....is the title of Stuart Taylor's devastating piece in today's National Journal. Taylor, a moderate who remains critical of waterboarding (and the death penalty), does not let ideology get in the way of fact. He is appalled at the administration's lack of sobriety in obtaining what one day is certain to be vital intelligence.
The whole article is a must-read. Here's a sample:
[T]he rationalizations by Attorney General Eric Holder and other administration apologists have been...breathtakingly bereft of seriousness about the need for aggressive interrogation to protect our country.
Abdulmutallab might have been the first of a dozen Christmas Day bombers seeking to perfect the Bojinka plot, for all Holder and his colleagues knew at the time. It was sheer luck that this was not the case.
And the decision to read Abdulmutallab his rights, bring him a lawyer, and stop asking questions may yet get Americans murdered by his co-conspirators in Yemen -- who might have been located and captured or killed but for his five weeks of post-Miranda silence.
As non-lawyer, Taylor's article was helpful in clarifying what Miranda does and does not say.
At its core, Miranda says that a defendant has a right not to be a witness against himself--coerced statements can not be used at trial.
With 285 witnesses, Abdulmutallab's confession was not needed. Where the sanctimonious Holder was wrong-to the detriment of our fight against terror, is that Miranda apparently does not forbid aggressive interrogation to protect public safety.
Holder is clearly in over his head.