The chairwoman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee say the Justice Department should confer with intelligence officials before placing suspected terrorists under arrest and putting them in the civilian justice system.
The FBI was following standard procedure, but Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican Sen. Christopher Bond said Thursday that the Christmas Day airline bomb suspect might have yielded more intelligence if he had been treated as an enemy combatant rather than as a criminal.
The suspected bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO'-mahr fah-ROOK' ahb-DOOL'-moo-TAH'-lahb), was arrested and interrogated by the FBI for nearly 24 hours before being read his Miranda rights and given access to a lawyer.