The bombing in Boston has caused emotions to run high for everyone. People have been glued to their seats waiting for the latest news on the fugitive second suspect. So much so that CNN didn't even bother getting the truth before reporting on it. But that isn't what I want to talk about here.
Now, the suspect has been caught alive. But even before he was captured, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested that the suspect be held as an enemy combatant. He released a series of tweets that provided a good view on his mindset.
If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes.3:33 PM - 19 Apr 2013
If the #Boston suspect has ties to overseas terror organizations he could be treasure trove of information.3:37 PM - 19 Apr 2013
The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."3:40 PM - 19 Apr 2013
The Obama Administration needs to be contemplating these issues and should not rush into a bad decision.3:43 PM - 19 Apr 2013
Rushing into a bad decision would certainly be bad. Like not reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the bomber, his Miranda Rights. That was a bad decision. Or not trying him in a civilian court, preferably in Boston. That would also be a bad decision.
Like it or not, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is an American citizen and deserves all the protections a citizen gets under the Constitution. We have shown that we can handle prosecuting terrorists at home. We can do it again.
Republicans love to quote the Founding Fathers so here are a few yo should really read, Senator.
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine 1795
"The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume." --Thomas Jefferson to A. H. Rowan, 1798. ME 10:61
"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? The parties who may be arrested may be charged instantly with a well defined crime; of course, the judge will remand them. If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government for damages. Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:97
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