Trying Terrorists in U.S. Court: The Fear of the Familiar

February 02, 2010  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

This was the news that broke towards the end of January, another obstacle to closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay:

From the Washington Post:

The Obama administration has all but abandoned its plan to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration officials.

A senior administration official said no decision has been formalized, but the Justice Department is already considering other venues. Said another official close to the discussions: "New York is out."

The reversal would mark the latest setback for an administration that has been buffeted at every turn as it seeks to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its options for closing the prison had already been dwindling, and without the backdrop of Ground Zero for a trial, the administration would lose some of the rich symbolism associated with its attempt to forge a new approach to handling high-profile al-Qaeda detainees.

Fear wins again.

Right now Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is talking about defunding any money in the federal budget that would go towards either purchasing the prison in Thomson, Ill. that would house Gitmo detainees, or any funds that would go towards the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Others, like Sen. Lindsay Graham, are actively working to put up legislation that would block the trials from ever happening. The talk on the right wing is that it's too dangerous and too costly to try terrorism suspects like Khalid Shiekh Mohammad in New York City. Of course, this flies in the face of the reality that we've tried terrorism suspects on U.S. soil before -- during the Bush Administration -- and there were no complaints from the right.

From CNN.com:

Gibbs and Axelrod criticized Republican opposition to the plan to hold the trial in a criminal court, saying no one complained when the previous administration of Republican President George W. Bush put terrorism suspects such as "shoe bomber" Richard Reid on trial in U.S. criminal courts.

"Now we have a Democratic president and suddenly we hear these protests," Axelrod said. "What has changed between now and then that would cause people to reverse positions?"

Naturally, politicians like McConnell are now saying that Bush did the wrong thing by trying terrorists in the U.S. -- forgetting that nothing happened to terrorists tried here other than convictions and sentencings. There was no massive civil unrest. No attacks. No jihadist flocking to civil trial sites. Just media satellite trucks, people and reporters. But how soon we forget when we want to manipulate the American public through fear, telling them they have to sacrifice our country's principles for security. That's simply not true. We've tried suspects here before. We're trying suspects now. To close Gitmo we need to either charge or release the men who remain there. You can't believe in justice, then change out of fear. That's what the true terrorists want. They want us to be hypocritical and abandon our beliefs. We can't let that happen. 

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