Peter King: Treat Bomber As Enemy Combatant Because 'Battlefield Now In The U.S.'
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) doesn't think an American citizen should be entitled to constitutional protections.
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) says that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev should be treated as an enemy combatant and does not deserve to be informed of his Miranda rights to remain silent because the "battlefield is now in the United States."
In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) if Tsarnaev should be treated as a criminal or an enemy combatant.
Feinstein argued that providing a Miranda warning to the suspect, who is a U.S. citizen, was "the only legal way to proceed."
"I do not believe that under the military commission law that he is eligible for that," she explained. "It would be unconstitutional to do that."
But King disagreed, saying that Tsarnaev "should be treated as a enemy combatant for the purpose of interrogation."
"The reason for it is there are so many questions unanswered, there are so many potential links to terrorism here," he continued. "Also, the battlefield is now in the United States. So, I believe he is an enemy combatant."
The New York Republican added that the suspect would be tried in a civilian court and the statements taken during interrogations could not be used against him in the trial.
"But right now he is one of the only links we have in any Chechen involvement in the al Qaeda movement, in the overall Islamist movement. And we don't know, are there other conspirators out there? Are there other explosives out there? Where did they get their radicalization? Are there mosques, imams that we should be looking at? Who did his brother meet with when he was in Russia, in Chechnya? These are only questions that I believe can be obtained if he does not get is Miranda rights."