Eric Holder defends decision to try 9/11 terrorists in federal court
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Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder today defended the Obama administration’s decision to try professed terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal court and denied the move would give Mohammed a propaganda forum.
“At the end of the day, it was clear to me that the venue in which we are most likely to obtain justice for the American people is in federal court,” Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.
The decision to try some of the accused terrorists in civilian court rather than before military tribunals has been criticized by Republicans who argue that it gives terrorists a worldwide stage for their views. The argument is especially acute in the case of Mohammed, who has said he was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington in which almost 3,000 Americans were killed.
Mohammed and four others being held at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay will be tried in federal court in Manhattan, just blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.
Holder told senators that a civilian court was the proper place for the trial because the government had already successfully prosecuted more than 300 terrorists. Terrorists would have no more of a platform than they would have had in military proceedings.
“I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is,” Holder said in televised remarks to the committee. “I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheik Mohammed has to say at trial — and no one else needs to be either.”
“We need not cower in the face of this enemy,” Holder said. “Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) the committee chairman, supported Holder’s decision. “We’re the most powerful nation on earth,’ he said. ‘We have a justice system that is the envy of the world. We will not be afraid.”
But the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, criticized the move. “I believe this decision is dangerous,’ Sessions said. ‘I believe it’s misguided. I believe it’s unnecessary.”
Holder announced last week that five 9/11 conspirators will be tried in Manhattan. Five other suspects, Holder said, will be sent to unnamed military commissions in the United States.
--Michael Muskal
Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal
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