John McCain: Bush Administration Wrong to Give Miranda Rights to Shoe Bomber in 2001

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs accused Republicans Thursday of using a double standard to criticize the Obama administration for giving Miranda rights to accused Christmas day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, when the Bush administration did the same for shoe bomber Richard Reid.

"What we have here is politicians who've decided, eight years after they agreed that everything that was done with Richard Reid somehow is now done all wrong because it's a different president," Gibbs said on MSNBC.
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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the most vocal critics of the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab, responded to that charge by saying he's only got one standard on the issue.

"The reason why we passed the military commissions act at the end of 2006 was because it was wrong, in my view, for the Bush administration to do what they did," McCain said. "But in some deference of the Bush administration, we never interrogated the guy for 50 minutes and then said we've got all we need and then give him his Miranda rights." Federal Court records show Reid was read his Miranda rights about five minutes after his arrest, but was subsequently interrogated without a lawyer present.

McCain also pushed back hard at John Brennan, the president's deputy national security adviser, who penned an op-ed in USA Today calling Republicans' criticism of the decision "unfounded fear-mongering" that "only serves the goals of al Qaeda."

McCain said, "No one that works for the president of the United States questioned the patriotism of or even the dedication to fighting the war on terror, as Mr. Brennan has about us, basically saying we are assisting al Qaeda. That's an insult."

McCain concluded by saying that Abdulmutallab should be tried by a military commission and is working on legislation requiring that suspected terrorists be tried in that setting.

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