Disturbing report indicates Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs requests for a lawyer were ignoredMadison Ruppert While reports indicating that Tsarnaevs Miranda rights were being withheld were disturbing enough, this new aspect pointed out today by Glenn Greenwald is far worse. Apparently, Tsarnaev was Mirandized only because a federal magistrate decided to hold an in-hospital hearing for the suspect during which he was advised of his right to remain silent and appointed a lawyer. This hearing interrupted an interrogation that had lasted some 16 hours up to that point. The Mirandizing of Tsarnaev upset former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani who called it mind-boggling and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers who called the decision to intervene a God-awful policy. Yet even more insane is that the Los Angeles Times reported, A senior congressional aide said Tsarnaev had asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored since he was being questioned under the public safety exemption to the Miranda rule. Greenwald points out that if this report is indeed accurate, it would be a much more serious violation of essential rights than delaying Miranda warnings under the public safety exception, even the expanded version pushed by the Obama Justice Department. The bottom line is this: not telling a suspect about his rights in order to try obtain brief, immediate and emergency public safety information is one thing, writes the lawyer writing under the name bmaz for Empty Wheel. Straight out denying and refusing a defendant constitutional rights he is legally entitled to, and has tried to invoke, is quite another. The government has issues on both fronts as to Tsarnaev. Invoking the public safety exemption to deny the right to a lawyer has only been accepted in cases where the intrusion into the constitutional right to counsel [] was so fleeting in both it was no more than a question or two about a weapon on the premises of a search while the search warrant was actively being executed, according to bmaz. Nothing whatsoever like the 16 hours of interrogation applied to Tsarnaev, across at least two sessions, over a period of at least two days, bmaz adds. Even the use of the public safety exception was dubious, according to law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky. The public safety exception does not apply here because there was no emergency threat facing law enforcement, according to Chemereinskys article in the Los Angeles Times. That issue aside, the possibility that Tsarnaevs requests for a lawyer were actively blocked by the government is far more problematic. This is a US citizen arrested for an alleged crime on US soil: there is no justification whatsoever for denying him his repeatedly exercised right to counsel, according to Greenwald. Even more troubling, Greenwald highlights the fact that the Los Angeles Times report indicates that if the federal magistrate did not force herself into the situation, the interrogation could have continued for even longer. That interrogation apparently would have continued along with the Miranda delay and the denial of Tsarnaevs right to a lawyer. Meanwhile, lawmakers are actually saying that the judge actually should not have stepped in. As of now, it appears that the only confirmation of the government ignoring Tsarnaevs requests for a lawyer come from an anonymous congressional aide cited by the Los Angeles Times. As such, it should be treated with a healthy degree of skepticism, yet the Los Angeles Times clearly believed the source to be credible and reliable enough to print the statement. Glenn Greenwald sums up the importance of this issue quite nicely. This is not something we can brush aside simply because its a suspected terrorist, a Muslim, etc. If you cheer when Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs right to counsel is denied, then youre enabling the institutionalization of that violation, and thus ensuring that you have no basis or ability to object when that right is denied to others whom you find more sympathetic (including yourself), Greenwald writes. Indeed, how this simple fact is overlooked is beyond me at this point. The promotion of the erosion of civil liberties for one person or group just guarantees that it can and will be expanded to cover others eventually. There is no reason to believe that the exceptions to our most essential rights cant be expanded to cover you as well. Id love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com Please support our work and help us start to pay contributors by doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store. This article first appeared at End the Lie. Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis databaseEnd The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCYTV Monday nights 7 PM 9 PM PT/10 PM 12 AM ET. Show page link here: http://UCY.TV/EndtheLie. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 