White House Still Pushing Civilian Trials For Some 9/11 Terrorists

9/11 Military Case Has Stalled as White House Pushes For Civilian Trials -- FOX News

While the White House says new military trials will begin at Guantanamo Bay, three military lawyers who represent alleged 9/11 conspirators say they don't think it will include their case. And documents obtained by Fox News suggest that the trial may be in a holding pattern as the Obama administration looks for a way to bring the accused terrorists into the civilian justice system.

“It's a death by asphyxiation,” Cdr. Walter Ruiz told Fox New in an exclusive interview. Ruiz, who represents Mustapha al Hawsawi, charged with with helping to plan the Sept. 11 attacks, expressed frustration with a go-slow approach to the case.

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My Comment: With Democrats facing a hostile electorate in the 2012 years elections .... the last thing they want is a debate on having civilian trials for 9/11 terrorists. But what can I say .... the White House and Justice Department with their top advisers are committed to go down this course of action.

What is my take .... this goal of having civilian trials for some 9/11 terrorists will die after next year`s elections (if the Democrats end up losing control of the Senate and (maybe) even the Presidency).

Guantanamo Detainee Review Proposal Is Prepared For The President

Detainees participate in an early morning prayer session at Camp IV at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base August 5, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Deborah Gembara/Files

Obama Administration Readies Indefinite Detention Order For Guantanamo Detainees -- Washington Post

The Obama administration is preparing an executive order that would formalize indefinite detention without trial for some detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but allow those detainees and their lawyers to challenge the basis for continued incarceration, U.S. officials said.

The administration has long signaled that the use of prolonged detention, preferably at a facility in the United States, was one element of its plan to close Guantanamo. An interagency task force found that 48 of the 174 detainees remaining at the facility would have to be held in what the administration calls prolonged detention.

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More News On Rule Changes For Guantanamo Detainees

Executive Order Being Drafted for Indefinite Detention -- ABC News
New reviews for Guantanamo inmates -- Al Jazeera
Obama weighs review process for Guantanamo detainees -- Reuters
Suspected terrorists could periodically question indefinite detentions -- CNN
Obama Administration Drafting Order on Indefinite Detention for Guantanamo Detainees -- FOX News
Senate Looks To Restrict Guantanamo Prosecutions -- NPR
Review boards planned for Gitmo detainees -- UPI
US draft order prepared on Guantanamo suspects -- AFP

My Comment: This is all theater to placate Democrat allies on the left. This proposal is going to fail .... especially with the new Congress threatening to cut off any funds that would transfer these detainees to US soil.

BREAKING: First Gitmo Detainee Aquitted On Mass Murder And Terror Charges

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was convicted of one count of conspiracy for his role in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, left, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Left, Reuters; Federal Bureau of Investigation,via Reuters

Alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist Ahmed Ghailani Acquitted Of All But One Charge In Embassy Bombing Trial -- New York Daily News

The first civilian trial of a Guantanamo detainee ended in disarray Wednesday with an alleged Al Qaeda operative convicted on only a single conspiracy count the African embassy bombing trial.

Ahmed Ghailani, 36, was acquitted on 224 counts after being charged with helping a terror cell buy a truck and components for explosives used in a suicide bombing in Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998.

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More News On The U.S. Acquittal Of Al Qaeda Terrorist Ahmed Ghailani

Ahmed Ghailani, Gitmo detainee, acquitted of all but 1 charge in NY -- Washington Post
Detainee Acquitted on Most Counts in ’98 Bombings -- New York Times
US jury clears Ghailani of major terrorism charges -- Reuters
Guantanamo Detainee Ghailani Convicted on Just 1 Charge by N.Y. Jury -- PBS Newshour
Landmark terror trial ends in not-guilty verdict on all but one count -- CNN
Ghailani Guilty of Conspiracy, Cleared of 224 Murders -- Bloomberg Businessweek
Tanzanian Man Acquitted of Most Charges in Bomb Plot -- Wall Street Journal
First Gitmo Detainee Tried In Civilian Court Found Not Guilty On Terror Charges -- NPR
Gitmo detainee acquitted of all but 1 charge in NY -- Wall Street Journal
Ex-Gitmo Detainee Ahmed Ghailani Cleared of All but One Charge in U.S. Embassy Bombings -- FOX News

My Comment: Today's acquittal destroys President Obama's and the Justice Department's assertions and arguments that terror trials in U.S. civilian courts can be successful in getting convictions for Al Qaeda terrorists. Clearly this is not the case .... and not even close. Am I surprised by this ruling .... no. Long time readers of this blog know that I have always been skeptical of this White House's drive to conduct civilian trials for terrorists who were caught in circumstances that (I knew) no civilian courtroom would accept. But who am I when the "legal scholar" in the Oval Office, officials in the Justice Department, media/reporters, pundits, legal experts, and lawyers thought differently.... hmmmm .... today's judgment shows that they are wrong.

To say that this acquittal is a legal disaster is an understatement, and puts into question President Obama's terror policies, his legal approach towards combating it, and .... I would even argue ... his ability to protect the nation against those who are dedicated to killing even more of us.

In any other administration Attorney General Eric Holder would resign, and a serious cleaning out of Department of Justice personnel responsible for this debacle would be initiated. But in this administration .... I doubt that it will happen. My prediction .... there will be a muted response from the Justice Department, and the media lapdogs for the White House will be focusing on President Obama's trip to Lisbon for the NATO get together this weekend.

On a positive note, there will no longer be any talk of 9/11 trials on U.S. soil, and the media will no longer put the spotlight on those who want to shut down Guantanamo.

Military Tribunals At Guantanamo Begin With Pretrial Hearings

Omar Khadr getting battlefield first aid in 2002. Wikimedia

Khadr's Pretrial Hearing Begins At Guantanamo Bay -- CBC

Pre-trial motions in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr are underway at a U.S. military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Toronto-born Khadr is accused of throwing a hand grenade when he was 15 that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan after a firefight with U.S. forces.

Khadr, now 23, had vowed in July to boycott his legal proceedings, calling them a sham and saying he had no chance of receiving a fair trial.

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More News On Guantanamo's Military Tribunals

US military commissions go to work in Guantanamo -- AFP
Guantanamo detainee set to be tried -- Al Jazeera
Omar Khadr's pretrial hearing begins in Cuba -- CTV
Trial for youngest Gitmo prisoner under way -- CNN
Evidence in Khadr trial debated -- CNews
Stephen Xenakis: Omar Khadr's unlikely defender -- Toronto Star
First U.S. Trial of 'Child Soldier' in Modern History Starts This Week at Gitmo -- Huffington Post
Exclusive: Caught in America's legal black hole -- The Independent
Widow of soldier to attend Khadr trial -- Montreal Gazette

BREAKING!!!! No 9/11 Trials In New York

POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE SITES FOR KSM TERROR TRIAL.

White House Orders Justice Department To Look For Other Places To Hold 9/11 Terror Trial -- New York Daily News

The White House ordered the Justice Department on 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.

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My Comment: Long time readers of this blog know that this should not be a surprise. The Obama Justice Department has been disorganized on this issue since day 1 .... continuing the same confusing tradition of the Bush administration on this signature issue.

Bloomberg Balks At 9/11 Trial, Dealing Blow To White House

Camp Justice, the location of the U.S. Military Commissions court for war crimes at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. Photo from Radio Free Europe

From New York Times:

The Obama administration on Wednesday lost its most prominent backer of the plan to try the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in Lower Manhattan when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the trial should not be held in New York City.

The mayor’s reversal was a political blow to the White House’s efforts to resolve a landmark terror case a few blocks from where Al Qaeda hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Center, a trial that the president saw as an important demonstration of American justice.

Mr. Bloomberg said that a more secure location, like a military base, would be less disruptive and less costly. His remarks echoed growing opposition from Wall Street executives, the real estate industry and neighborhood groups, who have questioned the burdens that such a trial would bring to a heavily trafficked area of the city.

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My Comment: As a rule, most people do not want garbage in their backyard. The Al Qaeda plotters are garbage in every definition of the word, and the impact that their trial will have on New York City traffic, security, taxes and costs .... every citizen in New York City has a right to say .... "What the hell are you thinking?"

But will the White House and the Justice Department listen? .... I bet you not.

Military-Civilian Terror Prison Eyed

The cell block on a typical ward. Guantanamo detention center on Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for enemy combatants captured in the global war on terrorism. Photos by Sgt. Sara Wood, U.S. Army

From Yahoo News/AP:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists, combining military and civilian detention facilities at a single maximum-security prison.

Several senior U.S. officials said the administration is eyeing a soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison in Michigan and the 134-year-old military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as possible locations for a heavily guarded site to hold the 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

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Update: Obama Administration to Create a Courtoom-Within-a-Prison Complex -- Digital Journal

My Comment: The whole point of housing these suspected Al Qaeda/Talibam/terrorists out of the country was to keep them away from the U.S. legal system on the grounds that the evidence collected would be insufficient in a U.S. courtroom to convict. It now seems that the Obama administration is reversing this process, and is laying the groundwork for trials of these suspects on U.S. soil.

AG: 50 Or More Guantánamo Trials Possible

Camp Delta, the fenced-in core of the Guantánamo prison.
Angel Franco/The New York Times

From Time Magazine:

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday there may be 50 or more trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees as the Obama administration works to shut the detention center by early next year.

Holder discussed the plan before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the senior Republican called him "too soft" on terrorism while a second GOP lawmaker said he was on the right track in handling detainees.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., criticized Holder for the release of Bush administration memos that authorized harsh interrogation techniques. Sessions said the memos gave important information to America's enemies. Holder told senators protecting Americans from terrorists is his top priority.

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My Comment: I would love to know what will happen to the third group who will not be released or put on trial. Because this was not asked .... I guess we will find out at some future date.