Senate rejects effort to block civilian trials for 9/11 suspects

[babylonsister]

Senate rejects effort to block civilian trials for 9/11 suspects

By James Rosen | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — After an emotional debate over how to keep Americans safe, the Senate Thursday narrowly defeated an effort to prevent civilian trials in U.S. courts for the accused planners of the 9/11 attacks.

The Senate's 54-45 vote to reject the measure by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., opens the door for President Barack Obama to bring Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to trial in federal court, rather than the military commissions Graham helped create.

Obama has pledged to shutter the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January and transfer some of its 220 detainees to the U.S. for trials in civilian courts.

Three Democrats — Jim Webb of Virginia and Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor — and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut joined all 40 Senate Republicans in voting for the measure.

Graham, a military lawyer who's served active duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, pleaded with his colleagues to back his amendment to a spending measure for the Justice Department and other federal agencies.

"Tell the president that we're not going to sit by as a body and watch the mastermind of 9/11 go into civilian court and criminalize this war," Graham said. "If he goes to federal court, here's what awaits — a chaos zoo trial."

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/78448.html

[peacebird]

1. We will be calling Jim Webb today to tell him how FURIOUS we are with this vote

Is America a land of LAW or NOT? Our laws were good enough when trying Timothy McVeigh, they are good enough for these guys too.
Frankly I cannot fathom why he voted with the pukes to stop the trials in our court system.

[babylonsister]

2. I like Webb and wish I knew his reasoning behind this vote. nt

[peacebird]

4. according to his aide - he thinks a military tribunal is the right place to try

war criminals. He also said the seante recently passed (and Obama signed) a revamping of the entire military tribunal process so that it now satisfies all the complaints the courts had about it.

I still totally disagree with this stand on Webbs part. The *only* good reason he could have given me was that he feared they could not get a fair trial in America, and was pushing for a transfer of the cases to the Hague. THAT however was not his stance.

[Clio the Leo]

3. I still dont understand the constitutionality of it all.....

.... trying a foreign defendant for a crime committed on foreign soil under the US court system. I mean, I dont have an opinion one way or the other, I am just unclear as to how those supporting the matter justified it.