Sen. McConnell Still Shamelessly Playing Politics With Terrorism

Despite the revelation that alleged "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab has been talking to investigators since last week, conservatives are still attacking the Obama administration's handling of the failed Christmas Day terror attempt.  On Fox News today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) outrageously claimed that CNN's Larry King has conducted "better" interrogations than what was given to Abdulmuttalab by the FBI:

MCCONNELL: This was a person who was trying to blow a plane out of the air from Nigeria. It's clearly a case for the military and for our intelligence people, not for the U.S. court system. What happened? He was given a 50 minute interrogation, probably Larry King has interrogated people longer and better than that. After which he was assigned a lawyer who told him to shut up. That is not the way to deal with someone in the war on terror.

McConnell acknowledged that the Bush administration tried foreign terrorists in U.S. court "a couple of times" -- it was really more like a couple hundred -- but said that "we ought to learn from that" and prosecute all terrorism cases at Guantanamo Bay. "It's quite simple," he said.   

Notably, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a four-page letter to McConnell yesterday addressing the senator's concerns in great detail.  From the letter:

[T]he practice of the U.S. government, followed by prior and current Administrations without a single exception, has been to arrest and detain under federal criminal law all terrorist suspects who are apprehended inside the United States. [...]

In keeping with this policy, the Bush Administration used the criminal justice system to convict more than 300 individuals on terrorism-related charges.  For example, Richard Reid, a British citizen, was arrested in December 2001 for attempting to ignite a shoe bomb while on a flight from Paris to Miami carrying 184 passengers and 14 crewmembers.  He was advised of his right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney within five minutes of being removed from the aircraft (and was read or reminded of these rights a total of four times within 48 hours), pled guilty in October 2002, and is now serving a life sentence in federal prison. [...]

Some have argued that had Abdulmutallab been declared an enemy combatant, the government could have held him indefinitely without providing him access to an attorney. But the government's legal authority to do so is far from clear. In fact, when the Bush administration attempted to deny Jose Padilla access to an attorney, a federal judge in New York rejected that position, ruling that Padilla must be allowed to meet with his lawyer. Notably, the judge in that case was Michael Mukasey, my predecessor as Attorney General. In fact, there is no court-approved system currently in place in which suspected terrorists captured inside the United States can be detained and held without access to an attorney; nor is there any known mechanism to persuade an uncooperative individual to talk to the government that has been proven more effective than the criminal justice system.

Sen. McConnell really should read his mail more often.  Watch his comments below:

Update: Responding to McConnell's statement regarding Larry King, Adam Serwer writes: "This is an unconscionable statement. The men and women of the FBI put themselves on the line every day to protect the people of the United States from terrorist attacks, while politicians like McConnell puff out their chests and act like tough guys. They don't deserve to be disparaged by some high-ranking politician groping for a talking point on cable news."