Features

July 1, 2009  

Rights runaround

TO CONGRESSMAN MIKE ROGERS for trying to stir up a White House-is-soft-on-terrorists scare over detainees in Afghanistan being read their Miranda rights. The Michigan Republican handed a report to the media saying that the detainees, on the orders of the Obama administration, were being told they had the right to remain silent and that this could compromise their intelligence value, potentially jeopardizing soldiers’ lives and ultimately threatening U.S. security. But U.S. Central Command chief Army Gen. David Petraeus quickly put the kibosh on such a notion. Answering questions after a speech at the Center for a New American Security, Petraeus said: “This is the FBI doing what the FBI does. These are cases where they are looking at potential criminal charges. We’re comfortable with this.” He said soldiers were not reading Miranda rights to detainees.