Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - May 9, 2010

This Week

CLAIM: Rudy Giuliani Repeated The Lie That The Nigerian Man Who Attempted To Blow Up A Plane On Christmas Day Was Mirandized "After 30 Minutes."

RUDY GIULIANI: What they did in Detroit in, in giving Major-rather, uh, Akmutaballab [sic] a, a war-right, uh, giving him a warning after, after 30 minutes makes no sense, it makes no sense to do that. So sure, it may work sometimes, it may not work other times. It's not the best policy to follow.

FACT: Giuliani is wrong about the timeline of Abdulmutallab's interrogation.

Abdulmutallab Was Not Read His Miranda Rights Until Nine Hours After His Arrest. This Week host Jake Tapper pointed out that Abdulmutallab was taken away for medical care after a 50 minute interrogation. Additionally, the record shows that the suspect was not Mirandized until nine hours after his arrest. According to the Washington Post: "The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day was read his Miranda rights nine hours after his arrest, according to a detailed chronology released Sunday by senior administration officials... The first questioning of the suspect, which took place more than three hours after his arrest and without him being read his Miranda rights, ended after 50 minutes when doctors said his medical condition had deteriorated, according to the chronology. When interrogation resumed, some five hours later, the Nigerian refused to answer further questions and was then read his Miranda rights." [Washington Post, 2/15/10; emphasis added]

CLAIM: Rudy Giuliani Said Terror Suspect And American Citizen Faisal Shahzad Should Have Been Declared An "Enemy Combatant," Interrogated For Days Before Being Mirandized.

RUDY GIULIANI: Well I would not have given him Miranda warnings after just a couple of hours of questioning. I would have instead declared him an enemy combatant, asked the President to do that. And, um, at the same time that would've given us, uh, the opportunity to question him for a much longer period of time. Whether it works in the case of, uh, Shahzad or it doesn't, the reality is the better policy is to give um, the intelligence agents who are going to question him the maximum amount of time. To question him, to check out the credibility of what he's saying.

[...]

The reality is, just to figure-just to get these guys to tell the truth, and then to corroborate how much they're saying and for them to remember-it's going to take three, four, five days of questioning. To cut it off after 30 or 40 minutes like they did in uh, in Detroit on Christmas Day or to cut it off after two or three hours doesn't make much sense.

CLAIM: Rudy Giuliani Said It "Makes No Sense" To Mirandize Terror Suspects.

RUDY GIULIANI: What they did in Detroit in, in giving Major-rather, uh, Akmutaballab [sic] a, a war-right, uh, giving him a warning after, after 30 minutes makes no sense, it makes no sense to do that. So sure, it may work sometimes, it may not work other times. It's not the best policy to follow.  And so far, two in a row, we've gotten lucky. So let's not rely on luck. Let's rely on solid policy.

FLASHBACK: Giuliani has supported trying terrorists under established criminal law in the past -- before 9/11 and since.

Washington Post: As A Prosecutor And Mayor, Giuliani Saw Terrorists As "One Part Of A Broader Crime-Fighting Agenda." According to the Washington Post, Giuliani's attitudes and rhetoric on the proper place of criminal law in the fight against terrorism have shifted over time:

"Throughout his unsuccessful campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Giuliani charged that Democrats were retreating to their "denial" in the 1990s, when, he said, then-President Clinton gravely erred by treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, not a war.

Yet throughout his career as a Department of Justice official and federal prosecutor -- as well as for most of his tenure as New York mayor, which began shortly after the 1993 bombing, and ended just after the far more destructive 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center -- Giuliani himself viewed terrorism as just one part of a broader crime-fighting agenda. Again and again, he expressed confidence that Islamic extremism could be contained through investigation by local and federal law enforcement, and prosecuted in the courts.

Giuliani did his best to downplay terrorist threats that arose while he was mayor to avoid needlessly scaring city residents, and resisted branding as terrorism smaller-scale acts of Islamic violence in the city. Running for Senate in 2000, he mentioned terrorism only in the context of calling for more spending on intelligence, making no mention of the need for a broader war on extremists. Even shortly after Sept. 11, he framed the attacks in the language of crime, describing the hijackers as 'insane murderers' and calling for the restoration of the 'rule of law.'" [Washington Post, 6/18/08, emphasis added]

2006: Giuliani applauded the criminal prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui.

Giuliani: Moussaoui Trial Shows "America Is Dedicated To The Rule Of Law." In an appearance on Hannity & Colmes in 2006, Giuliani said: "I respect the jury system. I think there is something good that comes out of this. What comes out of it is a very, very dramatic demonstration that America is dedicated to the rule of law. And that a lot of places where these terrorists come from, this is the kind of thing that's missing: They don't have the rule of law." [FoxNews.com, 5/4/06]

Giuliani Reportedly Praised Moussaoui's 2006 Trial As Evidence "We Can Give People A Fair Trial." After Moussaoui's trial resulted in a sentence of life in prison without parole, Giuliani reportedly praised the legal process as demonstrating "that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of law." He added that Moussaoui will "be a symbol of American justice." He also reportedly said he was "in awe of our system." [New York Daily News, 5/4/06]

Following Trial, Giuliani Reportedly Said: "America Won Tonight." Agence France Presse reported: " 'America won tonight,' [Giuliani] said, arguing that the United States had upheld the worth of its legal system in the eyes of the world." AFP also quoted him saying, "The greater value I think would have been if he was executed. But the greater value is demonstrating what America is like." [AFP, 5/4/06]

1994: Giuliani praised the criminal prosecution of the World Trade Center bombers.

Then-Mayor Giuliani Described The Legal Process That Led To The Convictions As "A Far Greater Weapon" Than Terrorism. According to the New York Times: "Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani declared that the verdict 'demonstrates that New Yorkers won't meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon -- the law.'" [New York Times, 3/5/94]

Then-Mayor Giuliani Said Convictions Of Trade Center Bombers "Should Show" American Legal System "Works Well." According to the New York Times: "Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said he hoped that the verdicts would lessen tensions rather than increase them. 'It should show that our legal system is the most mature legal system in the history of the world,' he said, 'that it works well, that that is the place to seek vindication if you feel your rights have been violated.'" [New York Times, 3/5/94]