Via the Right Scoop, Senator John McCain presents the other side of the Miranda-warning debate for Faisal Shahzad. Don Imus presses him lightly on the suggestion that giving Shahzad a Miranda warning would be “a serious mistake,” but doesn’t get much in the way of specifics from McCain. The Senator says that there are legal ways of delaying the warning, but those apply when the US believes an attack is imminent. Otherwise, nothing said by a suspect can be used in court, and since Shahzad is an American citizen arrested in the US, military commissions would be out of the question. Besides, Shahzad will apparently be in court this afternoon around 2 pm ET to be arraigned, where a judge will inform Shahzad of those rights anyway.

Plenty of people have accused McCain of becoming a born-again border enforcer thanks to a strong primary challenge from J. D. Hayworth. This isn’t much of a change for McCain on counterterrorism, though. He’s been consistent on that score, but misses the point about citizenship and jurisdiction.

Moe Lane makes a good point about treason, too, as the consequence for terrorism against the US. If American citizens should get handled differently, then they should also face greater rigor for engaging in war against the US. Mirandize Shahzad and charge him with treason along with the “hundreds” of other charges McCain mentions.