. Apparently, Obama has finally found something he is willing to see C-SPAN conduct non-stop coverage of: the 9/11 trial. Do they still prefer a federal show trial? You betcha! Meanwhile, Obama’s “intelligence” choir is singing the praises about a Bush 43 intelligence failure: Richard Reid being allowed...

First, [he] would have gathered [his] entire national-security team, not just the Justice Department ... Second, assuming Abdulmutallab had been designated as an enemy combatant, the interrogators would have thoroughly interrogated him to learn if he had information that could prevent a future attack. ... Third, once they were satisfied that he had no additional intelligence to provide, he would have been transferred for prosecution to either the civilian or the military system. ... But don’t take our word for it. Let’s briefly review what the Bush administration actually did after 9/11. (Warning to all leftist drones: Do not click...

McCarthy points out Reid was just one of many attacks we saw. Allowing Richard Reid to remain silent did nothing to prevent Flight 253. Instead of making that same mistake, President Bush had thousands of terrorists interrogated and dozens of attacks were prevented; not affording Constitutional rights to terrorists (besides Reid) prevented those attacks. Initially repeating a past mistake with Abdulmuttalab is not mitigated by the fact President Bush "did it" eight years earlier. McCarthy went on to write: That brings us to a third point Democrats would prefer to forget: “The Wall,” the internal regulations adopted by the Clinton...

The Obama administration apparently never made or discovered a mistake not worth repeating....Stupid is as stupid does, that Richard Reid was read "his" rights was a poor example to follow; that too was an intelligence failure. Reid was arrested not three months into our invasion of Afghanistan, while the hunt was still under way in Tora Bora, and several months before Jose Padilla, Binyam Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Ramzi Binalshibh were captured. Bush 43 could have ordered Reid turned over for military detention as his November 13, 2001 Military Order proscribed and yet he at least seemed to learn from...

At the White House briefing Thursday afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Bond for politicizing intelligence and haughtily demanded an apology: “No briefing is done here or anywhere in this administration where classified information is used in a place where it shouldn’t be,” Gibbs said. “And I would suggest that somebody that alleges that, when they know it doesn’t happen, owe[s] people an apology.” The White House contends that the sensitive information about cooperation from Abdulmutallab was unintentionally disclosed during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday. At the hearing, Mueller responded to concern from Senator Olympia Snowe that the...

The ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., dismissed the White House’s call for him to apologize for alleging that the administration leaked information about Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab for political reasons. "After telling me to keep my mouth shut, the White House discloses sensitive information in an effort to defend a dangerous and unpopular decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and I’m supposed to apologize?" Sen. Bond said in a paper statement today. Bond’s statement followed White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ strongly-worded suggestion today that the Senator owed an apology to the law enforcement community and those...

Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) provided a tutorial on why Miranda warnings did not ever need to be provided to Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. It took place on February 3, 2010, during testimony by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and FBI Director Robert Mueller before the Senate Intelligence Committee (2 minute 54 second video here.) Attorney General Eric Holder decided on Christmas Day to direct that Abdulmuttalab be read his rights. By doing so, he prevented the immediate gathering of further intelligence because Abdulmuttalab elected to remain silent and speak to a lawyer before answering further. Not reading...

AG Eric Holder said he knows we are at war during his November 18, 2009 testimony before the Senate Judicary Committee concerning his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four 9/11 conspirators in federal court. Unfortunately, Mr. Holder does not walk that talk. (See video of Fox News report here.) Attorney General Eric Holder says he made the decision to charge the Christmas Day terror suspect in the civilian system with no objection from all the other relevant departments of the government. In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the attorney general says that the...

I don’t believe that Director Robert Mueller told the whole truth. ...Mueller cited "Quarles" which indicates FBI agents initially believed "the use of the Miranda warnings could be avoided" because "public safety was at issue" (New York v Quarles). Perhaps limiting questions to asking Abdulmuttalab if he had accomplices aboard Flight 253 (who might also have bombs) and if bombers were aboard additional aircraft currently in flight or soon to depart would be upheld by the courts. Yet at least two hours went by before they read Abdulmuttalab the warnings because FBI agents know similar and simultaneous attacks are al...

Stephen Hayes writes today in The Weekly Standard that there is no protocol in place to evaluate a terrorist captured here for their potential intelligence value and the FBI agents who arrested Flight 253 bomber Abdulmuttalab decided on their own if and when to read him Miranda warnings. Yet those agents were operating in the dark: "Mueller testified that those FBI agents interviewed Abdulmutallab about "ongoing and other threats." What the FBI director did not mention was that his agents interviewed the terrorist without any input from the National Counterterrorism Center -- the institution we now know was sitting on...

"You are a terrorist, and we do not negotiate with terrorists." -- Federal District Court Judge William G. Young to Richard C. Reid, at his sentencing to life in prison on January 30, 2003. Reid pled guilty to attempting to blow up in flight American Airlines Flight 63."-----Chris Wallace (January 3, 2010, Fox News Sunday): "But once [Abdulmuttalab] gets his Miranda rights, he doesn't have to speak at all." The President's Homeland Security Assistant John Brennan: "He doesn't have to, but he knows that there are certain things that are on the table, and if he wants to, in...