Ashcroft: 'When You Have A Person In The Criminal Justice System, You Mirandize Them'

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Friday that he had a very straightforward policy on when and whether to read Miranda Rights to people captured by the FBI and suspected of terrorism.

"When you have a person in the criminal justice system, you Mirandize them," Ashcroft said flatly, when asked by HuffPost about the reading-of-rights that has conservatives outraged at the Obama administration.

Federal agents read the Christmas Day bomber his Miranda Rights after he was taken into custody. That such a straight forward statement from Ashcroft, who now sounds like a voice of reason, is at odds with his party's loudest critics indicates just how far the political conversation has drifted in the past several years.

Conservative speakers at CPAC and elsewhere have been hammering the administration for attempting to try terrorism suspects in the United States using criminal courts. Ashcroft declined to join them with regard to 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"I'm not privy to all the facts," he said of KSM, who was captured while Ashcroft was Attorney General. "I think, look, you adjudicate different kinds of charges in criminal court than you do in military commissions. Military Commissions adjudicate non-citizen violations of the laws of war. Criminal courts adjudicate violations of the titles of the criminal code in the criminal law of the United States. And the kind of publicity and exposure and transparency of one poses certain kinds of challenges in terms of the maintenance of the integrity of intelligence and the like that others don't."

Earlier Friday, Ashcroft told HuffPost that criminal courts can have "use and utility," but whether to try a particular terrorism suspect criminally should be decided on a case by case basis.

Comments

[Paul Peete]

07:05 PM on 02/20/2010

You know the Republicans have gone over the edge when Bob Barr and John Ashcroft become voices of reason. Ashcroft, as a former Attorney General, should have some credibility with his rightwing nutjobs.

[Barbie and Ken forever]

05:51 AM on 02/20/2010

WTF? He makes sense for a right winger. What is happening?

[dayton52]

12:10 AM on 02/20/2010

How was Mcveigh tried? I can't believe there is a question about this. There is no hope whatsoever for this country if we have a question about how to deal legally with terrorist.

[LeFlaneur]

04:40 PM on 02/19/2010

Let the eeeeeeagle sooooooooar! Like she's never soooooooared befoooooooore....

[Franklin Print]

04:38 PM on 02/19/2010

Good for John Ashcroft.

My belief is that the Regressive Right is using the Latin name "Miranda" to stoke prejudice, fear and hatred for their own political gain.

[klbrz]

04:38 PM on 02/19/2010

He's using too many big words for them.

[BBinMT]

04:22 PM on 02/19/2010

Miranda warnings simply enumerate the constitutional rights a person is afforded after he/she has been arrested, to make sure they understand those rights. Conservatives like to cherry-pick what they like and don't like even when it comes to the costitution, which they patriotically claim to hold with high regard.

[MeddlingMonk]

03:44 PM on 02/20/2010

Well said. If a person know nothing about Miranda warnings apart from what the right makes of them, that person would think that to be Mirandized OBLIGATES the suspect to clam up. Do those on the right not understand how law and due process work? Or are they deliberately undermining comprehension and respect for how the system is supposed to work for political gain? Why am I even asking these questions?

[Jaczar]

04:21 PM on 02/19/2010

Well, Ashcroft's speaking out won't matter one whit to the far right kooks at CPAC (Crazy People At a Conference).

[Barbie and Ken forever]

05:51 AM on 02/20/2010

I saw on this website by another user Crazy People Acting Crazy. I changed it to Conservative People Acting Crazy. Yours is good too

[Paul Peete]

08:29 PM on 02/20/2010

How about the Confederates Posing As Conservatives. It fits their unspoken wishes.

[SPQR1052]

04:18 PM on 02/19/2010

And what is it that these people fear - We cannot have speüeraate rules.

The laws are the laws and we are a nation which prides itself upon adherenc to the rule of law.

The wingnuts are just loco-out of there dammn mindscrazy.

[Ivriniel]

04:13 PM on 02/19/2010

I don't understand why they wouldn't read Miranda rights to someone who has been arrested.

[deeppeace]

04:24 PM on 02/19/2010

There are some who think perceived terrorists don't deserve rights of any kind.

[MeddlingMonk]

03:46 PM on 02/20/2010

Not only that, but I suspect these same people don't believe that no one who has been arrested for any cause deserves any rights. After all, the thinking must go, if someone has been arrested, then they must be guilty.

[thenextguy]

04:05 PM on 02/19/2010

John Ashcroft: Voice of Reason

Whoda thunk it?

[William Young]

05:05 PM on 02/19/2010

Exactly, thats what I was thinking. Maybe if he was this sensible under Bush then he wouldn't have stepped down.

[legaleagle4]

03:51 PM on 02/19/2010

I feel dirty even partly agreeing with John Ashcroft, but I (partly) do.