Word: civilians
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...Republicans spotted the civilian-trials issue as a winner almost from the start of the Obama Administration, and it began generating heat following Holder's announcement of the KSM trial last fall and the failed Christmas Day attack on a U.S. airliner. Senators on Tuesday grilled Obama's top intelligence officials on both issues at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "This is going to be an area of focus for us for the foreseeable future," says a senior GOP Senate aide...
...Democratic Senate aide. "They don't have a good answer right now. They have to find another venue [for the KSM trial], and until then it's hard to push back." Senate majority leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that "the Bush Administration prosecuted hundreds of these terrorists [in civilian courts, and] 340 of them are in prison right now." He said the President would have to decide "whether [the KSM trial] can be done safely in other parts of the country." (The primary reason given for moving the trial is the security burden it would present in New York...
...Republicans are planning to test the Democrats' resolve in various pieces of legislation currently in the works. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has introduced a bill defunding civilian trials for five 9/11 conspirators now held at Guantánamo Bay. But it is not clear whether there is a vehicle for his bill to reach the floor in the near future, top Senate aides say, so it may languish. A similar Graham bill was voted down by a comfortable margin last fall...
...That means the decision on whether to stick with civilian trials may rest with Obama and his political advisers. Holder is determined to try the 9/11 conspirators in criminal courts, which Justice officials say have a proven track record of getting convictions and delivering speedy justice. By contrast, Justice officials say, military tribunals are largely untested, have produced only a handful of convictions and could drag out indefinitely in the face of constitutional challenges...
...Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, they questioned him for just 50 minutes before reading him his Miranda rights. Ever since, Republicans have assailed the White House: Why was he permitted access to lawyers before a more complete interrogation could take place? Why is he being tried in a civilian court instead of a military one? Somehow the story got around that Gates had approved both decisions. When I asked Gates about it, he was cautious, saying the conclusion about what to do with the alleged bomber had already been made by the time he said he had no problem...