A Deal on the Table for Captain Underpants

I'm hesitant to get too worked up over this until more is known, assuming it ever is, but I will say that on the face of it, it doesn't sound good. Politico reports this from John Brennan's round on the Sunday shows this morning:

The U.S. Government is offering the suspect charged with attempting to bomb an aircraft on Christmas Day, Omar Abdulmutallab, some kind of incentives to share what he knows about Al Qaeda, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday.

Asked why Abdulmutallab should cooperate given his right, as criminal defendant, to remain silent, Brennan replied: "He doesn't have to but he knows there are certain things that are on the table... if he wants to engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways he can do that."

Ed Morrissey succinctly sums it up:

Now Brennan suggests they’ll cut a deal with the terrorist to get what they may have gotten for free otherwise.

It's true that he does suggest that a deal is on the table. I'm not sure what other read you could put on the statement "certain things that are on the table...". It sure sounds like a deal.

Frugal Cafe dares to speculate:

What does this terrorist deal involve? Guaranteed immunity, a new identity, a sweet relocation package so that Abdulmutallab can move to Massachusetts or Illinois, hook up with his bloodthirsty al Qaeda buddies, and start planning a bigger, better jihad attack on Americans?

Who knows? But this jihadi monster has lawyered up to the gills, so you know the deal must be fabulous.

The bottom line for me is that this was botched from the beginning as soon as Abdulmutallab was charged with a criminal offense. He should have been turned over to the military and interrogated as an enemy combatant. Lord knows Team Obama has made that kind of interrogation much less terrifying that it would have been in years past. As soon as he announced to the world that we would only go by the Army Field Manual, every terrorist on the planet began training for it.

We could have obtained valuable information from Abdulmutallab. As it is now, he is exercising his right to remain silent, a right that was bestowed on him when he came HERE to blow us up.

I don't know what kind of "things are on the table" but I do know if this guy gets sent back to Yemen or Nigeria, or if he gets any kind of special treatment at all, it is political suicide for the Democrats. I just don't think Americans will stand for it.

Via: Memeorandum