The federal government missed a real opportunity to get intelligence from Christmas Day accused bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because authorities indicted him while he was still talking, a Republican lawmaker said Sunday.
January 10, 2010
FoxNews.com
The federal government missed a real opportunity to get intelligence from Christmas Day accused bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because authorities indicted him while he was still talking, a Republican lawmaker said Sunday.
Abdulmutallab was in FBI custody for about 30 hours before he claimed a lawyer and clammed up.
“When you indict him, you immediately read him his Miranda rights, you give him a lawyer and he stops talking,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Sunday. “You can pursue a court action against this person later on if you want to, but right now the key thing is intelligence.”
Kyl joined 21 Republicans in sending a letter to President Obama on Friday night urging him to try the alleged underwear bomber in front of a military tribunal instead of a civilian court.
But Democrats say intelligence officials got what they needed from Abdulmutallab, who failed in his attempt to detonate an explosive during a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
“They obtained actionable intelligence and they made a decision after that — the local prosecutors — that the individual should be tried in civil court,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told “Fox News Sunday.”
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