Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.’s decision to put accused 9/11 terrorists on trial in federal court is an important step in upholding this nation’s principles of justice.
Holder announced Friday that the government will prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and four codefendants in lower Manhattan. The trials will take place just blocks from the site where nearly 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Center.
Critics, including some Republicans in Congress, prefer military tribunals for men whom they consider “enemy combatants.” They argue that a civilian trial will unnecessarily put New York City at risk of another attack, and that a military setting would be more secure. They also say that a trial in federal court will give the defendants a platform to vent their anti-U.S. views, and that the trial could become a “circus.”
Trying these defendants publicly in a civilian court in New York is the appropriate venue. By contrast, a military tribunal that led to a conviction would fuel belief that the government fixed the outcome.
Holder’s decision demonstrates that this nation believes in its system of justice, and doesn’t fear giving anyone the protections guaranteed by our Constitution.
There is precedent for Holder’s decision. Although it was on a smaller scale, the case against Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called “blind sheikh,” in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was carried out in federal court. And Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaeda conspirator charged with taking part in the 9/11 attacks, was tried and convicted in federal court in northern Virginia in 2006.
Both were convicted and are serving life sentences in federal prison.
The concern that a trial in New York might provoke another terrorist attack is the wrong reason to shy away from it. Changing our behavior, or compromising our principles, would be allowing terrorists to win. Large U.S. cities will always be tempting targets for jihadists who have pledged to kill as many Americans as possible.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, the government treated terror suspects as military prisoners. But this nation bargained away some of its principles in the process, torturing detainees at Guantánamo Bay and sending others to secret prisons overseas. Our rule of law became a casualty of this strategy.
Mohammed is said to have been waterboarded 183 times in one month at Guantanamo. There’s concern that a judge will throw out his confession as a result. But he also admitted willingly on al-Jazeera television that he committed the crime.
Whatever procedural moves take place, the overriding guide for this prosecution must be the U.S. Constitution. This country has nothing to fear from the scrupulous, open, and honest application of its criminal laws.
I don't see why there are so many complainants about trying them in criminal courts. There is precedent with trying foreign terrorist in criminal court as stated above. Trying the terrorist in a court created after 911 creates serious legal problems— streetjustice- These terrorists never before stepped on American soil. They were, and still are, enemy combatants, war criminals. Military tribunals have historically been the venue for war criminals. Unlike combants of the past that wore a uniform of their country or, like the Viet Cong, were Vietnamese, these lunatics are renegades whose only allegiance is to their ideal of a god. They don't necessarily fight for Afghanistan or Iraq: they fight to kill and maim anyone who thinks otherwise, including other Muslims. Even Muslims who sympathize with their warrior brethren are often subject to collateral damage. Are men of this ilk worth our determination to provide them with a justice system that is anathema to everything they believe?— lefty
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