No Miranda for Underwear Bomber

An FBI agent has testified that the Nigerian man who allegedly attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound flight from the Netherlands on Christmas 2009, was not read his Miranda rights, in order to make sure that there were no other terrorists on the flight CBS News reports.

Umar Farouk Abdulmattalab, who was treated at the University of Michigan hospital for second degree burns to his crotch has asked that his statements to the medical personell be supressed. However, the government has said that the Miranda right to stay silent doesn't apply if authorities believe that there is an immediate safe threat.

Additionally, introducing the Miranda rights to someone not familiar with the process could have been cause for further confusion, FBI Agent Timothy Walters has pointed out.
"We needed information right now…about individuals willing to martyr themselves on other aircraft," he said according to CBS News.

The concern that others were on the flight was a large one, as Al Qaeda tends to stage coordinated attacks, according to Walters. Abdulmutallab had successfully passed the security screening in Amsterdam, so the threat of more individuals on board was imminent.

Walter's testimony took place Wednesday, as Jury selection began in a separte courtroom. Abdulmutallab whispered "Osama is alive" to spectators as he entered the courtroom, and mumbled "jihad" when US District Judge Nancy Edmunds read the charges against him to the jury, but, the jurors were unable to hear Abdulmutallab's comments, Reuters reports.

According to Reuters, Judge Edmunds has denied Abdulmutallab's request to move the case out of Michigan, as well. Abdulmutallab, who has pleaded not guilty in the case claims that he received the bomb and training from Al Qaeda militants in Yemen.