Gitmo 9/11 suspects heading to NY trial, key step in Obama's plan to close Gitmo

[Peacetrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_guantanamo_us_trial

3 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, while five other suspects will be sent to military commissions, an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Without confirming details of the decision, President Barack Obama said it was a legal and national security matter. "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in Obama's plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

[babylonsister]

1. And the gop preemptively attacks...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7003991&mesg_id=7003991

Congressman invokes Fort Hood shooting to object to Gitmo prisoner transfer

Pretty disgusting the gop is using this tragedy as a political tool.


Congressman invokes Fort Hood shooting to object to Gitmo prisoner transfer
By Jordan Fabian - 11/12/09 03:23 PM ET


A Republican lawmaker on Thursday invoked last week's Fort Hood shooting to oppose the Obama administration's decision to transfer Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Yemen.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said that suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's contact with Yemen-based radical Islamic cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, raises questions about Yemen as a destination for the detainees.

"If the administration does not halt these pending releases immediately, it could be responsible for creating a new revolving door of terrorism that will cost American lives," Wolf wrote today. "The security of the American people could be at risk because of the administration’s relentless pursuit of a campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay by January 22, 2010."

The Justice Department in late September authorized the transfer of one prisoner to Yemen and two others to Ireland. The transfers were part of the administrations broader effort to close the prison by its self-imposed January deadline.

Wolf, who is the ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Justice Department, also cited Yemen as a nation in which al Qaeda operates relatively easily, making it unsuitable for prisoner transfers.

more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/67585-congressman-invokes-fort-hood-shooting-to-object-to-gitmo-prisoner-transfer-

[Peacetrain]

2. Like mad dogs foaming at the mouth... the right is now a lost cause

totally consumed by anger of having lost power. They are dangerous no doubt, but a trial is the only way to bring the United States back into the light of being a country governed by laws and not not emotions and passions.

[DrDan]

3. sure hope Bloomberg was consulted ahead of the decision