ScreamingEagle
Gold Member
- Jul 5, 2004
- 13,399
- 1,706
- 245
Backpedaling from its vow to try the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four cohorts in civilian court, the Obama administration Monday bowed to pressure and opted for a military tribunal - another blow to the presidents three-year bid to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The retreat was announced Monday by a reluctant Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who ignited the controversy in November 2009 when he said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali would be tried in civilian court in New York.
The attorney general blamed Congress for the change and cited the need to move quickly for the benefit of victims of 9/11 and their family members.
Unfortunately, since I made that decision, members of Congress have intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to trial in the United States, regardless of the venue, he said. As the president has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counterterrorism efforts and could harm our national security.
Lawmakers from both parties praised the decision, and some took exception with Mr. Holders characterization of congressional efforts to block the trials.
While not unexpected, this is the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea,c said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. I have always said that the perpetrators of this horrible crime should get the ultimate penalty, and I believe this proposal by the administration can make that happen.
Republican lawmakers and other conservatives, including former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, criticized the November 2009 move as reckless and dangerous. Mr. Mukasey likened it to a return to a Sept. 10, 2001, criminal justice model, and said the decision was not only unwise, but in fact based on a refusal to face the fact that what we are involved with here is a war with people who follow a religiously based ideology that calls on them to kill us.
Holder drops civilian trials for suspects in 9/11 attacks - Washington Times
The retreat was announced Monday by a reluctant Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who ignited the controversy in November 2009 when he said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali would be tried in civilian court in New York.
The attorney general blamed Congress for the change and cited the need to move quickly for the benefit of victims of 9/11 and their family members.
Unfortunately, since I made that decision, members of Congress have intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to trial in the United States, regardless of the venue, he said. As the president has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counterterrorism efforts and could harm our national security.
Lawmakers from both parties praised the decision, and some took exception with Mr. Holders characterization of congressional efforts to block the trials.
While not unexpected, this is the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea,c said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. I have always said that the perpetrators of this horrible crime should get the ultimate penalty, and I believe this proposal by the administration can make that happen.
Republican lawmakers and other conservatives, including former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, criticized the November 2009 move as reckless and dangerous. Mr. Mukasey likened it to a return to a Sept. 10, 2001, criminal justice model, and said the decision was not only unwise, but in fact based on a refusal to face the fact that what we are involved with here is a war with people who follow a religiously based ideology that calls on them to kill us.
Holder drops civilian trials for suspects in 9/11 attacks - Washington Times
