Holder defends move to try 9/11 suspects in U.S. criminal court
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
November 19, 2009
Saying he did believe the United States was still "at war," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended his decision to move the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his lieutenants to a federal court in Manhattan, saying it would help produce a conviction and would not jeopardize the safety of the city or the secrecy of classified information.
"Prosecuting the 9/11 defendants in federal court does not represent some larger judgment about whether or not we are at war," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We are at war, and we will use every instrument of national power -- civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic, and others -- to win."
Support for Holder's decision broke down on party lines, with Republicans sharply criticizing the move as a "fundamental mistake" that could jeopardize future terrorist cases.
"Every military leader I've talked to is worried if we go down this road we are criminalizing the war and putting our intelligence gathering at risk," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.
Holder made a last-minute change to his testimony before the panel to focus almost solely on his decision to move the trial and assure critics that the proceedings will do nothing to dishonor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, whose family members sat in the audience behind him in the hearing room.
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will have no more of a platform to spew his hateful ideology in federal court than he would have in military commissions," Holder said. "Judges in federal court have firm control over the conduct of defendants and other participants in their courtrooms."
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., commended Holder for the decision to move Mohammed's trial and said the United States has successfully prosecuted other terrorists in federal courts.
"He committed murder here in the United States, and we'll seek justice here in the United States," Leahy said. "He committed crimes of murder in our country, and we prosecute them in our country."
Holder said moving the trial would not block him from pursuing the death penalty.
Moving the trial to New York will be costly, and the federal government will likely have to pick up the tab.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., secured a promise from Holder for a reimbursement after Schumer got a cost estimate of a staggering $75 million for trying the five men in New York.
Holder had several heated exchanges with GOP members over the implications of moving the trial to a federal court for other terrorists, including Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"If you caught bin Laden tomorrow, now we are saying he is subject to criminal courts in the United States, would you tell the military commander you must read him his rights and give him a lawyer?" Graham asked.
Holder assured him Bin Laden's conviction "would not depend on any custodial statement he would make. It's a red herring."
