Wire: Congressman Says Obama Admin Reading Miranda Rights to High-Value Detainees

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2009 -- Newswire services this afternoon reported that the Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan, according a senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

"The administration has decided to change the focus to law enforcement. Here’s the problem. You have foreign fighters who are targeting US troops today -- foreign fighters who go to another country to kill Americans. We capture them ... and they’re reading them their rights -- Mirandizing these foreign fighters," says Representative Mike Rogers, who recently met with military, intelligence and law enforcement officials on a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan, according to The Weekly Standard.

The Weekly Standard said that Rogers, a former FBI special agent and U.S. Army officer, says the Obama administration has not briefed Congress on the new policy. "I was a little surprised to find it taking place when I showed up because we hadn’t been briefed on it, I didn’t know about it. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of it, but it is clearly a part of this new global justice initiative."

This is a developing story.

(Report from newswire sources.)

Source: Miranda Rights for Terrorists

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