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Louis Pepe is advocating that New York City is no place to try the mastermind of September 11, 2001. Louis Pepe understands that terrorists do not belong in civilian courts, but should be tried in safe, protected, escape-proof military venues. Louis Pepe knows whereof he speaks, and he is speaking out... Mr. Pepe nearly paid with his life for mistakes that were made before we understood just how dangerous these men are. We now know, and have known for nearly ten years, that they are lethal. Let's treat them accordingly, and allow the professionals in our military to keep them...

Louis Pepe was a federal prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The savage attack on him by two of the African embassy bombers left him without his left eye and some brain damage. “I was a federal prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. In 2000, I was with a prisoner, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, taking him back to his cell. His cellmate was Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. They were accused of bombing two embassies in Africa in 1998. Later they said that they worked with Osama bin Laden and that they helped set up al Qaeda....

When it comes to trying terrorists on American soil since 9/11, let's all work from the same set of facts. This morning we've heard three people in the Sunday shows talking about the "hundreds" of terrorists that we have tried in US courts and hold in US prisons - as if KSM was just some regular Joe terrorist. Some facts: First, the only civilian trial of a 9/11 terrorist was Moussaoui who was arrested before 9/11 had even happened and before the President had authorized detaining terrorists as enemy combatants. Second, Moussaoui had his trial while the entire military commission...

Just whom are we trying to impress? That's a question that oc curred to me when, on his second full day in the presidency, Barack Obama announced we would close the Guantanamo detainee facility within one year. It's a question that has kept occurring to me over the last year and nine days, even though Obama and his administration have proved unable to keep that promise. Whom are we trying to impress by ruling out enhanced interrogation techniques on unlawful combatants, techniques that produced valuable intelligence that saved American lives? Whom are we trying to impress by limiting questioning to...

Bill Burck & Dana PerinoJanuary 30, 2010 3:00 P.M. About (Saving) Face Eight reasons why KSM will be tried by military commission.  The end is near for the Obama administration’s plan to try KSM and four other 9/11 conspirators in federal court in downtown Manhattan. The handwriting was on the wall for weeks as the extraordinary costs of the trial — as much as $1 billion in security expenses alone over four or five years — became apparent and the Underwear Bomber reintroduced the American public to domestic terrorism. Then, Mayor Bloomberg told the administration that it should find someplace...

President Obama finally listened to the outcry of New York, and is considering moving the trial of 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other al Qaeda members out of the city, perhaps to Guantanamo Bay. Finally, some wisdom. It would be better there. It's military. They're not going to mess around. These dangerous terrorists will not be allowed to spread their hate, or hurt anyone else. Nobody knows better than me. I was a federal prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. In 2000, I was with a prisoner, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, taking him back to his cell....

Hmmmmm......guess President Bush's plan to try the scum at Gitmo wasn't a bad idea after all eh? It's amazing what ONE Senatorial election can do....wait till the next one comes around and watch Obama's head explode: The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night. Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and...

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night. -snip- Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bay_what_gitmo_mCRoRefbWjHgmYQFT4vvIK#ixzz0e6kKVH1u

People are celebrating the fact that the Obama Administration is considering relocating the terrorists’ trial from New York to another American city. Yet there’s still no talk of moving the trial out of our U.S. civilian courts to where it should take place – a military tribunal. Now the administration is backtracking in order to fix its initially blundered decision to try these dangerous terrorists in New York City despite the great danger and cost to New Yorkers. This scenario is all too common in Washington. The tactic is to propose something so outrageous that the public will rise up...

Over the last few days, the Obama administration reliance on a law-enforcement approach to counterterrorism has come under bipartisan fire.  Reports that key CT officials were not consulted on how to handle the EunuchBomber angered Congress enough to propose a law requiring such consultation in the future.   Now, with Democrats beginning to object to the New York City trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the closure of Gitmo hopelessly mired in what the Washington Post calls “dwindling options,” Lindsey Graham will attempt to reintroduce a bill prohibiting any funding for federal trials of 9/11 terrorists, at least: The closure of...

The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan. The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere" and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder. "It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters.

Note: The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 060-010 January 22, 2010 Military Commission Charges Withdrawn In Sept. 11 Case The Defense Department announced today that the convening authority for Military Commissions withdrew and dismissed the charges, without prejudice, against the five detainees charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. This action comes in light of the announcement by the attorney general of the United States that the Department of Justice intends to pursue a prosecution of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin al Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, in...

U.S. special envoy in charge of closing Guantanamo, Daniel Fried, said Washington was in talks with several governments about hosting more detainees from the military prison in Cuba. "Yes," he said, when asked whether closing Guantanamo in the three remaining years of Obama's term was realistic. "I am confident it will be closed under President Obama's first term," he told reporters in Brussels. "That's one of the reasons we are here. We wanted to brief our European colleagues about our progress," he said after meetings with European Union officials to drum up support for resettlement in the bloc.

The detainees, whom the Justice Department declined to identify at the request of the government of Slovakia, arrived there on Sunday. There are still 193 detainees at the Guantanamo prison. The Slovak foreign ministry said last week that it would take the three detainees under an EU-U.S. agreement aimed at helping President Barack Obama close the controversial prison. His January 22 deadline to shutter it passed unmet.

Populist or professor? Contrite or uncompromising? President Obama will have a chance Wednesday to reintroduce himself to the nation when he delivers his first official State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. The prime-time speech, which will be aired on all major TV networks and cable stations, could hardly come at a more critical time for a president grappling with double-digit unemployment, sinking poll numbers and the possible collapse of his top domestic policy priority, an overhaul of the nation's health-care system. "As often as the president has spoken over the past year, critics on the...

You may remember that more than two months ago, amid the controversy over the Obama administration's decision to grant full American constitutional rights to, and hold a civilian trial for, accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley asked Attorney General Eric Holder about Justice Department lawyers who before joining the Obama/Holder team had represented Guantanamo detainees or worked for groups representing them. Grassley pointed to one high-ranking Obama Justice official who formerly represented Osama bin Laden's driver and another who works on detainee issues despite previous advocacy for detainees. "This prior representation, I think, creates a conflict...

As the anniversary of the deadline set by President Barack Obama to close the controversial prison passed, a task force led by the US justice department reached a decision that infuriated civil liberties groups and will bring accusations that the president is aping George W Bush's war on terror policies. The administration believes their continued detention - justified because they are too dangerous to be released though the evidence against them is too weak to secure a conviction - is legal because Congress authorised the use of force against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Remember this? President Barack Obama signs a series of executive orders, Jan. 22, 2009, pertaining to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, as retired generals and admirals look on in the Oval Office of the White House. Obama ordered the closure of the camp and banned the use of controversial CIA interrogation techniques.Oh yeah, Obama was really serious about closing Gitmo in one year!And let's not forget that Obama banned the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques while promising he would create a new unit designed to handle these high value detainees. Read more at floppingaces.net ...

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.The orders, which are the first steps in undoing detention policies of former President George W. Bush, rewrite American rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted. ...snip...The order on Guantánamo says that the camp,...

Following a firestorm of opposition, the alderman sponsoring a resolution to bring a Guantanamo detainee to Newton says he will ask his colleagues tonight not to vote on the measure. "It doesn’t need to advance any further this evening until we are one mind about it," said Aldermen Steve Linsky. The resolution, sponsored by Linsky and Ted Hess-Mahan, has sparked opposition from local residents and some Newton politicians, who say the city has more important, local concerns to address.