Posted on 10/10/2010 10:25:45 AM PDT by jazusamo
As the debate over how to prosecute suspected terrorists re-erupted last week, the top ranking House Republican on the Homeland Security committee says a federal judge’s ruling supports the GOP mantra that the White House was wrong to use civilian courts.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told The Hill that the recent judicial decision to not allow the testimony of a key government witness is also an indication of problems that lie in store for the Justice Department if it attempts to use civilian courts to try other suspected terrorists, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The possible setback for U.S. prosecutors in the case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is on trial for his alleged role in the bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, came last week when Judge Lewis Kaplan of the United States District Court in Manhattan ruled that they could not use the testimony of the man who, the U.S. government says, sold explosives to Ghailani.
Kaplan said that the witness, Hussein Abebe, would not be allowed to testify because it was possible that the government learned of his alleged role in the bombings through information gleaned from an interrogation it conducted of Ghailani in an overseas prison maintained by the CIA. The government has said that Abebe was testifying voluntarily.
Ghailani’s lawyers applauded the judge’s ruling, saying that he was tortured during his interrogation and that the decision upheld American law.
But King said the decision pointed to the flaws of civilian courts, adding that they are incompatible with the job of interrogators who often need to get as much information from a suspect as quickly as possible, in order to prevent a future attack.
“This demonstrates one of the fundamental weaknesses of using civilian courts for these terrorist types of trials,” said King of the judge’s decision. “The fact that [Kaplan] would exclude not just Ghailani’s statements [from the interrogation] but also the voluntary testimony of [Abebe], who was never coerced at all, shows me the fundamental flaw in trying terrorists in a civilian court.”
“I can see how this could obviously be replicated in future cases,” King added. “We have to have a format which allows for interrogations to stop future crimes and also to try that person at a future time. I think the military tribunal is the best balance. It allows the most common sense by the judge.”
King has been part of a growing chorus of Republicans, and some Democrats, who have been critical of the Justice Department’s decision to use civilian courts, saying instead that military tribunals are the only effective means of trying suspected terrorists, partly because they have looser rules regarding what evidence is permissible.
The successful prosecution of accused terrorists has been a key issue for the White House, as it has sought to fulfill President Obama’s campaign promise of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
And though the New York Republican says the issue isn’t likely to get dragged onto the campaign trial, he emphasized that if the GOP is elected to a majority in either the House or the Senate this year then voters could expect to see military commissions used as the venue of choice.
In the wake of Kaplan’s decision, Attorney General Eric Holder stood by the government’s choice to use civilian courts, saying that they have led to hundreds of successful convictions of people involved in terrorist activities. Holder stressed that the judge’s barring of the witness did not jeopardize the trial's success.
The White House is also trumpeting the success last week of the government’s conviction of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, who was tried in a civilian court and sentenced to life in prison.
Ghailani’s trial is set to begin on Tuesday. If convicted, Ghailani could face a sentence of life in prison.
Assuming this is a jury trial, I wonder what the jury will have to say.
Don’t know but Rep. King makes an excellent point. When these terrorists are captured it’s imperative they be interrogated immediately and the military commission is much more appropriate for the future prosecution.
No argument from me on that. Holder is nothing more than a lapdog for Zer0 and they both ignore our laws, like to see both of them impeached but it’s wishful thinking.
“.......Eric Holder stood by the government’s choice to use civilian courts, saying that they have led to hundreds of successful convictions of people involved in terrorist activities.”
Show me.
I want to see the list of those “hundreds of successful convictions of people involved in terrorist activities.”
the White House was wrong to use civilian courts...
Well DUH!
Show me one leftist loon who does not cheer the idea that these people get off scott free.
They planned it - nobody could really be this stupid as to not know what would happen, and still reach the age of majority.
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