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Published January 14, 2015
This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," February 8, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
STUART VARNEY, GUEST HOST: In the loop or out? The president anti- terror adviser insisting top Republicans knew about plans to read terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, U.S. DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: They knew that in FBI custody means that there’s a process then you follow as far as Mirandizing and presenting him in front of the magistrate. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point. They didn’t say, is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VARNEY: My next guest says it’s just not true. Vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Kit Bond, joining me on now the phone.
Sir, why would the administration pick this fight, directly contradicting you, just this weekend?
SEN. CHRISTOPHER BOND, R-MO.: It’s really – it’s really hard to understand.
The administration is trying to pass the buck for dangerous decisions. Brennan did call me, as well as others, and never said that they were going to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber. I would have told him that it was a serious mistake, as I’m sure that the DNI, director of national intelligence, Admiral Blair, and other leaders of the intelligence community would have told him, because they all said it was a major mistake.
VARNEY: You were told to say nothing about Abdulmutallab. Then, the White House said exactly what he had been telling investigators, breaking the deal that you had with the White House. You have asked for an apology. Did you get it?
BOND: Oh, no, they asked for an apology from me...
VARNEY: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BOND: ... which is absolutely ridiculous, because they’re the ones that made this issue political. They’re the ones that was disclosing sensitive information to the press for political gain.
And what I’m trying to do is get them to stop making Americans less safe at home by disclosing sensitive intelligence, hurting future recruitment of sources, and downgrading our intelligence community.
VARNEY: I just don’t understand why they keep on going back to it. They don’t seem to be doing very well with the issue. Why not leave it alone?
BOND: There is an old rule of holes. When you’re in one, you stop digging. Maybe they can -- think they can find some path out of it. But the fact is, number one, they Mirandized Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and lost five critical weeks.
Intelligence is perishable. And they missed the opportunity for five weeks. They got some information. They told everybody they were getting it. So, not only did they tell them what the information was, they said, his family was the one that got him to talk. So, they just painted a big target on the back of his family, and told future possible sources, if you cooperate with the intelligence communities in the United States, the president may thank you in public, thereby putting a target on your back.
VARNEY: But do you think it would happen again? In a similar circumstance, after all this big fight about Abdulmutallab, do you think that the next guy who comes and arrives here would be Mirandized in the same way that he was, or have we learned something from this?
BOND: Oh, the intelligence community knows it. Members of Congress know it, at least -- at least most of them. And I’m hoping the administration understands it.
That is why I’m willing to keep this fight going as long as they want to claim that it’s the right way to go. We passed, Stuart, a military commissions bill. We passed one in 2007. The Supreme Court said change it. We passed it in 2009 to handle enemy combatants on the United States` shores. And we ought to be using it.
VARNEY: Got it.
Senator Kit Bond, thanks for joining us, sir. Appreciate it.
BOND: Thank you, Stuart. Appreciate your good coverage.
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