Last night, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said that he disagreed with the decision to try the Flight 253 suspect criminally, and that “he’s not a citizen of this country.”
He’s a terrorist, and I don’t think he deserves the full range of protections of our criminal justice system embodied in the Constitution of the United States.
On Larry King Live, Ridge was asked about the decision to try Flight 253 suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in a criminal court.
He said:
I take a look at this individual who has been charged criminally, does that mean he gets his Miranda warnings? Does that mean the only information we’re gonna get from him is if he volunteers it?
Of course, Ridge was secretary of Homeland Security during the Bush administration, when British citizen and “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid was tried and convicted in 2003 on terrorism charges after attempting to blow up a plane with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Many comparisons have been made between the shoe-bomber case and this more recent attempted act of terrorism, including by Ridge himself, who pointed out in his Larry King Live interview that both used the same type of explosives.
Ridge did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Here’s the full clip:
