9/11 Mastermind Suspect Should Not be Tried in U.S.

I spoke on the Senate floor yesterday about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to bring five terror suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, to New York to be tried in civilian courts.

Below are excerpts from the speech.

"…I believe that this decision should be reconsidered by the Attorney General and the President of the United States because of the risk it puts Americans {in} and because this provides Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a self-described super-terrorist, this gives him everything he could have ever wanted, which is a platform to spew his hate-filled ideology and one in which he can recruit other like-minded individuals all around the world who will be watching."

"He is anything but a common criminal. He is guilty of nothing less than war crimes against innocent Americans. And according to this decision, the Attorney General is going to be providing him the forum that he can use in order to proclaim himself as the super-terrorist and in order to attract like-minded ideologues to his sick and twisted ideas of jihad.”

“Our experience with terrorist trials show that civilian courts are an inappropriate forum for the trial of war crimes. This is one example of why: as a result of information related to the East Africa embassy bombings, Osama bin Laden became aware of cell phone intercepts which prompted his organization to discontinue cell phone conversations because of the evidence disclosed in the trial. They simply realized that they were being eavesdropped on and quit using cell phones, denying us that intelligence."

"This will allow Al-Qaeda to detect our means of intelligence gathering and to push forward into areas we know nothing about."

"Mohammed and other terrorists simply put should not be brought to the United States. They should not be granted the same rights and privileges as American criminal defendants. They should stay at Guantanamo Bay and be prosecuted through Military Commissions established by Congress under terms circumscribed by the United States Supreme Court.”

"I would ask the President of the United States to overrule the decision of his Attorney General because it is ill-advised. It will make America a more dangerous place, and it will allow terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the platform to spew their hateful ideology and encourage others to join him in killing innocent Americans and other individuals."