Lindsey Graham schooled Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, during questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Graham reveals how ridiculous Holder's decision is to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and terrorists like him a trial in a U.S. civilian court.
From TPM:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made his argument against the trials, asking Holder how he would instruct the military to handle the hypothetical capture of Osama bin Laden.
Would you read him his Miranda rights? Graham asked. Would you get him a lawyer?
And if you didn't, he went on, would a subsequent trial -- if indeed the trial was held in civilian court and not a military tribunal -- be jeopardized?
Holder didn't have a clear answer, saying "it all depends" on the situation.
It was exactly what Graham wanted.
"Well it does not depend," Graham said. "If you're gonna prosecute anybody in civilian court, our law is clear that the moment custodial interrogation occurs, the defendant, the criminal defendant, is entitled to a lawyer and to be informed of their right to remain silent. The big problem I have is you're criminalizing the war, that if we caught bin Laden tomorrow, we have mixed theories and couldn't turn him over to the CIA, the FBI, military intelligence for an interrogation on the battlefield, because now you're saying he's subject to criminal court in the United States and you're confusing the people fighting this war."
"If we go down that road we're gonna make the country less safe," Graham continued. "I think you've made a fundamental mistake here."
Graham can be a wobbly conservative and he gets a lot wrong, but he nails this one.
Video.
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