White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan yesterday struck back at Congressional Republicans who have been attacking the administration for giving the attempted Christmas Day bomber his Miranda rights. Brennan said on Meet the Press that top GOP-ers raised no objections to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being held in FBI custody.
Brennan said he called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Kit Bond on Christmas night to tell them Abdulmutallab was in FBI custody.
“I explained to them that he was in FBI custody, that Mr. Abdulmutallab was, in fact, talking, that he was cooperating at that point,” Brennan said. “They knew that ‘in FBI custody’ means that there’s a process then you follow as far as Mirandizing and presenting him in front of a magistrate,” Brennan said.
“None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point. They didn’t say, ‘Is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?'” he said.
“There has been quite a bit of an outcry after the fact where, again, I’m just very concerned on behalf of the counter-terrorism professionals throughout our government, that politicians continue to make this a political football and are using it for whatever political or partisan purposes,” he said.
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Republicans have been attacking the administration for their handling of the terrorism suspect, saying he should be held and questioned by the military and not given certain rights afforded in civilian courts.
The GOP leaders he mentioned released statements yesterday calling Brennan’s assertions misleading. Each said their conversation with Brennan was brief and they were not informed Abdulmutallab would be read his Miranda rights.
“Instead of attempting to dodge responsibility, John Brennan and this administration should focus on fixing the near-catastrophic intelligence breakdown that failed to prevent this attack,” said a spokesman for Boehner. “In the meantime, Republicans will continue to hold this administration accountable and ensure that our government is doing everything it can to detect and stop future attacks, rather than just responding to them after they happen.”
On Meet the Press, Brennan said politicians should not be “second-guessing” counter-terrorism officials and that they “deserve support from Congress.” He also said Democrats made similar political moves during the Bush administration.
