WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10) today made the following comments regarding attempted Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s waiving his right to a trial and changing his plea to guilty on all charges. Miller said:
“I am pleased that today we had a rare outbreak of common sense in the trial of the Christmas Day Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as he changed his plea to accept guilt on all charges. I firmly believe that this now admitted terrorist should never have been tried in our civilian courts. From the day this attempted terrorist attack occurred, I have called for this terrorist to be held and tried as an enemy combatant by our nation and handed over to military courts. If we needed any proof that Abdulmutallab is an enemy of our nation he proved it himself when he stated in court today that ‘committing jihad against the United States is one of the most virtuous acts a Muslim can perform.’
“The people of the City of Detroit, after having this terrorist almost blow up an aircraft over our community, have watched as he has made a mockery of our civilian justice system, they have had to absorb costs associated with this trial and law abiding members of our community who were called as prospective jurors have expressed fear over being seated at such a trial. In addition, by affording this foreign terrorist who attempted to kill our fellow Americans the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, including the right to remain silent, after less than one hour of questioning it is impossible to determine how much vital intelligence was lost.
“I call on this Administration to learn from this mistake and take a different approach in the future. Going forward we must treat these terrorists as what they are, enemies of our nation who should rightly be tried in military courts under the enemy combatant process which has been validated by the United States Supreme Court. I am glad that this trial is now over and I hope that this terrorist is sentenced to the fullest extent of the law, but the people of our community will once again have to listen as this terrorist is given another platform to spew his hatred of America at sentencing. It is unfortunate and should never have happened.”
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