Goodbye Barry - Welcome Home AMERICA!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Obama Blows It Again! Or, Maybe, "It Again" Is Unnecessary

President Obama and his administration have ordered FBI agents to read terror suspects their Miranda Rights; even though they have been captured on foreign soil and are not U.S. citizens officially protected by the Miranda vs. Arizona decision over 40 years ago. The Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered the FBI to issue Miranda rights to foreign fighters captured on the field of battle.

The problems I have with that include (but are not limited to):
1. The ter
ror suspects are not American citizens, nor have they been "arrested" for committing a crime on American soil.
2. The FBI's "charter" is within the confines of the 50 United States.
3. The vast majority of terrorists (99.9%) were not captured upon U.S. soil. They have not been "arrested" per se.
4. Accordingly
, suspects arrested in the US are to be Mirandized before Questioning - which, in the case of foreign enemy combatants, will mean that crucial intelligence opportunities must be postponed until the FBI arrives. In the interim, the lives of American soldiers are placed in additional and unnecessary jeopardy, due to their inability to harvest
immediate and timely humint.
5. Under wh
ose laws will they be charged, and what will those charges be? We cannot charge them under the laws of the country in which they were captured, simply because we do not administer those laws. We can't charge them under the United States Code, because they commited no crime upon U.S soil.
6. Besides which, is there anything in our laws which makes it illegal to fire upon U.S. military forces on foreign soil?
7. Where the hell is the money going to come from to try these 200+ prisoners in US civilian courts?


The trial of an enemy combatant has, throughout recorded history, fallen upon the commander of the oppos
ing forces and whatever military tribunal was appointed by him. Prior to the 20th century, trials of enemy combatants were considerably simpler. The prisoner was brought before the tribunal, found guilty, and executed - all within the space of about 10 minutes... and at virtually NO expense! Beheadings by the sword were free... and an 18th century 7-man firing squad invoked a total cost about 21¢ for the cost of 7 bullets and gunpowder. Those were the good ol' days!

The legal complexities and logistics of trying enemy combatants in civilian courts under US laws are mind boggling. This is obviously something that should remain under the auspices of a military tribunal, for any number of practical reasons (see items 1-7 above). In an imploding economy cost alone should tell Obama that he has chosen the wrong path. On the other hand, it's not like it's Obama's money being spent on this fiasco... it's OURS! And, if he needs more, he'll just raise taxes!

I could be wrong about this whole thing... what do you think?

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