Yes, No, Maybe...

The Obama administration - the folks that decided foreign nationals attemping to kill American soldiers abroad were entitled to "Miranda rights", legal counsel and their day in court - is apparently realizing that sitting in Chicago and talking about war is a little different from actually having to run the war.

It would appear that being nice to everyone and bowing to Saudi princes isn't enough to make radical muslims stop trying to blow up New York City. In an effort that harkens back to the stone age tactics of the tyranical Bush administration, Obama's legal advisers are considering asking Congress to allow the government to detain terror suspects longer before allowing them their initial hearing in front of a judge. I can see it now, ACLU vs. Obama in federal court.

According to Charlie Savage of the New York Times,

"If approved, the idea to delay hearings would be attached to broader legislation to allow interrogators to withhold Miranda warnings from terrorism suspects for lengthy periods, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. proposed last week."

Hasn't it been less than a year since Obama ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities? Yes, it has.

The purpose of that move was outlined in a May 28, 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times,

"The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions.
Under the 'global justice' initiative, which has been in the works for several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases. They will expand their questioning of suspects and evidence-gathering to try to ensure that criminal prosecutions are an option."

Given the advantage of one year of hindsight, I'd like to make two observations:

First, transparency (as in "transparent investigations and prosecutions") has proven to be something this administration is incapable of. They still don't know what's in the health care bill they jammed through Congress.

Secondly, "global justice" has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. The FBI isn't going to go to Syria and conduct a couple interviews, fly to Iran and talk to some folks, then arrest someone In Saudi Arabia for funding a terrorist training facility in Pakinstan. Not going to happen. This is exactly why we have the Central Intelligence Agency and why their operations aren't transparent.

Could this current shift be a sign that the administration has finally figured out that islamic terrorists are not criminals, they are fanatical (self-proclaimed) "soldiers" and fighting them should be the responsibility of the CIA and the military, not the FBI and law enforcement? Don't hold your breath - sixteen months to figure out the obvious is starting to look a bit quick for this bunch.