Outrage. Miranda Rights to Be Read to Enemy Combatants and Terrorists!

Miranda Warnings for Terrorists — Thank Sen. McCain [by Andy McCarthy, June 10, 2009]

Steve Hayes is getting lots of well deserved attention for his report at The Weekly Standard today about how the Obama/Holder Justice Department has quietly instructed the FBI to start giving Miranda warnings to captured alien combatant terrorists — the next logical move in the ongoing effort to move us away from a war approach and return us to the law-enforcement paradigm for dealing with international terrorism.

Obama will obviously be embarrassed by the revelation, especially since, as the Standard's John McCormack recounts, candidate Obama (and fledgling President Obama) scoffed at the claim by us knuckle-draggers that he wanted foreign terrorists to get Miranda protection upon capture. But once he recovers his footing, I guarantee the president will argue that he is merely bringing government agents operating overseas into compliance with the McCain Amendment (enacted as part of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act).

I hate to say I told you so, but back when we were having this debate, thanks to Senator McCain's grandstanding on "torture," I warned that his amendment would lead to the legal claim that American agents — including the military — were now required to give Miranda warnings to captured terrorists outside the U.S. (See, e.g., here, here, here and here (under "The Domestic Agenda")). Live by demagoguery, die by demagoguery.

End of Article.

They absolutely are off the charts this time! These people are not common criminals, they are our enemies in an ongoing war, that the new, revisionist administration has re-titled as something other than a war. Playing semantics is dangerous and foolish, and it will be our undoing.

For those of you who do not know the Miranda rights text, and the impact of applying the same to Taliban and other terrorists, let me be of assistance.

You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

You have the right to talk to a lawyer and have him present with you while you are being questioned.

If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you before any questioning if you wish. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any question or make any statements.

Do you understand each of these rights I have explainted to you? Having these rights in mind, do you wish to talk to us now?

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, as well as our other victim-citizens, did not get to choose whether or not they remain silent.