Republicans must’ve gotten under President Obama’s skin with their questioning of the non-interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. I suspect this because John Brennan’s op-ed in USA Today has a rather defensive tone to it. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Immediately after the failed Christmas Day attack, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was thoroughly interrogated and provided important information. Senior counterterrorism officials from the White House, the intelligence community and the military were all actively discussing this case before he was Mirandized and supported the decision to charge him in criminal court.

The most important breakthrough occurred after Abdulmutallab was read his rights, which the FBI made standard policy under Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s attorney general. The critics who want the FBI to ignore this long-established practice also ignore the lessons we have learned in waging this war: Terrorists such as Jose Padilla and Saleh al-Mari did not cooperate when transferred to military custody, which can harden one’s determination to resist cooperation.

It’s naive to think that transferring Abdulmutallab to military custody would have caused an outpouring of information. There is little difference between military and civilian custody, other than an interrogator with a uniform. The suspect gets access to a lawyer, and interrogation rules are nearly identical.

This is such a compilation of Barbra Streisand. Brennan is insulting our intelligence by saying that they conducted a thorough interrogation. What Mr. Brennan isn’t admitting is that it’s impossible to conduct a thorough interrogation in less than an hour, during which time the captured terrorist was in extreme pain and not consistently coherent.

Second, it wasn’t “standard procedure” to Mirandize terrorists. Prior to this administration, it’s been standard policy to make that type of decision on a case-by-case basis.

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community.

Mr. Brennan, why should be think that terrorists will be “dismantled and destroyed by our military” when DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano admitted in a recent press coference that she was surprised that al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula was so well organized? It’s next to impossible to destroy things that you don’t know exist, isn’t it?

I almost feel sorry for Mr. Brennan. Clearly, he was the Obama administration’s sacrificial lamb on this, sent out to spew the administration’s talking points, talking points that were incredibly easy to discredit.

Technorati: Terrorism, Interrogation, Intelligence, al-Qaeda, Yemen, Janet Napolitano, John Brennan, Miranda Rights, Abdulmutallab, President Obama, Talking Points, National Security, Democrats

Cross-posted at California Conservative