Connecticut’s once-Democratic senator turned Independent is once again siding with Republicans.
Sen. Joe Lieberman is doing the same thing Republicans are doing in blasting the FBI for reading Miranda rights to the accused would-be airline bomber suspected in the Christmas Day attempt, Politico reports.
On Monday, Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and John Brennan, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
This issue, Lieberman wrote, is that for an hour, Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet heading for Detroit, spoke about the attack. Then, he was read his Miranda Rights and went silent.
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“The decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal rather than a UEB (unprivileged enemy belligerent) almost certainly prevented the military and the intelligence community from obtaining information that would have been critical to learning more about how our enemy operates and to preventing future attacks against our homeland and Americans and our allies throughout the world,” Lieberman wrote in the letter.
He is angry that the Department of Justice did not consult with intelligence officials and the Department of Defense to weigh in on whether or not to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal and read him his Miranda rights, he said.
Lieberman also wants Adbulmutallab to be transferred. By moving him to military custody, Lieberman says, the Department of Defense can question Abdulmutallab and charge him accordingly.
About two-dozen Republican senators have signed a similar letter as the one Sen. Lieberman wrote, Politico reports.
