US defends interrogation of airplane bomb suspect

In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Holder also said he made the decision to charge the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with crimes in the regular U.S. court system.

Holder rejected widespread criticism by Republicans and some Democrats in Congress over how the suspect was interviewed by FBI agents for only about an hour before he stopped cooperating and then was read his Miranda rights, providing him a lawyer and full U.S. constitutional legal rights.

(...) "The interrogation of Abdulmutallab was handled in accordance with FBI policy that has governed interrogation of every suspected terrorist apprehended in the United States for many years," he said.

Holder said the FBI on the evening of Dec. 25 and on the morning of Dec. 26 told other representatives in the U.S. intelligence community that Abdulmutallab would be charged in court, and no agency objected.

"As attorney general, I am guided not by partisanship or political considerations but by a commitment to using the most effective course of action in each case," he said.

Republicans such as McConnell and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina remained critical of the administration.

"It was a mistake to read him Miranda rights after he was apprehended and to suggest otherwise is just political spin," Graham said.

Michael Mukasey, who handled terrorism cases as a federal judge and as attorney general for Republican President George W. Bush, told the "PBS NewsHour" program that Abdulmutallab's main value was a source of intelligence information.

"I think the first concern should have been to use him not as a defendant but as an intelligence asset," Mukasey said.