9/11 Terrorists Headed for NYC to Stand Trial
|
Print This Post
New York City will now see the faces of the men who orchestrated and planned the September 11 attacks that brought such devastation and death to the streets of their city, as well as to Washington, D.C., in the setting of a Manhattan courtroom only blocks from where the twin towers used to stand.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that the self-proclaimed September 11th mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be flown to New York City to stand trial in civilian federal court, in addition to four other detainees. Holder said he plans to seek the death penalty.
President Obama is in Tokyo on a tour of East Asia. He announced Friday at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, “I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice.”
Criminal prosecutions of terrorist suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is part of the Obama Administration’s plan of approaching terrorism. Obama had originally set a deadline for January 22, 2010 to close the prison in Cuba, but that deadline is no longer expected to be reached. Obama’s Administration plans to criminally prosecute terror suspects, send them before military commissions, or send them to other countries or to various U.S. states for detention.
“This is definitely a seismic shift in how we’re approaching the war on al-Qaida[sic],” said Glenn Sulmasy, a law professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy who has written a book on national security justice. “It’s certainly surprising that the five masterminds, if you will, of the attacks on the United States will be tried in traditional, open federal courts.”
The decision to bring the most dangerous of prisoners to American soil has drawn sharp criticism.
Debra Burlingame, the sister of a pilot whose plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, said in a statement that “the trial will be a travesty.” She supports military trials for Mohammed and four other defendants.
“In open court, it will be Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who will hold forth,” she said, “mocking his victims, exulting in the suffering of their families, ridiculing the judge, his lawyers and the American justice system, and worst of all, rallying his jihad brothers to kill more Americans.”
The Administration’s move is viewed as a decision carrying substantial political risk. Congressmen have expressed concern over terrorists being relocated to their home states if Obama proceeds with the closing of Guantanamo and sending the terror suspects to U.S. prisons. Congressmen have said such actions would put civilians in unnecessary risk. There are also concerns that upon their relocation to other countries, that these dangerous persons will be released and return to continue in the jihad movement with a more substantial knowledge of the U.S. and strengthened dedication to their cause.
There is speculation that if the Administration pushes Congressmen too much, that there will be a political backlash and Obama will lose vital support of his various initiatives and bills he wants to pass.
Holder also announced that five other detainees, including a major suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission.
The five suspects headed to New York City together are all accused of conspiring in the 2001 attacks. The five headed to military commissions face a variety of charges but many of them include attacks specifically against the U.S. military.
Those who support the Obama Administration’s decision to try the 9/11 conspirators in court believe this is the first step in achieving true justice and see the actions of these men as criminally-defined. The position of the Bush Administration was these suspects were enemy combatants united by a common ideology and their actions were an act of war, leading the U.S. to term our response as “The War on Terror”.
Tom Andrews, director of a campaign to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, said, “as long as Guantanamo remains open, America’s image abroad will continue to be one of torture and our ability to lead will be hampered.”
Andrews points out that 195 terrorists have been convicted in U.S. federal courts since 2001, and that those who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 were tried and convicted in federal court.
“Those responsible for 9/11 are not warriors, they are criminals and mass murderers,” Andrews said. “Treating them as anything else plays into al Qaeda’s hands and rewards them an elevated status that only stokes their desire for ‘martyrdom’.”
TheAmericano/Agencies
Related posts:
- Justice Department Grants Free Propaganda for 9-11 Terrorists Justice Department Grants Free Propaganda for 9-11 Terrorists Most political...
- Obama Unable to Meet His Pledge to Close Gitmo One of President Obama’s first acts as president was...
- Sign this petition to protest the civilian trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in NYC HUMAN EVENTS PETITION TO MOVE KSM TRIAL FROM NYC Current...
- White House still undecided on terror trial location When a lower Manhattan court was announced in November 2009...
- Guantanamo Will Not Be Closed By Obama’s January Deadline President Obama signed the executive order closing Guantanamo two days...
I cringe every time I see that mans picture