It is all over the Main Stream Media: New York trials for 9/11 suspects raise new safety concerns
US Army Veteran
9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged underlings in
civilian courts ignited a debate Friday about whether the trial would invite
new attacks on New York and if the proceeding would be stymied by legal
wrangling over the defendants' rights.
In deciding to proceed with the first U.S. criminal prosecution of those
directly involved in the terrorist attacks eight years ago, Holder expressed
his complete confidence in a successful outcome. He also said he intends to
ask for the death penalty.
Congressional Republicans, however, charged that forgoing military
commissions in favor of a trial, within blocks of the site where hijacked
planes leveled the World Trade Center, will risk the release of some of the
world's most dangerous men. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas warned that
"bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises
the safety of all Americans."
Other critics said that the trial could be bogged down by issues of mental
competency, especially for detainees who were kept in isolation for years
and in some cases subjected to brutal interrogation techniques, including
waterboarding.
Holder said that it was his job to set aside politics, follow the law and
"do what's best" for the country.
Americans, especially family members of the 2,872 people who were killed on
Sept. 11, 2001, "deserve the opportunity to see the alleged plotters of
those attacks held accountable in court, an opportunity that has been too
long delayed," he said.
Holder was confident that federal authorities could protect New York, which
he described as a "hardened system" after many successful terrorism
prosecutions.
Administration officials described the decision as a "significant step"
toward fulfilling President Barack Obama's campaign promise to close the
detention center at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, though
Holder said he doubted they'd meet a Jan. 22 deadline.
"To the extent that there are political consequences, I'll just have to take
my lumps," Holder said. ". . . I think the criticism will be relatively
muted."
Neither of the previous two attorneys general were mute Friday.
Michael Mukasey, Holder's predecessor and a former federal judge in the same
court where the men will be tried, called the decision "unwise" and said
that the trials will amount to a "social experiment." He told a national
convention of the conservative Federalist Society that evidence against the
men, including classified intelligence, wasn't gathered with the intent to
prosecute them at a highly public federal court trial.
Alberto Gonzales, the Bush administration's point man in its controversial
policies toward the detention and treatment of terrorism suspects, said on
CNN that Holder's approach raises "a host of legal questions."
"What happens if someone like this is acquitted?" he asked.
However, Human Rights Watch hailed the decision "a victory for justice,"
while warning that the trial proceedings must be "perceived as fair" to
protect America's reputation.
Holder's action culminated a lengthy behind-the-scenes debate among the
Pentagon, the Justice Department and the White House over how to handle the
most dangerous detainees. Holder called it his most difficult decision since
taking office.
He also said that he'd decided to return to the Pentagon, for likely trials
before revamped military commissions, the cases of five other Guantanamo
detainees, including the alleged leader of the October 2000 bombing in Yemen
of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors. That decision wasn't
welcomed by civil rights groups, who contend that even the latest version of
military commissions is substandard and unjust.
Holder distinguished the two venues - civilian courts or military
commissions - partly by whether the attack occurred in a "military setting."
A big obstacle could be whether an impartial jury can be impaneled in the
city where the twin towers once stood.
Holder said that a careful jury selection process should dispel those
concerns.
"I would not have authorized the bringing of these prosecutions unless I
thought that the outcome . . . would ultimately be successful," he said. "I
will say that I have access to information that has not been publicly
released that gives me great confidence that we will be successful in
federal court."
Pentagon and Justice Department officials said privately that, in the
unlikely event of an acquittal, other options such as extradition would
assure that no one who poses a national security threat would be released
into this country.
He said that a grand jury indictment soon would be returned against:
_ Mohammed, who's admitted to spearheading the planning but whom U.S.
interrogators subjected to simulated drowning techniques at a secret
overseas prison after his capture in March 2003.
_ Ramzi Binalshibh, who was turned away at the U.S. border four times before
the attacks, even offering to marry a U.S. citizen to gain access, before
allegedly acting as the prime coordinator for the 19 hijackers from Germany.
_ Waleed bin Attash, who the U.S. government says was intended to be a
hijacker until he was captured in Yemen earlier in 2001.
_ Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, the alleged paymaster, suspected of managing the
funding for the hijackings and wiring money to the hijackers.
_ Ali Abd al Aziz Ali, a Pakistan-based operative who allegedly transferred
money to the U.S. operatives and facilitated their travel from Pakistan to
the U.S.
All five have been held for years in overseas prisons and at Guantanamo Bay.
Asked about Holder's decision at a Tokyo news conference, Obama said: "I am
absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheik Mohammed will be subject to the most
exacting demands of justice. The American people will insist on it and my
administration will insist on it."
The decision came after federal prosecutors demonstrated that they could
overcome huge legal hurdles in the related federal court prosecution of
Moussaoui, who was arrested in Minnesota while he was learning to fly a 747
jumbo jet less than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty to capital crimes in 2005 and was spared a death
sentence only by a single holdout on the jury after a dramatic trial in
2006. No evidence surfaced that he knew of the Sept. 11 plot.
He's appealing his sentence to life in Colorado's "Supermax" prison,
however, on the grounds that he was denied the right to pick his attorney
and was barred access to classified information that might have aided in his
defense.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, praised Holder's decision, saying that the federal
courts have proved "time and time again" that the they're "capable of trying
high-profile terrorism and national security cases."
Obama wants terrorism suspects to face trial in traditional federal courts
and to reserve military commission trials for other cases. His
administration earlier this year moved a Tanzanian detainee - accused as a
co-conspirator in al Qaida's 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa - to
Manhattan for trial.
Family members of Sept. 11 victims all want justice but are divided over
Holder's decision to seek it in a U.S. court room.
Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of the hijacked American
Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, said she fears
that Mohammed will make a mockery of the court "exulting in the suffering of
(the) families, ridiculing the judge, his lawyers and the American justice
system, and worst of all, rallying his jihadi brothers to kill more
Americans."
Valerie Lucz, whose nephew died at the World Trade Center, disagreed.
"The fairness and justice with which we treat these prisoners can be seen by
the whole world," she said. Unlike in military commissions, she said, "Here
we can see what's going on, everybody can see what's going on. And I think
that is eminently important."