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Alleged Arch-Terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed To Be Tried At Guantanamo

Kevin Douglas Grant |
April 4, 2011 | 10:48 a.m. PDT

Executive Editor

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Monday the full reversal of President Obama's plan to try alleged terrorists in civilian courts, as suspected "9/11 mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried before a military tribunal.

Obama had begun his presidency with a sweeping new plan for dealing with terrorism, including the proposed closing of Guantanamo Bay's military prison and transfer of those prisoners to the U.S. mainland and its allied countries.

In a piece in The Atlantic entitled "The Capitulation is Complete", Andrew Cohen wrote:

"The reversal of plans, if not of policy, will likely be considered one of Holder's most disappointing legacies at the Justice Department. As recounted masterfully last year by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker magazine, Holder inexplicably missed several opportunities early on in the process to ease the concerns (some warranted, some not) of local New York officials and other politicians regarding holding a civilian trial in Manhattan. And it has become increasingly clear over time that the White House and Justice Department have been unable to stem the tide of fear and loathing toward Mohammed (and the other terror law detainees), as expressed with increasing ardor from Capitol Hill."

The LA Times recounted the fierce GOP opposition last year to bringing Guantanamo prisoners to be tried in civilian courts:  

"Republicans were so incensed that on Capitol Hill, joining with a good number of Democrats, they passed legislation to prohibit spending any federal funds to move terror detainees from the Cuban prison to the U.S. for civilian trials.

That move in essence blocked the administration's attempts for civilian trials, and last month Obama announced that he was restarting the military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay."

Mohammed is the most notorious suspected mass killer in recent history, making his case one of the highest profile since Nuremberg. From Wikipedia

"The 9/11 Commission Report alleges that he was 'the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks. He is also alleged to have confessed to a role in many of the most significant terrorist plots over the last twenty years, including the World Trade Center 1993 bombings, the Operation Bojinka plot, an aborted 2002 attack on the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, the Bali nightclub bombings, the failed bombing of American Airlines Flight 63, the Millennium Plot, and the murder of Daniel Pearl."



 

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