Despite report, no change on Miranda
Posted: Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:27 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Security, Pete Williams
From NBC's Pete Williams
The Justice Department says there has been no change in policy on giving Miranda warnings to detainees picked up in Afghanistan.
An article in the Weekly Standard says the Obama administration has ordered a change in policy, requiring agents to give Miranda warnings to all detainees. In fact, agents have from time to time given Miranda warnings to some detainees who, it's thought, might end up being prosecuted in U.S. courts. This began in the last administration.
A DOJ spokesman says there's been no new policy directive.
"There has been no policy change and no blanket instruction issued for FBI agents to Mirandize detainees overseas," spokesman Matt Miller said. "While there have been specific cases in which FBI agents have Mirandized suspects overseas, at both Bagram and in other situations, in order to preserve the quality of evidence obtained, there has been no overall policy change with respect to detainees."
*** UPDATE *** Stephen Hayes, the author of the Weekly Standard article, points out that he did not write that the Obama administration has ordered a policy change mandating a reading of Miranda writes for "all" detainees, but just for "high-value" ones. Nonetheless, the article does suggest that there has been a policy change, which is what the Obama Justice Department disagrees with.
