Abdulmutallab, American Values, And The Problem Of Treating War As A Law Enforcement Excercise

The blogprof reports that Detroit bomber 'singing like a canary' before arrest until he was treated as an ordinary criminal and advised of his right to silence. You'll note he had to get this from The Telegraph, a United Kingdom newspaper as no word of such has been reported in the local news.

Indeed, the provision of full American criminal law protections, including such lawyering-up is being praised by some former Michigan US Attorneys as a wonderful triumph of law: American values v. Abdulmutallab

As former U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan, we are confident in the ability of the federal justice system to handle the trial of Abdulmutallab and any other terrorism suspect. During our time at the U.S. Department of Justice, we never felt the need to stray from our traditional justice system to prosecute those responsible for heinous crimes. There is no need to start now.

And therein lies the rub. The honorable former US District Attorneys, and President Obama for that matter, are mistakenly treating this as a criminal matter, note their emphasis when they say "prosecute those responsible for heinous crimes". After all they're very good at law enforcement and that's the mode in which they function so they slot Abdulmutallab into the criminal defendant slot and proceed from there.

Now, lawyering-up is a time-honored American Tradition, certainly valid for American citizens and others who reside or visit the US. But whether we should extend it to a terrorist with whom, as has been stated even by President Obama that, "we are at war", a terrorist who would not have even touched American soil had his plan been successful is ridiculous.

Indeed, such action is dangerous, as noted by the blogprof, valuable and time-sensitive intelligence has been lost due to the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being allowed to invoke the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, rights for which he is not entitled. He is not a criminal but instead a terrorist or saboteur and a thorough interrogation, followed by execution is all he is entitled to under the laws of war.