Holder blasts Congress for politicizing KSM trial

Updated at 5:55 p.m. ET

Attorney General Eric Holder today blasted Congress for inappropriately interfering in the decision over how to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, arguing that a federal trial would have provided the best outcome but that Congress compelled him to move forward with a military commission trial instead.

The attorney general lamented that the Mohammad case, since its beginning, has been "marked by needless controversy."

"The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his co-conspirators should never have been about settling ideological arguments or scoring political points," he said.

Holder announced today that Mohammad would be tried in a military commission because political interference had impeded efforts to set up a federal trial and justice for the victims of 9/11 has been "long overdue and must not be delayed any further."

KSM to be tried by military commission at Gitmo

He scolded Congress for suggesting that the federal court system could not handle a terrorism case.

"Too many people - many of whom certainly know better - have expressed doubts about our time-honored and time-tested system of justice," he said. "That's not only misguided, it's wrong."

Taking federal trials off the table -- as many lawmakers in Congress have suggested -- could have "serious ramifications," Holder said.

Holder said he has "full faith and confidence" in the military commission system to appropriately handle the case. Yet he pointed out that the system could produce unknown outcomes.

"It's an open question whether someone can plead guilty in a military commission and still receive the death penalty," Holder said.

The attorney general pointed out that federal courts have convicted hundreds of terrorists since September 11, 2001, and that many of them are currently serving sentences in federal prison.

Furthermore, Holder called the case against Mohammad "one of the most well-researched and documented cases I have ever seen in my decades of experience as a prosecutor."

Holder today called the case against Mohammad "one of the most well-researched and documented cases I have ever seen in my decades of experience as a prosecutor."

/ AP

Nevertheless, members of Congress over the past year voiced concerns that holding high-publicity trials for Mohammad and his co-conspirators would imperil national security. They used legislative tactics -- such as blocking Defense Department funding for transferring Guantanamo suspects to U.S. soil for trial -- to thwart the administration. Holder said the administration would seek to repeal those restrictions.

"As the President has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counter-terrorism efforts and could harm our national security," he said. "Decisions about who, where and how to prosecute have always been - and must remain - the responsibility of the executive branch. Members of Congress simply do not have access to the evidence and other information necessary to make prosecution judgments."

Holder continued, "I know this case in the way that members of Congress do not... I respect their ability to disagree, [but] this is an executive branch function -- a unique executive branch function."

Holder's announcement today elicited a range of reactions from lawmakers and advocacy groups.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement, "I very much regret that Congressional action is cutting into presidential authority. I strongly believe the president should have all options available to prosecute alleged terrorists, including both the criminal justice system and military commissions as the facts of the case warrant."

The ACLU called the administration's decision "completely wrong" and a "flip flop" that is "devastating for the rule of law and greatly undermines America's standing abroad."

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York -- whose state would have hosted Mohammad's civilian trial -- released a statement commending the administration's decision.

"This means with certainty that the trial will not be in New York. While not unexpected, this is the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea," he said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor that today's news is a "welcome development in the war on terror." He called the idea of holding civilian trials for the 9/11 plotters a "completely horrible idea."

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) released a joint statement praising the decision.

"KSM and the other alleged co-conspirators are charged with war crimes and their cases belong before military commissions, not federal courts here in the United States," they said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, welcomed today's news but said in a statement today that the administration remains misguided in its insistence on closing the Guantanamo prison.

"The president's improvident campaign pledge to shutter GITMO was built on the naive premise that softening America's image would somehow soften our enemies' resolve," he said. "That the Administration apparently still clings to this hope--despite the continuing spate of attempted domestic terror strikes and the return of a host of detainees to the war again--suggests, at bottom, a failure to properly understand the radical Islamist threat."

Watch CBS News National Homeland Security Correspondent Bob Orr analyze today's announcement on CBSNews.com's Washington Unplugged:

[euge005]

Come on Holder, do you expect them to act responsibly? Get serious. The entire trials thing was bungled from the first with Bush (what else is new?). The charge should be hat the defendent is a part of a criminal conspiricy to committ terrorism and murder. Simply have a 5 minute hearing with a defense lawyer and interpreter. Show the info the army had from the capture. Any of them caught with a gun, bomb, equipment to make a bomb, evidence of torture or subversive propaganda is guilty. It takes 5 minutes. Then the next time a bomb goes off anywhere and kills an innocent, trot out 10 of the convicts and hang them. Unmarked or ocean grave. Simple. But an example of the lack of guts Obama has shown., not that Bush had any either.

[PapaGracio]

Time tested = OJ's trial?

[endurorob_5]

RetRangerCSM April 5, 2011 10:55 AM EDT
by endurorob_5 April 5, 2011 10:38 AM EDT
The innocents at Waco were mudered by their own not the feds.

Nope - look it up - Holder allowed Tanks from Ft Hood to attack them

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++It started with feds being shot at when they were delivering a warrent. The fire that killed most of them was started by the nuts in the compound.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Can Holder blame Obama's flip-flapping on Congress? Obama is not the pristine Kenyan boy that he claimed to be on his first election. He is just a dodger apt to blame anything and everything on Congress or someone else. Let's dissect his ricocheting Gitmo claims.

The Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) trial did not really move back to Gitmo. In fact, it never left Gitmo. Obama's announcement after he was elected that Gitmo detainees will face justice in Federal Courts was "a trial balloon" to project him as a pure statesman who wanted blind justice for both friends and enemies. But that balloon was never released to fly; it was kept tethered to the ground, and it was pricked now to coincide with Obama's announcement of his 2012 re-election campaign! Obama craves now for an image of a tough "nationalist" leader ready to give enemies of the U.S. the hellish justice of military commissions. And KSM is the best shooting target he can get! As Schopenhauer said, "revenge is sweet." KSM has already received tons of our justice, including 183 water-boardings, and other torture that if it has been videotaped and shown to the American public, we would have been ashamed of who we are and whom we elect in the White House! Too bad for KSM, he was arrested while he was asleep, and he didn't have time to put a bullet in head and spare himself of all the pain humiliation and suffering he has endured since then.

Now back to Gitmo, KSM will go on a parody of trial, and then have the U.S. execute him for justice rendered - something nobody can dispute. Even KSM himsel has stated that he wants to die and become a martyr, and there is no doubt that his death would make him a martyr and an inspiration to other Muslim jihadists to avenge his demise. And his supposed re-assignment to Gitmo guarantees that outcome. At a federal court, all accusations against him - or torture forced confessions- would have been thrown out. But the Obama 2012 campaign is now hunting for anything patriotic or heroic to shore up Obama's faltering job approval in the polls, and KSM is a high valuable quarry to roast and feed to the ordinary Americans in the platter of national security!

In short, it is a kind of pre-historic justice re-visited. The Greek historian Thucydides described this kind of justice 2.500 years ago as "The justice in which the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must [unwillingly or under force]." Now, lets wait for the trial of Sheik Khalid Mohammed to start, enjoy his repetitive lynching in our media headlines, and revel in our ability to judge our enemies under an invented "might is right" justice process that supposedly fulfills the requirement of " fairness and justice for all" in our constitution! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[endurorob_5]

"The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his co-conspirators should never have been about settling ideological arguments or scoring political points," he (Holder) said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Come on Holder, do we all look that gullible. The whole idea of having a civilian trial fro this trash was so the Obama administration could score political points with the far left and the European socialists.

[euge005]

Or maybe follow the rule of law? And like keep the oath of office? Unlike Bush shall I remind you.

[infantryman1968]

Holder blasts Congress for politicizing KSM trial


LOL!


Translation: Holder and Obama blasts the Amercian People for not allowing the KSM trial on Amercian soil in civil court.

[afloatinasea]

Holder, just resign. You are an embarrassment to the US judicial system. Go work for the UN.

[longtree-2009]

don't like holder? obama picked him. you like obama, you should like holder since birds of a feather flock together.

[jackp32]

That Holder guy should be impeached for gross incompetence.

[infantryman1968]

by brianbwb2015 April 4, 2011 7:54 PM EDT
Too bad Mr. Obama has taken the "white" man's way of "selective" law, choosing to disregard US and international law in order to assure the death of a person not yet convicted in a proper court of law.

It is common knowledge that had Mr. Obama truly represented a departure from America's history of unequal justice, and other, more corrupt aspects of the misuse of US power, he would not have been allowed to become president.

That knowledge notwithstanding, I wonder how Mr. Obama will explain this, and other decisions he has taken that were aimed in vain at appeasing the ultra right wing, who are hardwired to be unable to call a "black" man "Mr. President".

It will be interesting to watch the GOP demand that Mr. Obama rebuke his Attorney General, for daring to call them out on their disregard for the US judicial system.

If Mr. Obama tries to appease the GOP yet again by indulging their collective ego on this, he will only make his eventual reelection more difficult than it has to be, and will shrink his margin of victory, because the right will never vote for him regardless.


LOL!

So you wasted you time getting Obama elected?