Stop Talking Now

It seems the administration is attempting to reframe is abominable response to Mirandizing Abdulmutallab after a fifty minute interview. According to the LA Times at least four government agencies were involved in the decision:

The decision to advise the accused Christmas Day attacker of his right to remain silent was made after teleconferences involving at least four government agencies -- and only after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stopped talking to authorities, according to knowledgeable law enforcement officials.

Among those involved in the hastily called teleconferences were representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, along with officials from the State Department and the CIA.

I'm wondering who they actually spoke to in those agencies because just last week the testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee was a little different:

Four top counterterrorism officials testified before a congressional committee that they were not consulted about how to handle the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab...That group included all three senior Obama administration officials who testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday: Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security; Michael Leiter, chairman of the National Counterterrorism Center; and Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence. It also included FBI Director Robert Mueller.

A decision this big, an al-Qaeda attack on the United States, and the top dogs weren't consulted. Apparently it was left to underlings.

They just need to quit talking now. Every time someone in the administration tries to make this better, it gets worse.

(H/T: Memeorandum)