Holder blames Congress for forcing military tribunals for detainees

Congress tied the hands of the Obama Administration in trying the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and his accomplices, so on Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder announce that he was left with no option, but to refer the cases to the Defense Department for trial.

Holder blasted Congress for imposing restrictions blocking any detainees from being tried in the U.S., saying that the “unwise and unwarranted restrictions” undermine the U.S. in counter-intelligence and counter-terror efforts. Showing his disappointment, Holder said that as a native New Yorker, he knows as well as anyone the federal court’s capacity to try the suspects. He also said he was familiar with the cases, moreso than Congress.

“Do I know better than them? Yes. I respect their ability to disagree but they should respect that this is an executive branch function, a unique executive branch function,” Holder said in a press conference.

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So this now means that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006, after being captured in Pakistan in 2003, and four alleged Sept. 11 co-conspirators will face prosecution by a military commission in Guantanamo. The other terror suspects are Walid Muhammed Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi. The five detainees are accused of killing 2,976 people — all named in an 81-page indictment dismissed and unsealed Monday by a federal judge.

Unsealed document

And the decision to return the detainees to a military commission is a reversal from Holder, who announced in November 2009 that he would move the trials to a civilian court in the United States. Back then he said it sent the right message to the rest of the world that U.S. courts were the fairest and best venue for trials.

Just after Holder’s original announcement, attempts to place the suspects in a New York City courtroom were met with fierce resistance from area residents who said they didn’t want to deal with another possible terror threat in downtown Manhattan that the case would bring. Another plan then was to house the suspects in a prison in Thomson, Ill., which also faced considerable scrutiny.

So last December, during the lame-duck session, Congress acted to prevent the federal trials by attached to a defense authorization bill provisions that prohibited detainees from being brought to trial in the United States.

Meanwhile, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said that the military commissions are the appropriate place for the trials.

But ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, which vehemently opposes military courts, said the Obama administration’s decision “is completely wrong.”

“There is a reason this system is condemned: it is rife with constitutional and procedural problems and undermines the fundamental American values that have made us a model throughout the world for centuries. Attorney General Holder’s previous decision to try the 9/11 defendants in federal court was absolutely the right call but this flip flop on the part of the Obama administration is devastating for the rule of law and greatly undermines America’s standing abroad,” Romero said.

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This now means that as the case returns to military commission, the process starts over again. In 2009 when the Administration said the case was to be in federal court, military withdrew its charges without prejudice, but it preserved the right for the men to be charged again, if the cases returned to the commission in the future.

Since the announcement came from the DOJ, the US Supreme Court then decided to pass on a case that would have further determined the legal rights of the detainees kept at Guantanamo Bay. The justices turned away a petition asking them to establish the standards of evidence lower court judges should use to determine if the detainees can remain locked up while waiting for their cases to be heard.