WASHINGTON – Former Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday condemned the “political attacks” that prevented the trial of the 9/11 terrorists in federal court nearly 15 years ago, saying those politicians should apologize to the families of those killed for delaying the attack. According to Holder, justice for Guantanamo Bay detainees “would be nothing more than a memory” if they were tried and tried in the United States.
After years of research into Guantánamo’s untested system of military commissions, “Kafkaesque” and has been mired in seemingly endless delaysPentagon announced Wednesday, accusing the “mastermind” of September 11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his two co-defendants, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmad Adam al-Hawsawi, had reached a plea deal that spared them the death penalty.
Back in 2009, then-Attorney General Holder announced that Muhammad and four others would be tried in federal court in Manhattan and promised to seek the death penalty in the case. But his plan quickly drew stiff political opposition from Republicans and many Democrats in Congress blocked Refrain from extraditing to America for justice any prisoners held at the military detention center built on leased land at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 11 years ago, in 2013, Holder accused Muhammad and his associates of “on death row as we speak” suggested the case went to federal court.
Now, more than 20 years after Mohammed, also known as KSM, was captured in Pakistan tortured with C.I.A, Holder said military prosecutors reached the best deal they could under the circumstances. But he accused Congress of blocking a federal trial that would have resulted in faster justice.
“The people responsible for setting up this terrible deal did everything they could. They have been mistreated by political hacks and those who have lost faith in our justice system,” Holder said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday.
“Had my decision to try KSM and its confederates in the tried and tested federal court system followed, today would be nothing more than a memory,” Holder said. “Those who oppose my decision should apologize to those who lost loved ones on one of America’s darkest days. I hope the media will ask them if they will now admit the stupidity of their actions.”
Former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani — long before he tried to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss based on lies about voter fraud (resulting in felony charges and $148 million defamation verdict) — was at the forefront of opposition to the September 11 trial in federal court in Manhattan. On November 15, 2009, he appeared on three separate television appearances to oppose Holder’s plan, arguing that it was the federal judiciary, not the untested process of military commissions.go on forever.” A spokesman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In retrospect, it’s hard to argue that the federal judiciary would have taken longer to reach a conclusion than military commissions, or that Muhammad and his co-defendants would have received a more lenient sentence in federal court. Even if the federal trial had not resulted in the death penalty, if convicted, Muhammad and his allies would have spent the rest of their days in a federal supermax prison with strict restrictions, as opposed to an expensive, individualized facility in the Caribbean. Access to more facilities than under the strictest restrictions the Federal Bureau of Prisons uses for convicted terrorists.
That group includes Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, one of the brothers responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon attack. found guilty In 2015, less than two years after the bombing and in Colorado, supermax federal prison ADMAX was on death row in Florence. is referred to as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” for the better part of a decade.
Meanwhile, the Guantanamo military commissions have moved at a glacial pace, making little tangible progress until this week on crimes committed 23 years ago in 2001, beginning next month.
Even Attorney General William Barr, who served under Presidents Trump and George HW Bush, wrote in his 2022 book that what happened on 9/11 was a “disgrace” and said he thought the federal courts would be a better way forward. the perpetrators were not brought to justice more than two decades after the attack.
“The military can’t seem to get out of their way and get the trial done,” Barr said, calling the commissions a “hopeless mess” and even trying to move forward to bring the Guantanamo detainees to America. He was convicted in federal court in 2019, but faced Republican opposition in Congress. Trump wanted Keep Guantanamo open and referred to the federal court system (now criminal defendants) as a “joke” and “laughable” when it comes to convicting terrorists. But internally, Barr wrote, a 2019 investigation by Trump administration officials at the Justice Department concluded that they would “probably be successful in obtaining a conviction” in federal court.
“A stopped clock ticks right twice a day,” Holder said when asked about Barr’s evolution on the issue.
During the Trump administration, the Justice Department, along with Barr, secured convictions against foreign terrorists in federal court agrees not seeking the death penalty against two former British citizens and members of the Islamic State group known as The Beatles. Both men—Alexanda Amon Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh—were convicted and are now serving life sentences at ADMAX in Florence, along with other terrorists like Tsarnaev.
On Thursday, Republicans issued statements seeking to blame the Joe Biden administration for the plea deal, even though the White House left it up to the Pentagon to decide. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who opposes the plea deal, said Barr showed “weakness” in a statement that did not address his acknowledgment that federal trials — which McConnell opposes — would be a better way forward.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told NBC News that he is “not second-guessing” prosecutors in the case, noting that Guantanamo has structural problems from the beginning.
“Look, the establishment of Guantanamo from the very beginning has made it difficult, if not impossible, to get full justice for the families of the victims of 9/11,” Coons said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he has “long maintained that our federal judicial system is perfectly capable of handling these kinds of trials” and is well-suited to handle serious crimes.
“I’ve been a trial lawyer long enough that hindsight is always 20/20,” he said. “But one of the reasons I advocated for federal court involvement was that it could provide a more accurate and fair sentencing in these types of cases.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who he called The Biden administration told NBC News that discussions over military commissions and federal courts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center took place “some time ago,” but he was unsure whether a civilian trial would have resulted in a different outcome. .
“I believe we should have had a choice,” he said. “Whether it would have led to a different outcome is a separate question.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C., said it’s easy to second-guess prosecutorial decisions, but he’s fine with a plea deal that would keep Muhammad and his co-defendants in prison for life.
“The boy has been behind bars for twenty years. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars. I’m not going to sweat the details,” Tillis said. “There is no clearer picture than hindsight.”
It is not yet clear what the claim is about the future of detention centers at Guantanamo. Former President Barack Obama said this in his final hours in the White House in 2017 history would judge Congress said that for blocking the closure of Guantánamo, politicians “put politics ahead of continued costs to taxpayers, our relationships with our allies, and threats to U.S. national security by keeping open a facility that governments around the world condemn and hinder rather than help. it is our fight against terrorism”. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton In 2013, he wrote a memoir He said closing Guantanamo was important “to show our old and emerging allies that we are serious about turning the page on GTMO and the experiences of the previous decade.”
During the Biden administration, officials have been busy Quiet efforts to close Guantanamoand the number of prisoners it dropped to 30 last year Of the nearly 800 peaks since the 9/11 attacks.