Jackson Jambalaya

I'm not making this up. The Washington Post reported Monday:
"President Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser on Sunday defended the administration's decision to try in federal court the man charged with attempting to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day and indicated that he would be offered a plea agreement to persuade him to reveal what he knows about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian charged with the failed attempt on the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight, was initially "talking to people who detained him" but now has a public defender and "doesn't have to," said on "Fox News Sunday."

"We have different ways of obtaining information from individuals" in the criminal-justice process, Brennan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "A lot of people . . . understand what they're facing, and their lawyers recognize that there is advantage to talking to us in terms of plea agreements, [and] we're going to pursue that." Brennan told CNN's "State of the Union" that other terrorism suspects have "given us very valuable information as they've gone through the plea-agreement process."

Such lunacy is what happens when you treat terrorists strictly as criminals. What is the mission? To merely throw someone in jail or stop future terrorists attacks? If it is to stop future terrorist attacks, then the last thing we need to do is allow plea-bargains with terrorists. There are reasons why the Israelis never negotiate with terrorists. Chief among them is it gives the terrorist bargaining power. One can only imagine the terrorist holding out for a better deal in exchange for information on possible attacks. Brennan naively thinks the government can lean on the "suspect" as Obama called him and obtain valuable information.

Keep in mind these are terrorists that were more than willing to go back to allah. Jail doesn't mean much to those who were on suicide missions. Al-Qaida and its ilk will simply write a new chapter for their playbook: "How to trick and fool the U.S. Government with phony plea-bargain negotiations if you get caught." They will manipulate and abuse the judicial system even further because fools like Brennan (Anyone notice the irony here?) treat these terrorists as criminal suspects.

The fourth and fifth amendment exists to protect the rights of the accused. The rights of a suspect in a criminal prosecution should be protected. That includes the right to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, and other constitutional rights. However, terrorists such as Abdulmutallab usually have a great deal of information we need immediately. There is nothing wrong with excluding any evidence gained from ignoring his constitutional protections from court. However, that does not mean we should tie our hands behind our back and use other interrogation techniques to obtain information about his terrorist network and other plots that might be in action. Plea-bargaining with terrorist is nothing but a recipe for disaster.