"'Serious mistake' if car bombing suspect was Mirandized"

[unixronin]

So says John McCain of the attempted Times Square carbomber.  Because then we'd have to prosecute him through the criminal justice system and he'll have, like, rights and stuff, instead of treating him as an "enemy combatant".  Because we've just gotten SO MUCH vitally important intelligence out of all the "detainees" we've been storing indefinitely at Guantanamo.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Differences:

(1) McCain really was fighting in uniform for the military of a recognized Power which obeyed the Laws of War, when he was captured. By contrast, the car-bomber was fighting out of uniform for no military of any recognized Power, and he was attempting to commit a war crime when captured.

(2) McCain was treated far worse than we've treated the Guantanamo detainees.

Were those the points you were trying to make, or were you genuinely unaware of these differences?

You dishonor the memory of the Vietnam veterans by comparing them to the Taliban.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Your points are taken. That said, Shahzad is a US citizen who committed a crime on US territory, and should be tried under US law, not buried in a "detention" system of questionable legality that might get around to actually trying him for something five or ten years from now. The entire initial statement from McCain is absurd; there is no way in which reading Shahzad his Miranda rights can weaken the ability to prosecute him or to obtain any useful intelligence from him. (Not that I consider the latter at all probable. He's too small a fish, for one thing.)