Yesterday, I posted on the FBI secretly reading detainees their ‘Miranda rights’ in Afghanistan. This morning, Stephen Hayes has more on the story in The Weekly Standard:
A Justice Department spokesman told the Weekly Standard Thursday that the department will not be answering any questions about the number of high-level detainees who have been Mirandized since Barack Obama took office five months ago.
“I can’t comment on how many people have been Mirandized in recent months or years, as that information might relate to ongoing investigations and prosecutions, but there has been no policy change — the FBI Mirandizes suspects overseas to preserve the quality of evidence and does so on a case-by-case basis, depending on the circumstances,” said Matthew Miller, Director of the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs.
DOJ Confirms FBI is Reading Miranda Rights to Detainees in Afghanistan
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd confirms Steve Hayes’s report that the FBI is reading Miranda rights to terrorist suspects in Afghanistan:
“There has been no policy change and nor blanket instruction issued for FBI agents to Mirandize detainees overseas. While there have been specific cases in which FBI agents have Mirandized suspects overseas, at both Bagram and in other situations, in order to preserve the quality of evidence obtained, there has been no overall policy change with respect to detainees.”
Posted by John McCormack (The Weekly Standard with links to a related post by Stephen Hayes, June 10, 2009)
Last night, Mark Levin ripped into the decision to read terrorists their “rights,” starting here:
Then Mark spoke with Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) about how he discovered this while on the ground at our detention facilities in Bagram, Afghanistan:
“Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and [Obama is] worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”
Now, play the video above (slide it to start at 1:48) to hear candidate Obama respond on September 8, 2008 (hat tip to John McCormack at The Weekly Standard).
“Don’t mock the Constitution?” Nowhere within it or the Amendments does it say “These rights will be extended to all foreigners, including America’s enemies.” In addition, the Geneva Conventions only state that captured lawful combatants must be allowed to remain silent (they need only provide their name, rank, and place of birth). The Conventions deliberately left unlawful combatants unprotected to discourage them from hiding among and endangering civilians.
It is President Barack Obama who mocks our Constitution by extending rights to Islamic terrorists — without the consent of the governed here in America and contrary to the Constitution. He is making the battlefield more hazardous for our troops and us less safe here at home.
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Related: Andy McCarthy and Mark Levin discuss ‘Miranda rights‘ of Islamic terrorists
