Attempted “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is in federal prison. He pled guilty to the charges against him after a few days of trial. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 19 for the attempted murder of the people on the 2009 Detroit-bound plane.
But for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Abdulmutallab is a perfect example of why the federal court system can’t handle terrorism cases. After rattling off her ‘Obama outsources to the ACLU’ line — debunked by Adam Serwer here — Bachmann said Tuesday that when the “underwear bomber was intercepted, he was given Miranda warnings within 45 minutes.”
She continued: “He was not an American citizen. We don’t give Miranda warnings to terrorists, and we don’t read them their rights. They don’t have any.” (The Bush administration disagreed.)
Abdulmutallab was actually cooperating with FBI agents until he was read his Miranda rights (A judge ruled the delay was allowed under DOJ’s interpretation of the public safety exception). It wasn’t until he stopped cooperating, according to media reports at the time, that he was read his Miranda rights.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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