Palin: We Need "a Commander-in-Chief, not a Constitutional Law Professor"

Governor Sarah Palin makes the following points.

1. Terrorism is not a law enforcement issue. The law enforcement approach of the 1990's resulted in being unprepared for September 11, 2001.

2. Terrorism is not just "man caused disasters" due to poverty.

"Abdulmutallab was a child of privilege radicalized and trained by organized jihadists, not an 'isolated extremist' who traveled to a land of 'crushing poverty.' He is an enemy of the United States, not just another criminal defendant."

3. Treating terrorism as common crime results in a shut down of information. [A major purpose of reading defendants their Miranda rights is to warn them about the dangers of talking.]

4. It's doubtful that a suicide bomber will be swayed by a plea bargain deal. [A common criminal works for his own good so a plea bargain makes sense for him. A terrorist works for a cause. A plea deal does nothing to help his cause.]

"Reports indicate that Abdulmutallab stated there were many more like him in Yemen but that he stopped talking once he was read his Miranda rights. President Obama’s advisers lamely claim Abdulmutallab might be willing to agree to a plea bargain – pretty doubtful you can cut a deal with a suicide bomber."

5. It's bizarre for Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to claim "'there are no downsides or upsides' to treating terrorists as enemy combatants." It's absurd to say that getting information about the where, who, and how of terrorist training is unimportant. Miranda rights shut that information down.

6. Giving foreign-born terrorists civil and criminal protections afforded to U.S. citizens doesn't help to keep Americans safe. It can even allow terrorists to legally access classified information.

7. "[T]he real nature of the terrorist threat requires a commander-in-chief, not a constitutional law professor."

Here's Palin's full statement:

President Obama’s meeting with his top national security advisers does nothing to change the fact that his fundamental approach to terrorism is fatally flawed. We are at war with radical Islamic extremists and treating this threat as a law enforcement issue is dangerous for our nation’s security. That’s what happened in the 1990s and we saw the result on September 11, 2001. This is a war on terror not an “overseas contingency operation.” Acts of terrorism are just that, not “man caused disasters.” The system did not work. Abdulmutallab was a child of privilege radicalized and trained by organized jihadists, not an “isolated extremist” who traveled to a land of “crushing poverty.” He is an enemy of the United States, not just another criminal defendant.

It simply makes no sense to treat an al Qaeda-trained operative willing to die in the course of massacring hundreds of people as a common criminal. Reports indicate that Abdulmutallab stated there were many more like him in Yemen but that he stopped talking once he was read his Miranda rights. President Obama’s advisers lamely claim Abdulmutallab might be willing to agree to a plea bargain – pretty doubtful you can cut a deal with a suicide bomber. John Brennan, the President’s top counterterrorism adviser, bizarrely claimed “there are no downsides or upsides” to treating terrorists as enemy combatants. That is absurd. There is a very serious downside to treating them as criminals: terrorists invoke their “right” to remain silent and stop talking. Terrorists don’t tell us where they were trained, what they were trained in, who they were trained by, and who they were trained with. Giving foreign-born, foreign-trained terrorists the right to remain silent does nothing to keep Americans safe from terrorist threats. It only gives our enemies access to courtrooms where they can publicly grandstand, and to defense attorneys who can manipulate the legal process to gain access to classified information.

President Obama was right to change his policy and decide to send no more detainees to Yemen where they can be free to rejoin their war on America. Now he must back off his reckless plan to close Guantanamo, begin treating terrorists as wartime enemies not suspects alleged to have committed crimes, and recognize that the real nature of the terrorist threat requires a commander-in-chief, not a constitutional law professor.

- Sarah Palin