Random Variable

Today, Blair, Dennis Blair that is, director of national intelligence became the first individual in the Obama administration to question Obama’s decision to try Omar Abdulmutallab in the civilian court system. As Justin Webb said earlier tonight at the LSE, we have a strange situation where Abdulmutallab could have been killed in a drone strike in Yemen without so much a squeak, but he gets as far as Detroit and is given a defence lawyer.

This may seem paradoxical, but for people who argue for the necessity of extended war powers (Yoo et al.), its actually the wrong debate. Instead, they should be asking which methods of dealing with attempted terrorism are more likely to contribute to national security, rather than constituting simple revenge. As FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

we’ve had a number of cases in which through the process — the criminal justice process of the United States, individuals have decided to cooperate and provided tremendous intelligence. That is not to say that there may not be other ways of obtaining that intelligence. But, yes, in answer to your question, the criminal justice system has been a — a fount of intelligence in the years since September 11th.

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Thanks to Spencer Ackerman’s ongoing coverage.