WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) made this statement today on the Obama Administration’s decision to charge an American citizen, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, who fought for ISIL, in federal court instead of holding him as an enemy combatant.

“Mohamad Khweis is an American citizen who voluntarily joined ISIL. He traveled to Syria and Iraq and was captured on the battlefield. The Obama Administration should have held him as an enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes. This is legal and allowed under the Law of War.

"Instead, President Obama and his team have decided to read this terrorist his Miranda rights and put him directly into the federal court system. Our ability to gather timely and valuable intelligence about ISIL from this individual is now no greater than the permission given by this terrorist’s criminal lawyer.

“This practice is dangerous, turns the Law of War upside down, and makes us as a nation less safe. We are delaying the opportunity to gain timely, valuable intelligence which could be of use to our war fighters.

"The Obama Administration continues to take terrorists off the battlefield and put them in federal court rather than holding them for intelligence gathering purposes. Obama’s ill-considered decision makes our nation less safe.”