Underwear Bomber Cracks, Talks to FBI

[Arathena]

"[...]very successful as far as gaining his cooperation," a senior administration official told reporters late Tuesday.

On the day of his arrest, Abdulmutallab told the FBI during a 50-minute interrogation at a Michigan hospital that he had been trained by an al-Qaeda branch in Yemen. He later stopped cooperating and asked for an attorney.

In recent days, two law enforcement sources said, Abdulmutallab has told authorities more about where he trained overseas and others he met there -- leads that the FBI has shared with other members of the U.S. intelligence community. Investigators are following up to corroborate the information.

U.S. investigators flew members of Abdulmutallab's family from Nigeria to the United States on Jan. 17, the senior administration official said. The family members have proved vital in getting Abdulmutallab to talk, he said -- indicating that it would have been counterproductive to interrogate him under military rules, as some have suggested.

What do you know? John McCain was right about something; waterboarding might not be the best of routes to useful intelligence. It will be interesting to see if anything this guy tells us is actionable.

[Kulaf]

Well concidering that his family reported him prior to the incident......I think they are the exception rather than the rule. And unfortunatly someone decided to "mirandize" him and that is when he clamed up and asked for a lawyer.

[Embar Angylwrath]

And the Obama administration probably just ensured the family will be assassinated by publiciziing they helped get him to talk. Why in the hell are they issuing press releases about the interrogation of him with specifics like that???

Morons.

[Lurker]

Kulaf,
I think you should check your facts.

Embar,
Maybe the GOP should check their facts before attacking Obama. Making false attacks and then complaining when the record is set straight is pretty pathetic.

[Embar Angylwrath]

What false attack?

I'm making a statement that the administration shouldn't be broadcasting the details of the investigation. It puts the investigation at risk, and the people cooperating with the investigation at risk.

[Garrdor]

Underwear bomber has been identified as Inspector 34.

[Lurker]

What false attack?

I'm making a statement that the administration shouldn't be broadcasting the details of the investigation. It puts the investigation at risk, and the people cooperating with the investigation at risk.

I'd have to see what press release you are talking about and when it was made. I think the details had already been released by the FBI director to Congress before any press releases rebutting Republican lies were made.

And if I wrongly assumed you'd be making the same type of false attacks that Kulaf made and that the Republicans are making, I apologize.

[Kulaf]

Kulaf,
I think you should check your facts.

What facts do I need to check. Everything I posted is 100% accurate.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I was responding to Arathena's post.

And I heard more on NPR today. Someone close to the investigation is giving play-by-plays of how its going, and releasing information of what is said. That's just mind-boggling ignorant. And I think its an attempt to show this administration is the "not-Bush" administration, and by doing so, they are endangering a very important investigation for the purposes of political expediency.

[Lurker]

Kulaf,
I think you should check your facts.

What facts do I need to check. Everything I posted is 100% accurate.

Kulaf's cartoonish belief about what happened...

And unfortunatly someone decided to "mirandize" him and that is when he clamed up and asked for a lawyer.

What actually happened...

Among those involved in the hastily called teleconferences were representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, along with officials from the State Department and the CIA.

"It was a [law enforcement] community-wide conference, and they discussed a number of things," one source said on condition of anonymity. "That's when decisions were made on which course was going to proceed, to Mirandize him or otherwise."

The source said that Abdulmutallab was not read his rights until he made it clear that he was not going to say anything else.

Other government sources, also speaking anonymously, provided new details about what happened after Northwest Airlines Flight 253 landed in Detroit on Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab was taken to a hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., for treatment of burns from a fire aboard the plane. Authorities said the blaze was sparked when Abdulmutallab tried to ignite explosives in his underwear.

FBI agents questioned him at the hospital for just under an hour. They did not give him the Miranda warning, which advises suspects that anything they say can be used against them at trial, citing an exemption that allows them first to seek crucial information on any pending crime.

During the questioning, one source said, Abdulmutallab suggested that other terrorism attempts were in the works. "He was making comments like, 'Others were following me.' And that is a circumstance where you've got a potential disaster, that there are others out there and you don't have to Mirandize him right away."

But the questioning stopped when doctors said they needed to sedate Abdulmutallab to treat his injuries. At that point, the sources said, the agents backed off.

"The two agents who interviewed him are very experienced counter-terrorism agents," a source said. "They've been around a long time and have traveled internationally. And the Detroit area has the largest Muslim community in the country."

When Abdulmutallab awakened, a second team of FBI agents was sent in. Authorities thought he might be willing to say even more to the second set of agents.

"We had to see if he was still willing to talk," another source said. "And it was pretty quickly apparent to them that he wasn't. He had had a change of mind. It was only after establishing that with some confidence that they decided to go ahead and Mirandize him."

[Kulaf]

And? How does that contradict what I said? Just because he wouldn't talk with team #2.......although he had given a lot of information to team #1......they decided to mirandize him. They could have sent team #1 back in to see if somehow he felt more comfortable talking to them......but they didn't.

And then he asked for a lawyer.

[Kulaf]

And quite honestly I am surprised you are not PO'd that he was questioned without being read miranda right from the start. Won't that make it highly likely that any information he divulged prior to being read his rights will not be admissible in any Federal trial?

[Lurker]

Kulaf, your original statement was completely wrong and misleading. He didn't stop talking and demand a lawyer because someone decided to mirandize him. That was a lie. If you want me to take your diversionary jab at me seriously you should at least admit that.

[Kulaf]

Kulaf, your original statement was completely wrong and misleading. He didn't stop talking and demand a lawyer because someone decided to mirandize him. That was a lie. If you want me to take your diversionary jab at me seriously you should at least admit that.

Well are you going to hold Arathena to that same standard? He didn't "crack [and] talk to the FBI" either. Or do you reserve your nit picking just for me?

And my statement was not "completely wrong and misleading".......who's telling lies?

[Lurker]

Nit picking? You argued cause and effect, that the decision to Miranda led to him clamming up and demanding a lawyer, when the exact opposite of what you said was true. Where did you hear the false narrative? Why would you ever trust that source of information again?

[Kulaf]

Hehe you're right. I'll never trust CNN again. What I posted was the report originally made prior to this unnamed source saying what happened in the LA Times which I have to admit.....is not high on my periodicals list.

[Ddrak]

I doubt he knows any specifics that the CIA didn't already know. Al Qaeda is cell based, and the actual trigger pullers are little more than mindless drones who know their handlers and little else. You might get one or two, but chances are they've well and truly bolted by now. These guys aren't hard to get to "crack".

Good call by the interrogators on most counts. My only criticism is why his rights weren't read sooner (why do they persist in breaking the rules?). I doubt Al Qaeda will go after the family - it's not Iraq or Pakistan.

Dd

[Kulaf]

It really depends on what you are after. You can do what they did and still be within the "rules". You have two teams and keep them totally seperate. You send in the first team and do not read the person their miranda rights. You gather intel to be used solely for the prevention of further crimes and not to be used against the person in court. You then can send in a second team and read the person his miranda rights and see if he wants to talk, and use anything he says against him.

You just need to not let anyone on the prosecution access to team 1.

[Select]

Off topic: I keep reading the title "Underwear" as "Underwater" and it keeps confusing the eff out of me.