Fuck you John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Peter King. It was bullshit enough that people we capture in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t deserve rights, but an American fucking citizen?!?! There’s plenty of GOP bullshit to be pissed about, but this, to me, takes the cake.
Beyond the denial of a citizen’s rights and the total disrespect for due process, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that without informing someone of their rights, you have a pretty good chance of getting half your evidence thrown out. So not only do they advocate a downright evil course of action, its the stupidest thing you could do if you actually want to hold the guy accountable*.
*- Unless, you know, we just ship the dude off to an island somewhere. But I’m sure we wouldn’t do something like that.
ETA: I did read the Politico story, but John Cole has a way with words. Besides, Balloon Juice is great blog. Also, I figure its assumed that Lieberman can go to hell, so he doesn’t deserve title billing.
Why is this guy still alive? Shouldn’t he have been executed at the airport? He might have had a bomb in his shoe or his ass, or a shoe bomb in his ass, or even an ass bomb in his shoe! We just can’t take chances with these people.
heck-why don’t we just go over there, land at their airport and shoot anyone who tries to get on a USA-bound plane? Over time, our problem will dissipate. Genius!
I hope that by ‘there’ you mean everywhere. Otherwise, they could slip through, flying to someplace else, and then flying here. And even if they’re not trying to fly here NOW, they’re still a potential recruit for later.
Yes it’s time for a house cleaning. And by ‘house’ I mean planet.
I don’t mean to troll, I don’t have any stake in this, but I have to ask why should American citizens be excempt? It seems to me, as long as they’re going to do this kind of thing, the least they can do is apply it evenhandedly to everyone, own citizens included. I would have expected nothing less.
We have to read miranda rights to potential terrorists? Really? All that does is insure the use of incriminating verbal evidence. It helps the prosecution, not criminals. Asking a terrorist if he knows of any other people involved makes perfect sense if you’re trying to stop additional attacks.
Bolding mine. You apparently recognize that people accused of terrorist acts might not actually be guilty, but you are willing to suspend civil rights to American citizens based on an accusation?
I’ve got a suggestion: Let’s get rid of all the gutless Americans who aren’t willing to put some skin in this game we call participatory democracy. If you are too shit-pants scared to trust the rights this country is supposed to be founded upon and to still be a shining beacon on a hill for - even when it is kind of hard to support those rights - I would rather you just tipped the fuck out the door right now.
I’m of the opinion that “enemy combatants” or foreigners accused of terrorism should get the same due process rights as US citizens accused of terror, both because its fair and acceptable from a human rights stand point, but also because treating them as common criminals is the best way to deal with terrorists. De-legitimize their cause, don’t provide propaganda fodder, etc. So on treating them equally, I agree. But if you aren’t going to do that, giving the foreign suspect fewer rights has a plausible argument behind it. They aren’t normally within our jurisdiction and aren’t automatically afforded a citizen’s rights. I think this is a bad idea, but at least makes some sort of sense. The problem here is that these politicians are saying that, because of the crime, a citizen doesn’t deserve the protections he’d receive if he were accused of robbery or murder or whatever. The question, then, is, “What makes terrorism so special?”
Of course, the fact that the accused originally came from Pakistan, and is therefore Muslim probably plays a big role. When the suspect was originally thought to be a regular ole’ white guy, statements were relatively calm. Anti-Muslim bigotry is painfully obvious.
You are correct, if this guy is in fact going to be treated as a criminal suspect, in that his statements can’t be used against him at trial. But it’s my belief, and probably the OP’s, that the right wing is complaining because he shouldn’t be granted any rights at all. They would rather he be whisked away to some extraterritorial cell and held indefinitely without trial, while being interrogated without access to a lawyer.
Question about the law: if a suspect is not Mirandized, then any information obtained during during an interview with police can not be used against him in court. However, can said information be used against *other *people?
Yes. The man is a citizen. He hears his rights, then you use all your deal-sweetening and legal punishments (plea deals, harsher charges/sentencing, etc.) to get him to talk. We don’t throw out the rules when questioning, say, a mob boss with hits out or a kidnapper whose victim is in danger, and we shouldn’t here.
That’s a complete pant-load of nonsense. Despite a trend of terrorism instigated by religious extremists there isn’t a huge backlash against Muslims in the United States and there never will be.
Whether you like it or not, there are active groups in countries like Pakistan who, for reasons specifically based on religion, use terrorism in an attempt to force their views on others. Those are the bigots.
Don’t mistake criticism of those who want to harm others as bigotry when it is the Islamic extremist who is intolerant to the violent extreme.
Sucks for those Americans stuck in other countries not being able to fly back. You know what, Fuck em! They shouldn’t be abroad anyways. They can take a ship home.
That reminds me. You guys should mine your harbours.
