“Also triggering debate was the decision to read Shahzad his “Miranda” rights against self-incrimination. The Miranda issue rose to prominence after the Nigerian suspect in the Christmas Day incident, Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, stopped cooperating with authorities after being read his rights. Some Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said Shahzad should not have been afforded that constitutional right “until we find out what it’s all about.”
But administration officials said Shahzad, who, like Abdulmutallab, was initially responsive to questioning under a “public safety exception” to the Miranda rule, continued to cooperate after his rights were read to him. They also pointed out that Shahzad is a U.S. citizen and must be tried in civilian, not military, court. “
To review:
Shahzad, a U.S. citizen, was properly and legally Mirandized. And he is cooperating with investigators and apparently providing good information.
Yet the Chicken Littles so eager to hand federal authority vast and unchecked new powers over the individual — all in the name of temporary safety — will no doubt continue their clucking.
On the other hand, Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo) and others are correct when they point out that the NYC attack could have turned out very differently.
“Like the Christmas Day bomber, we were lucky that both of these folks were incompetent — they couldn’t trigger the explosives,” Bond said.
To a degree, that’s not just luck. The theory behind counterterrorism is to keep the enemy under such sustained pressure that he cannot muster a sophisticated, organized attack like that of Sept. 11 or the attack on Mumbai, India. So far, we’ve managed to do that.
However, there’s no doubt that luck was also involved. The attempts will keep coming, and eventually one may succeed. We have to accept that, and to understand that terrorists win when terrorists terrorize. A refusal to be terrorized — including a refusal to sacrifice the essential liberty that is our birthright in vain hope of temporary safety — must be part of our defensive response.
As Winston Churchill liked to say, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
156 comments Add your comment
Jay
May 5th, 2010
9:41 am
Well Brad, getting 18-20 terrorists recruited, trained, moved into the country and sustained secretly until they converge took a pretty high degree of sophistication, I would argue, especially coordinating all that while staying beneath the government’s radar.
Outhouse GoKart
May 5th, 2010
9:41 am
Bug…that murder was done for “the safety of the children”. It takes a village.
Normal
May 5th, 2010
9:41 am
THat’s the left handed guy that shot himself in the right temple and then drug himself several miles from a park back to his own office.
Worst case of suicide I ever saw…
————————
Bosch,
Meant to say hi earlier, but I got sidetracked. Loved your funny…
Paul
May 5th, 2010
9:42 am
TaxPayer
“I hardly need your advice regarding documentation to review on the issue that I raise.”
Just thought, as there appeared to be misunderstanding of department roles and responsibilities, you’d appreciate some sources to learn about it.
Let it go -
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
9:42 am
Ya’ know, I’m no expert and all, but I was pretty surprised by the guys photo they splashed all over the news compared to the guy in the video. And, are they really able to tell anything from those videos?
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
US inUK
So let’s be clear. You believe that he acted alone, with no help rom anyone. Is that what you are claiming?
Donovan
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
I still like the Iraqi way. You get caught, you know what’s coming. And, what’s coming is not pleasant. Very effective and very informative in results. Gosh, Jay, I feel so much safer with you guys handling terrorists.
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
“no. THat’s the left handed guy that shot himself in the right temple and then drug himself several miles from a park back to his own office. ”
yaaayyyyyyyyyyy!!!
Bosch – they may move on, but they’re never really gone, are they …
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
“I’m sure that his relationship with the Clintons had nothing to do with it.”
Yeah, me too.
Normal
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
Jay, why is my 9:37 moderated?
DOGGONE/STUPID
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
Jay, perhaps you might write a column on proper blogging or allowing some one to voice an opinion without some one else attacking one intellect or patriotism or simply just being civil and respecting others.
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
9:44 am
Bugatti – 9:43 – ah. no. I haven’t said anything even remotely like that.
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:44 am
Normal
Great line out of Analyze That: Tragic story. He stabbed himself in the back seven times and then threw himself off a bridge.
Paul
May 5th, 2010
9:45 am
Brad 9:37
[[But high-jacking planes with box cutters doesn’t really qualify as sophisticated. ]]
That operation was years in the making. People were identified, abilities assessed, training sought (large aircraft landing). Money was funneled, our security systems were analyzed and exploited. Items, such as box cutters, which were effective in meeting the objectives but would pass security, were utilized.
Sounds pretty sophisticated.
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
9:45 am
Jay’s handling the terrorists? Well, gosh Jay, you didn’t tell us about your moonlighting.
Doggone/Stoopit
May 5th, 2010
9:45 am
Sure Bosch – evidently it was a WHITE MALE. A WHITE MALE IN HIS 40’s!
WHITE MALE, WHITE MALE, WHITE MALE.
Most likely someone that is disgruntled with the new healthcare bill! OMG! He probably is a TEABAGGER! EEEEEEKKKK! Get the women and children inside!
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
9:47 am
“Jay, perhaps you might write a column on proper blogging or allowing some one to voice an opinion without some one else attacking one intellect or patriotism or simply just being civil and respecting others.”
States “Doggone/Stoopit”
Normal
May 5th, 2010
9:47 am
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:44 am
I thought you might get that…
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
9:48 am
bugatti and Normal –
this actually is a true story – happened on WGST in the late 80’s/early 90s – the anchor intro’d a story about a body being found in the trunk of a car – said that it was found decapitated, dismembered and taped up in boxes … tossed it to the reporter, saying “do police suspect foul play?”
mike
May 5th, 2010
9:48 am
First Jay said:
“Yet the Chicken Littles so eager to hand federal authority vast and unchecked new powers over the individual — all in the name of temporary safety — will no doubt continue their clucking.”
The Jay said:
“Back it down several notches, please.”
Perhaps if your entire reason for existing was not to inflame people, you would not got this kind of rhetoric. Your juvenile “you are with us or you are against us” rhetoric appeals only to people who want to believe the worst in those who disagree with them.
Perhaps if you were more civil, your audience would be too.
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:48 am
Bosch
All those AR Cops that were his bodyguards and saw everything he did that are now all dead? Just one silly little mistake after another. So their all dead. Clinton loved each and every one. I’m sure he had nothing to do with any of that. After all, he was so honest and all.
Doggone/GA
May 5th, 2010
9:49 am
“DOGGONE/STUPID” – “you might write a column on proper blogging or allowing some one to voice an opinion without some one else attacking one intellect”
Pot, meet kettle
Doggone/Stoopit
May 5th, 2010
9:49 am
Got the wrong Stoopit there Boschie. I was the one that called US in UK a blankety, blank, BLANK.
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
9:49 am
bugatti,
Just saying, but the whole Bill Clinton had Vince Foster murdered is just as whacky as Bush is responsible for 9/11.
Normal
May 5th, 2010
9:50 am
“you are with us or you are against us”
Didn’t Bush use that line?
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:50 am
USinUK
WGST. Wasn’t that the station that WKRP in Cincinnati was written about? It was an Atlanta station, but I’m not sure which one.
Oh crap. I’m late for work.
bye.
mike
May 5th, 2010
9:51 am
The notion that Clinton had anything to do with Vince Foster’s death is as absurd as the notion that Bush had the levees in NO dynamited. Pure silliness.
mike
May 5th, 2010
9:52 am
Normal –
“Didn’t Bush use that line?”
Yes, that is why it is an effective line to use against his critics. It points out that their rhetoric is far more extreme than the man the lived to attack.
TaxPayer
May 5th, 2010
9:54 am
Paul,
Let it go.
Normal
May 5th, 2010
9:57 am
Yes, that is why it is an effective line to use against his critics. It points out that their rhetoric is far more extreme than the man the lived to attack.
Call me dense, but I don’t get it. Very fuzzy logic to me.
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
9:57 am
hooray!!!
today’s headline of the day:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1272931/Osama-bin-Laden-Iran-claims-Feathered-Cocaine-documentary.html
bugatti
May 5th, 2010
9:57 am
Bosch
Going fast. I’m late, but I read an online article several years ago about an entity that protects very high political figures. They connected Foster and all of Clinton’s problems, but also said that Bush had the same kind of skeletons. This organization was sort of like the Knights Templar of American Politics and have been around since the beginnings of the country.
I’m not a real conspiracy fan, but to be honest, I wouldn’t put anything past anybody when there is that much money and power involved.
DOGGONE/STUPID
May 5th, 2010
9:58 am
Doggone, are you and Bosch ganging up ? Do you not agree that proper blogging etiquette would be a topic that perhaps we ALL may benifit ?
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
9:58 am
but of course, we all know the truth … OBL actually lives here:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2010/05/ahmadinejad-bin-laden-lives-in-dc.html
TaxPayer
May 5th, 2010
9:59 am
If only the airlines had not balked at the added cost of securing those doors leading to the pilot. Those blasted unreinforced doors. Then again, profits first. Just as BP or Massey or any red-blooded capitalist. Where would we be today if profits took a back seat to safety and security.
Doggone/GA
May 5th, 2010
9:59 am
“Do you not agree that proper blogging etiquette would be a topic that perhaps we ALL may benifit ?”
“Proper” blogging is whatever the blog owner allows. You don’t like it? Set up your own blog, and YOU can set the rules.
Normal
May 5th, 2010
10:00 am
Jay,
Seriously, why was my 9:37 moderated? There isn’t a cuss word in it.
Disgusted
May 5th, 2010
10:01 am
People were identified, abilities assessed, training sought (large aircraft landing).
Agree with your point Paul, but the 9/11 hijackers weren’t interested in landing the aircraft. In fact, one raised suspicions of a flight instructor early in the plot when he asked the instructor to teach him to fly an aircraft, but not to take off or land it.
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
10:01 am
Dear Mr. Stoopit,
I have no qualms about my blogging etiquette, as most here can tell you that I am really tame — but don’t you think it’s odd that you choose a name that implies a regular here is stupid? You might want to look inward when calling out for proper blogging etiquette. Just a thought.
RW-(the original)
May 5th, 2010
10:02 am
A quick drive by for those of you that were claiming this guy’s path to naturalization would have been years in the making. Um…not so much
Six months tops if he applied the day he got married.
Mick
May 5th, 2010
10:03 am
I wonder if we should be triple checking people that fly in on and out on arab emerate airlines. Neil young – best album, harvest.
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
10:04 am
RW – he was in the US since he was 19 as a student -
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
10:05 am
“Six months tops if he applied the day he got married.”
And why does it matter in the grand scheme of things?
Jay
May 5th, 2010
10:06 am
Normal, because it was feeding into a feud I was trying to quell. No biggie.
Jay
May 5th, 2010
10:07 am
new post upstairs
Kamchak
May 5th, 2010
10:10 am
Tick…tick…tick….
RW-(the original)
May 5th, 2010
10:10 am
RW – he was in the US since he was 19 as a student -
Is that the new SQUIRREL? It hasn’t a thing to do with when or under what circumstances he applied for citizenship.
Bosch,
I really don’t want to understand what your idea of the grand scheme of things would entail. Somehow when I try to get in your head all I can hear is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
See y’all
USinUK
May 5th, 2010
10:15 am
RW – “It hasn’t a thing to do with when or under what circumstances he applied for citizenship.”
we don’t know what his circumstances for citizenship were – and that includes YOU … I’m just saying he was in the country legally for the last 11 years, so we don’t know when he filed.
Bosch
May 5th, 2010
10:16 am
RW,
I guess, so in other words, that’s just your nice way of saying it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
DOGGONE/STUPID
May 5th, 2010
10:24 am
Bosch , I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, I wroe an honest blog meaning no harm to anyone, and all of a sudden I get attacked by by you and Doggone/Ga. I don’t think I omitted myself from learning something, ( WE ON THE RIGHT ARE OPEN MINDED) until today I do not believe you and I have addrssed each other, but you choose to attack me. Because of a name, if my name was Al and your name was Alford would that imply that one of us drive a ford ? I opened my comments today voicing an opinion on a policy and was attacked by doing so, right or wrong we all have opinions. Now if you or Doggone/Ga. or U SinUK want to debate my intial blog in the intent it was wrote then I welcome your comments, if not I will ignore you going forward.
Urban Republican
May 5th, 2010
11:37 am
Bosch:
The Constitution is for citizens who acknowledge its supremacy in the rule of U.S. laws, not terrorist who could care less and are hell bent on destroying our way of life.
We pay for the oil, we try to make peace in the Middle East by orchestrating talks between Palenstine and Israel and we are funding the modernization of Islamic countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. From Haiti to Indonesia, when a disaster strikes we are there to help.
theyeshaveit
May 5th, 2010
12:34 pm
DOGGONE/STUPID, if you do not feel comfortable here, I some advice for you, “Love it, or leave it.”
JAG Lawyer Lindsey Graham: ‘I Want To Stop Reading These Guys Their Miranda Rights’ | No Bull. news service.
May 5th, 2010
4:56 pm
[...] show any evidence of Miranda rights being counterproductive to gathering intelligence. Authorities Mirandized Shahzad, who is reportedly continuing to cooperate and provide [...]
workhunt.net » Blog Archive » JAG Lawyer Lindsey Graham: ‘I Want To Stop Reading These Guys Their Miranda Rights’
May 5th, 2010
5:41 pm
[...] show any evidence of Miranda rights being counterproductive to gathering intelligence. Authorities Mirandized Shahzad, who is reportedly continuing to cooperate and provide [...]
Philip Tortora
May 5th, 2010
9:58 pm
The debate over whether Faisal Shahzad should have been read Miranda Rights, or stripped of his citizenship is a moot point. The bigger issue at hand is what kind of punishment will be handed down to Shahzad if he is found guilty of charges that he intended to set off a car bomb and kill scores of people.
http://philiptortora.blogspot.com/2010/05/forget-miranda-rights-punishment-phase.html
Lindsay Graham, another crypto-totalitarian « Later On
May 6th, 2010
2:34 pm
[...] show any evidence of Miranda rights being counterproductive to gathering intelligence. Authorities Mirandized Shahzad, who is reportedly continuing to cooperate and provide [...]