Top Republican says airline bombing suspect should face a military tribunal

The man accused of attempting to bomb a Christmas Day flight should face a military tribunal, a top Republican said Tuesday.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with attempting to blow up a flight last Friday en route to Detroit from Amsterdam, should not be given the rights afforded to other criminal defendants.

"I think that the administration has made a mistake by treating this terrorist as a common criminal — by putting him into the criminal justice system," King said Tuesday during an appearance on NBC. "I wish they would have put him into a military tribunal so we could get as much intelligence and information out of him as we could."

The New York Republican, who has been one of the GOP's foremost point men on national security issues, said that by affording Abdulmutallab due process, the government was missing out on potentially vital information from the alleged bomber, who is said to have ties to al Qaeda.

"My concern is that we did miss the opportunity, because once we put him into the criminal justice system, he gets a lawyer and Miranda rights," King explained.

Abdulmutallab was charged by the Justice Department on Saturday while in the hospital, where he is recovering from injuries sustained during his attempted attack.

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