Khalid Shiekh Mohammed is headed to New York City, along with three other al Qaeda members currently held at Guantanamo Bay:
Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.
The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning.
The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama’s plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.
It is also a major legal and political test of Obama’s overall approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian courtroom. And if lawmakers get upset about notorious terrorists being brought to their home regions, they may fight back against other parts of Obama’s agenda.
The New York case may also force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programs begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method — waterboarding, or simulated drowning — was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.
This just strikes me as a really bad idea.
Push this case through the criminal justice system and this guy is going to fly free as a bird at the end of the day.
“Case dismissed.”
When was he read his Miranda warning? When was waterboarding allowed in civilian courts? Who are his accusers? Is he a criminal or an enemy combatant? Enemy combatants/POWs are not to be tried in criminal courts as per Geneva Convention. If he his a criminal, has his embassy been properly notified? If a criminal, weren’t his “accommodations” failing to live up to penal code?
This is just stupid and all for political grandstanding.
These guys have to be put on trial at some point and somewhere. The idea that we can simply keep them locked up indefinitely is both unconstitutional and disturbing.
Vast,
Nobody is suggesting that, but the reality of the situation is that KSM was effectively the Commanding General in an act of war against the United States.
Trying him in a civilian court is absurd as it would have been to bring Admiral Yamamoto before the trial court in Honolulu for bombing Pearl Harbor.
This belongs in the military justice system
And if we don’t want to hold him indefinitely, execute him.
I have no issue with him being tried in a military court as long as he gets tried. The impression I got from the Bush administration and most people in the Republican party is that simply wanted to lock these folks up and forget about them without charging them or without trying them.
Gitmo would be a lot less controversial if Bush had simply charged and put these guys on trial instead of letting them rot and drum up support for their radical cause.
With the obvious understanding that trials in military court do not bring with them the same rights that a civil trial does
195 Terrorist suspects have been tried and convicted in US courts since 2001. I suspect that the criminal justice system can handle these cases.
All in all, I simply want to see these guys have their day in court, whether it be civilian or military and be put away or executed.
Doug,
Obama is doing the only thing he legally can do in this instance, put KSM on trial in a civilian court. It sucks, but his hands are tied legally.
The United States is not technically at war with Al-Qaeda for the simple fact that there has been no Declaration of War from Congress. If there was a Declaration of War, then KSM can be tried by a military tribunal.
KSM CONFESSED. He needs no trial. He wanted to be put to death. Let’s oblige him.