Feds’ Plan to Prosecute 25 Guantanamo Detainees in US Courts Offers Catharsis – and Security Challenges.
The Obama administration is developing plans to ship more than two dozen accused terrorists from Guantanamo to the United States so they can be placed on trial in four federal courts, according to two knowledgeable government officials, who asked not be be identified talking about the sensitive matter.
A Justice Department spokesman official emphasized there have been no final decisions about the fate of the detainees. The sources tell Newsweek there are still spirited internal debates within an administration task force, chaired by Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., about how many of them should be tried before military commissions -- as the Bush administration attempted to do—rather than civilian courts. But as a strong sign of the direction the process is moving, U.S. court security officials were told this week to start planning for the arrival of about 25 Guantanamo detainees for federal trials in four jurisdictions: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia. A public announcement of the decision is expected to come by Nov. 16—the task force’s self imposed deadline—but could come earlier. When it does, it is sure to ignite a loud public debate: in just the past few days, conservatives—including former Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey—have stepped up their warnings that such trials could compromise national security, expose sensitive intelligence methods in open court, and cause logistical nightmares.
The biggest internal question is where the most important trial of all will take place—namely, the 9/11 conspiracy case in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin Al Shibh and three others are charged with orchestrating the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Justice Department officials – who strongly back the idea of trying the accused terrorists in federal court—have looked at the idea of holding the trial at a new secure courthouse in Newport News, Va. (which is in the same district that has jurisdiction over one of the 9/11 targets, the Pentagon.)
But, typical of the debates and internal rivalries that have taken place within the task force, a strong argument is being made by prosecutors in New York that the trial should be held at the U.S. courthouse in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, walking distance from the site of the deadliest crime in American history.
Wherever the final venues, the trials will unquestionably present major security challenges: Officials warn that they will require massive increases in resources for the U.S. Marshals to both incarcerate and transport the accused Qaeda terrorists to and from the trials, and to provide around the clock protection for judges, jurors and prosecutors. “It’s a big challenge,” said one official. “At this point, [the Marshals] don’t have the extra bodies to do the security at these trials.”
Still, Holder and his aides feel strongly that public trials of the Qaeda plotters are the best way to vindicate the American system of justice -- and provide catharsis for the mass murder of civilians. They are not worried about the “nightmare scenario” conjured by some critics: that a jury might actually acquit one of the defendants and allow a Qaeda terrorist to walk free. “We don’t think there are a lot of jurors who are going to be sympathetic to someone who shouts, ‘death to America,’” said one administration official. (At his arraignment before a military commission judge last year. Mohammed, or KSM as he is more commonly known, declared that he considered “all the U.S. Constitution and laws evil” while bin Al Shibh expressed regret that he couldn’t get a U.S. visa depriving him of the chance to become a 9/11 “martyr.”)
A Justice spokesman, Matthew Miller, said: "No decisions have been made, but Department prosecutors are working diligently with military commission prosecutors, and we will announce a first round of decisions by November 16. After years of uncertainty, this administration is committed to bringing terrorists to justice."
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Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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