11/13/09

Today, the Obama administration announced that five terrorists tied to the 9/11 attacks will be brought to justice in civilian courts. Our nation has a strong tradition of convicting some of the world’s worst terrorists in civilian courts. From the mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack to Zacarias Moussaoui—the "20th Hijacker"—to the shoe-bomber Richard Reid, our prison and court systems have a long track record of keeping our communities safe while bringing dangerous terrorists to justice. The Obama administration is applying the same record of success to the Mastermind of 9/11.  In fact, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where these men will be tried, has a long track record of prosecuting terrorists, including Ramzi Yousef.

National security experts and leaders from both parties – from General David Petraeus to Grover Norquist – have expressed confidence that our court system is the right place for these men. By bringing these terrorists into the civilian court system, we are both ensuring that we hold terrorists accountable for their atrocious actions while restoring the rule of law that sets America apart from our enemies.  Over the last eight years, our civilian courts have convicted and imprisoned nearly 200 terrorists, while Guantanamo has yielded only three successful prosecutions.  Today’s announcement is one more crucial step toward closing Guantanamo and restoring the global partnership we need in the struggle against terrorism.

Unfortunately, some conservatives would prefer to politicize the prosecution of terrorists rather than see them be brought to justice. For years they have opposed terrorists being brought to trial and have continually denigrated America’s judicial system, which has a long and successful tradition of imprisoning and convicting the worst terrorists in the world. Americans have legitimate questions about this transfer that can easily be answered by legal and national security, but instead, some conservatives prefer to spread fear for political purposes.  

9/11 terrorists are finally being brought to justice. The New York Times reports that “Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a federal law enforcement official said early on Friday.” The Times goes on to say, that “The decision about how to try several of the most high-profile detainees at Guantánamo marks a milestone in the administration’s efforts to close the facility, a policy that President Obama announced shortly after taking office but which has proven more difficult than his team anticipated.”  President Obama commented Friday that the “[a]ccused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice."

As detainee expert Ken Gude writes in a recently released Center for American Progress report, “The prosecution of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators is the most important of all cases at Guantanamo. U.S. federal criminal courts can handle this prosecution, and it will demonstrate meaningful change, setting the tone for broader U.S. detention policy. It is in the United States’ strategic interest to refrain from seeking the death penalty no matter which forum it chooses, thus denying martyrdom to the 9/11 conspirators.”  [NY Times, 11/13/09. President Obama, via CNN, 11/13/09.  Ken Gude, Center for American Progress, 11/09]

Bipartisan consensus agrees that federal courts are an essential and highly capable tool for combating terrorism. The Constitution Project recently released a declaration signed by a large bipartisan group of prominent Americans including former members of Congress, diplomats, federal judges and prosecutors, former FBI directors, high-level military officials and national security experts.  The report emphasizes that “Civilian federal courts are the proper forum for terrorism cases,” and is signed by such varied and notable figures as Morton Abramowitz, Ted Sorensen, Thomas Pickering, John Dean, Alberto Mora, and even Grover Norquist.  The declaration is also endorsed by a number of retired generals and admirals.  About the declaration, David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union said, “This is a declaration by Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, who represent decades of government service and a longstanding commitment to law enforcement, justice, and our nation’s safety,” said. “We have come together to make a stand for American values.”

And earlier this year, Republican Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained how terrorists have been tried and convicted by American courts for years: “This started 20 years ago when I was at CIA, and we captured a Hezbollah terrorist who had been involved in killing an American sailor on an aircraft that had been taken hostage in Beirut. We brought him to the United States, put him on trial and put him in prison.” In fact federal prosecutions have been extraordinarily effective. According to the Department of Justice, the following terrorist cases have been prosecuted in New York’s Southern District:

• 1993 World Trade Center Bombing: After two trials, in 1993 and 1997, six defendants were convicted and sentenced principally to life in prison for detonating a truck bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring hundreds more. One of the defendants convicted at the second trial was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the attack.
• 1994-95 Manila Air Plot: Ramzi Yousef and two others were convicted in 1996 for plotting to plant bombs aboard a dozen U.S. commercial aircraft that were timed to go off as the planes were flying over the Pacific. The defendants were sentenced to substantial prison terms. Yousef concocted the plan with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay and has been indicted in SDNY for the Manila Air conspiracy since 1996.
• 1995 "Blind Sheikh" Trial: Ten defendants associated with a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., were convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center, United Nations headquarters, and various bridges, tunnels and landmarks in and around New York City. The lead defendant, Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh," was sentenced to life in prison, while his co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging between life and 25 years.
• Embassy Bombings Trial: Shortly after the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, SDNY indicted Usama Bin Laden and approximately 20 alleged al-Qaeda loyalists for conspiring to murder Americans worldwide. Many of the defendants were also charged for their roles in the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in East Africa, including three defendants who were convicted after a six-month trial in early 2001. Those three defendants, and a fourth al-Qaeda member who was tried with them, were all sentenced to life in prison.

As Attorney General Eric Holder said in his statement today, “For over two hundred years, our nation has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice and provide accountability to victims. Once again we will ask our legal system, in two venues, to rise to that challenge. I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and justice. [The Constitution Project, 11/4/09. Robert Gates, 5/22/09. Department of Justice, 11/13/09. Eric Holder, 11/13/09]

Some conservatives continue to fear-monger and disparage America’s judicial system while senior national security professionals disagree.  Sen. John Cornyn (R – TX) said today: “Reverting to a pre-9/11 approach to fighting terrorism and bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises the safety of all Americans.”  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and leading neoconservative William Kristol quickly followed suit.

But the men and women charged with protecting us disagree.  Earlier this year,  11 former senior military, intelligence and national security officials, including former Guantanamo Bay Tribunal Officer Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, former National Security Council Counterterrorism Chief Richard Clarke and former Senior CIA Officer Margaret Henoch, rebuked those who spread “fear in order to score political points, and perpetuat[ing]the Bush/Cheney era strategy of seeking political victories instead of doing what's right to protect the country.”  The letter also warned that “[w]e should also not allow the destructive politics of fear, which tarnish America's national security imperatives, to dictate the debate.”  

And as General Petraeus wrote in a 2007 letter to his troops in Iraq, the fight against extremism “depends on securing the population, which must understand that, we—not our enemies—occupy the moral high ground.”

There are certainly tough questions remaining, but experts have the answers.  For Example, Kate Martin, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, said today that “If KSM pleads guilty and the court accepts the plea, the issue won’t arise.  In any case, we believe it is the intention of the prosecutors not to rely on any evidence tainted by abuse or torture – and in the case of KSM, we believe there to be plenty of such evidence.” And David Laufman, a former prosecutor who has prosecuted terrorism cases, says that federal courts are a necessary and successful tool for bringing terrorists to justice. He writes: “The American criminal justice system has demonstrated a remarkable ability to meet the legal challenges posed by ‘the war on terror.’ Based on my own experience in prosecuting terrorism cases and the growing historical record, federal courts consistently have resolved complex constitutional and procedural issues that terrorism cases often present, including the use and protection of sensitive intelligence information and the admissibility of evidence obtained overseas…"

In addition, 9/11 family member Talat Hamdani wrote for Huffington Post, “I, and many other 9/11 family members, believe that the only way we can see real justice is to transfer these cases to federal courts and abandon the broken system that has come to symbolize the grave missteps of the last administration.”  [Sen. John Cornyn, 11/13/09. Letter from 11 Retired National Security Officials, 8/27/09. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC), via the WSJ, 11/05/09. John Boehner, 11/13/09. Talat Hamdani, 10/20/09. Gen. David Petraeus, 5/11/07. David Laufman, 07/09/09]

What We’re Reading

The debate over President Obama’s troop decision for Afghanistan continues to intensify, with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates saying that President Obama will combine the best elements of all the options he had been given thus far.  Analysts looked at various models for both military and civilian planners to examine while envisioning President Obama’s eventual plan.

A car bomb exploded in front of Pakistan’s intelligence agency building in Peshawar, adding to the recent string of suicide bombings which have targeted Pakistani government buildings following the country’s military incursion into Taliban-headed South Waziristan.

Federal prosecutors in the United States seized assets they believe are funneling money to the Iranian government.

A televised debate in Qatar shows sharp divisions amongst countries in the Middle East over whether Iran can be trusted to build a nuclear bomb.

CIA chiefs of station in countries across the world will continue to also represent the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ending a brief turf battle between the heads of the two spy organizations.

A bi-national task force on US-Mexico border issues will call on the Obama administration and Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and for Mexico to overhaul its frontier police and customs agencies.

A report by Human Rights Watch says local officials in China detain people in local prisons to prevent them from voicing grievances to their national government. New reports show Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Kahn received weapons-grade uranium from China back in 1982.

President Obama visits Japan, where he said he would be open to relocate a Marine base on the island of Okinawa.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States will continue to offer assistance to the Philippines in fighting against insurgents with ties to Al-Qaeda.

Entrepreneurs are experimenting with outsourcing jobs to corners of India that have been largely cut off from its extraordinary growth.

The powerful army general who led Sri Lanka’s bloody but successful battle against the Tamil Tigers resigned, fueling speculation that he’ll run against his onetime ally, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in next year’s presidential election.

Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev said in his state of the nation speech that Russia needs to reform its economy while strengthening its democratic institutions.

Commentary of the Day

Fred Kaplan enters the Afghan policy debate by reminding us that it is not just how many troops could be sent to Afghanistan, but what their particularly mission in the country will be.

The Miami Herald laments Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s bumbling efforts to manage the economy, which has only choked off economic growth in the oil-rich nation.

Glenn Hubbard argues that the billion-dollar aid package to Pakistan should take a lesson from the Marshall Plan in order to be most effective in shepherding economic growth and political stability.

Times Wang makes the case for President Obama to stand with Chinese dissents and defend human rights during his visit to China.