• 9/11 suspects to be tried in NYC civilian court
    113 replies, posted
[QUOTE]WASHINGTON - Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be brought to trial in a civilian U.S. courthouse in New York, near the site of the devastating 2001 terror attacks, the Obama administration announced Friday. Prosecutors expect to seek the death penalty. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the long-awaited and politically fraught decision at a news conference. He also said five other Guantanamo detainees, including a major suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will be tried through the military commission process. Holder said the Sept. 11 defendants should be tried where their crimes occurred. Nearly 3,000 people died when the World Trade Center towers were brought down by two hijacked jetliners, another hijacked jet hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in the state of Pennsylvania."After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for that attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice," Holder said. "They will be brought to New York — to New York — to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood." Mohammed and the four others — Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali — are accused of orchestrating the 2001 attacks. Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, the military lawyer appointed to represent Ramzi Binalshibh, said Sept. 11 attorneys had not been notified of the administration's decision but welcomed the apparent move to civilian court. Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline. "For over 200 years our nation has relied upon a faithful adherence to the rule of law," Holder told a news conference at the Justice Department. "Once again, we will ask our legal system in two venues to answer that call." The plan that Holder outlined is 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 terrorists being brought to their home regions, they may fight back against other parts of Obama's agenda."This is definitely a seismic shift in how we're approaching the war on al-Qaida," 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."Republican: 'Unnecessary risk' Early reaction was divided along political lines. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl said bringing Mohammed to New York was "an unnecessary risk" that could result in the disclosure of classified information. Kyl maintained the trial of Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called "blind sheik" who was tried for a plot against some two-dozen New York City landmarks, caused "valuable information about U.S. intelligence sources and methods" to be revealed to the al-Qaida terrorist network. Former President George W. Bush's last attorney general, Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge in New York, also objected: "The Justice Department claims that our courts are well suited to the task. Based on my experience trying such cases and what I saw as attorney general, they aren't." But Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said the federal courts are capable of trying high-profile terrorist suspects. "By trying them in our federal courts, we demonstrate to the world that the most powerful nation on Earth also trusts its judicial system — a system respected around the world," Leahy said.Mixed reaction among Sept. 11 families Some family members of Sept. 11 victims were angered by the decision. "We have a president who doesn't know we're at war," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, was pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon. She said she was sickened by "the prospect of these barbarians being turned into victims by their attorneys," if the trial winds up focusing on allegations that the suspects were tortured after their capture. Other Sept. 11 families have supported the move toward public trials, saying they want to see justice done openly.The New York case may force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counterterrorism 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. The five suspects are headed to New York together because they 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. Holder said no decision had been made on where commission-bound detainees like al-Nashiri might be sent. A brig in South Carolina has been high on the list of sites under consideration.The actual transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York isn't expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them. The attorney general decided the case of the five Sept. 11 suspects should be handled by prosecutors working in the Southern District of New York, which has held a number of major terrorism trials in recent decades at the courthouse in lower Manhattan. Other federal prosecutors from northern Virginia, site of the Pentagon, will help with the trial, he said. Holder had been considering other possible trial locations, including Virginia, Washington, D.C., and a different courthouse in New York City. Those districts could end up conducting trials of other Guantanamo detainees sent to federal court later on.The attorney general's decision in these cases comes just before a Monday deadline for the government to decide how to proceed against 10 detainees facing military commissions. The administration has already sent one Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, to New York to face trial. But he is not nearly as notorious as Mohammed, who has proudly proclaimed his role in dozens of terror plots, and has sought to plead guilty in the military system. Mohammed already has an outstanding terror indictment against him in New York, for an unsuccessful plot called "Bojinka" to simultaneously take down multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean in the 1990s. Some members of Congress have fought any effort to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial in the United States; they have argued it would be too dangerous for nearby civilians. The Obama administration has defended the planned trials and pointed out that many terrorists have been safely tried, convicted, and imprisoned in the United States, including the 1993 World Trade Center bomber, Ramzi Yousef. 'Political consequences' expected Holder acknowledged his decision may prove politically unpopular. "To the extent that there are political consequences, I'll just have to take my lumps," said Holder, adding that he hopes the public understands his goal is to "do something that's rare in Washington: Leave the politics out of it and try to focus on what is in the best interests of the country."In addition to al-Nashiri, the suspect in the USS Cole bombing, the detainees headed to military commissions in the United States are: Omar Khadr, Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, and Noor Uthman Muhammed. Their cases are not specifically connected but two of them are accused of plotting against or attacking U.S. military personnel. Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Khadr, called the decision about his client "devastating and shocking." Khadr "was 15 years old when he was detained in Afghanistan as a child soldier and has been locked away in Guantanamo ever since."[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33905323/ns/us_news-security//[/url]
Good. Democracies don't use secret prison camps.
I bet they lied about it to get recognition from the Middle-East.
8 years later
Thats pretty unfair that they get tried in NYC.
[QUOTE=Bapebape|!bape;18354982]Thats pretty unfair that they get tried in NYC.[/QUOTE] You get tried where the crime was committed. How is it unfair?
So, if one of them gets sentenced to jail time, do we deduct the eight years we held them without trial from that? Lawl, right, none of these guys are getting less than death for their crimes. Very fitting that they should be dragged right back to the doorstep of where they murdered those people when they get sentenced.
[QUOTE=Bapebape|!bape;18354982]Thats pretty unfair that they get tried in NYC.[/QUOTE] I'd agree with you if it wasn't such a serious crime.
Finally we are treating them as criminals, not as animals.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;18357821]Finally we are treating them as criminals, not as animals.[/QUOTE] they should be treated like both
[QUOTE=shinobiboy77;18357904]they should be treated like both[/QUOTE] They are humans and until they are tried and found guilty should punish them.
1.Put them next to ground zero with a sign that says "I did this" 2.Charge 1 dollar per punch. 3.????? 4.Fix national dept. :v:
[QUOTE=shinobiboy77;18357904]they should be treated like both[/QUOTE] "Innocent until proven guilty", not "innocent until proven guilty unless they were accused of something really horrible".
[QUOTE=OvB;18359987]1.Put them next to ground zero with a sign that says "I did this" 2.Pay 1 dollar per punch. 3.????? 4.Fix national dept.[/QUOTE] Department of what
[QUOTE=OvB;18359987]1.Put them next to ground zero with a sign that says "I did this" 2.Charge 1 dollar per punch. 3.????? 4.Fix national dept. :v:[/QUOTE] Can we pay for more than one punch? I've got about 40 bucks cash in my wallet right now, let's do this
[QUOTE=TheTalon;18360347]Can we pay for more than one punch? I've got about 40 bucks cash in my wallet right now, let's do this[/QUOTE] I have about 800 bucks in my savings account, I'm ball for this.
someone is going to kill them whether they get the death penalty or not. [editline]08:51PM[/editline] [QUOTE=OvB;18359987]1.Put them next to ground zero with a sign that says "I did this" 2.Charge 1 dollar per punch. 3.????? 4.Fix national dept. :v:[/QUOTE] aha
I want to get in, but I can't get to NYC and I have very few monies.
[QUOTE=Robbazking;18378484]I hope they arrive by plane. :smug:[/QUOTE] No, they're taking the bus from Cuba.
I doubt they actually did it. It seems quite odd that some two people self-proclaim that they caused the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. I think they did it for the attention in the Middle-East.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;18378565]No, they're taking the bus from Cuba.[/QUOTE] Why not a train? [QUOTE=tarkata14;18378643]I doubt they actually did it. It seems quite odd that some two people self-proclaim that they caused the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. I think they did it for the attention in the Middle-East.[/QUOTE] Terrorists, especially religious extremists, like to brag about their attacks. They don't really care if they die or get prosecuted since they already have got their ticket to heaven.
[QUOTE=tarkata14;18378643]I doubt they actually did it. It seems quite odd that some two people self-proclaim that they caused the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. I think they did it for the attention in the Middle-East.[/QUOTE] It doesn't really take that many people to arrange a plan that consists of: 1. Going over to America. 2. Learning to fly a plane. 3. Hijacking a plane. 4. Crashing Plane.
[QUOTE=OvB;18378894]It doesn't really that many people to arrange a plan that consists of: [/QUOTE] What?
Forget the death penalty, give them life in prison without parole. Let them rot in their cells.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;18379165]What?[/QUOTE] Forgot "take". :downs:
I really do wonder if Bush's torture policy is going to come back and bite him in the ass. It'll be incredibly embarrassing if any of these people get lenient sentences or get the cases thrown out because all of their confessions were obtained through illegal torture methods.
[QUOTE=OvB;18379281]Forgot "take". :downs:[/QUOTE] Oh, well in response to that it does take someone who can plan it out and then be able to get them on the right planes at the right time so they can hit the right buildings. Plus you have to have someone who can fake passports and credentials otherwise these people probably would have a hard time getting in.
[QUOTE=OvB;18359987]1.Put them next to ground zero with a sign that says "I did this" 2.Charge 1 dollar per punch. 3.????? 4.Fix national debt. :v:[/QUOTE] Accutally That is not a bad idea! People would flock from far and wide just to punch this guy!
[QUOTE=Robbazking;18378484]I hope they arrive by plane. :smug:[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Zeke129;18378565]No, they're taking the bus from Cuba.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=yawmwen;18378728]Why not a train?[/QUOTE] NO! They should take a [b]Boat[/b], so that this dude: [img]http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/08/tf2_soldier.jpg[/img] Can beat the crap out of every single one.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;18378565]No, they're taking the bus from Cuba.[/QUOTE] [img]http://www.theadventureschool.com/wp-content/uploads/magic-school-bus.jpg[/img]
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