"'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]

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.)