Nov 19, 2009 6:11 am US/Eastern
Schumer: 9/11 Trial Could Cost More Than $100M
Holder, Grilled By GOP Senators, Defends Decision To Hold Trial In NYC
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
-
-
An image of a courtroom drawing by artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. military, shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (C) and co-defendant Walid Bin Attash (L) attending a pre-trial session on Dec. 8, 2008, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Janet Hamlin/Getty Images
Attorney General Eric Holder faced some angry Senators Wednesday who wanted to know his reasons for bringing terror suspects to New York to stand trial.
Addressing concerns that trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his associates here could endanger the city, Holder said their trial wouldn't be the first of its kind on U-S soil, and won't be the last.
The accused terrorists are considered captured enemy combatants, so some senators want to know why they can't be tried before a military court, or held until the war on terror is over and tried then. The attorney general's response? Because justice is long overdue for the victims of 9/11.
Attorney General Eric Holder was on Capital Hill to defend his decision to have a civil court and not a military commission try the suspected terrorists.
"At the end of the day it was clear to me that the venue in which we are most likely to obtain justice for the American people is in federal court," Holder said.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects will face a federal jury in downtown Manhattan. Holder said that's not unusual, and that there are 300 people in prison who've been successfully convicted in federal courts of terrorist activities.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) worries such a public trial would give Al Qaeda a worldwide voice.
"I think this is causing quite a bit of concern. I see today that Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey who chaired the 9/11 Commission says he thinks this is a mistake, that it will provide Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the position to be a martyr and a hero among Al Qaeda sympathizers around the world," Session said.
Holder said his critics don't have all the information.
"It's a decision based on the evidence that I know, and frankly, some of the people who've criticized the decision do not have access to," he said.
The most heated critic was Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona).
"How could you be more likely to get a conviction in federal court when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed already asked to plead guilty before a military commission and be executed?" he said.
Responded Holder: "That was that. I don't know what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wants to do now, and I'm not going to base a determination on where these cases ought to be brought on what a terrorist, a murderer wants to do. He will not select the prosecution venue. I will select it and I have."
New York's senior senator expressed concern over the cost.
"Rough estimate from the city of New York, which I received yesterday, place the added cost of moving the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other terrorist suspects to New York somewhere in the ballpark of $75 million, that's a minimum," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Schumer said extra security procedures could push that number up to $100 million, and asked that the federal government foot the bill. Holder agreed to fight for those funds, since 9/11 was an attack on the nation and New York shouldn't bear the financial burden of the trials alone.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
World's Most Useless Facts
CBS News Interactive: America On Guard
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments