Shortly after noon on Christmas Day, federal agents were notified that Northwest Airlines Flight 253 had arrived at the Detroit airport from Amsterdam, with a passenger, Farouk Abdulmutallah, who had tried to blow up the aircraft.
So, what’s the big deal about the FBI arrest and questioning of the suspect and not turning him over to the military as an enemy combatant?
The bomb had severely burned Abdulmutallab, but he was conscious and talking to everyone. As he was taken from the airport, he told the EMTs and others that he was part of Al Qaeda. He told them where he came from and he told them about the faulty explosive device. However, when the FBI read him his Miranda legal rights after the incident, he went silent.
There was no effort to call in the federal “High-Value Interrogation Group,” a special team of terror specialists that the Administration created last year to deal with terror suspects captured abroad.
He should have been placed immediately in military custody and there would have been no question of Miranda rights. There was much actionable Intelligence that may have been learned if the military had questioned him.
He remains silent today.
