Should Officials Declare Boston Marathon Suspect an Enemy Combatant?

Update, 12:20 p.m. April 22: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not be treated as an enemy combatant, according to NBC News.

"We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice," Carney said.

Do you think the White House made the right choice? Tell us in the comments.

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Original post, 9:24 a.m. April 22: When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was , we all let out a collective sigh of relief. Rapidly thoughts turned to prosecution.

At the first news conference after the arrest, officials and reporters talked about the "public safety exception" to Miranda Rights. The exception "permits law enforcement to engage in a limited and focused unwarned interrogation and allows the government to introduce the statement as direct evidence," according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

That's not good enough, according to some leaders. A few Republican lawmakers want the U.S. government to declare Tsarnaev an enemy combatant, in case he has ties to Al Qaeda, according to the Star Tribune. That declaration would allow officials to "question him without a lawyer and other protections of the criminal justice system."

Sen. Lindsey Graham and John McCain are two lawmakers who want this declaration, according to the New York Times.

In 2011, John O. Brennan, the top counter-terrorism adviser to President Obama, explained the administration's policy on terrorism suspects arrested in the United States.

Brennan said, "'It is the firm position of the Obama administration' that terrorism suspects arrested inside the United States must be prosecuted solely in civilian court system in line with 'longstanding tradition,'" according to the New York Times. “Our military does not patrol our streets or enforce our laws, nor should it. This is not a radical idea.”

What do you think? Should Tsarnaev be declared an enemy combatant? Tell us in the comments.