US PRESIDENT Barack Obama suggested yesterday the self-professed mastermind of the September 11th, 2001, attacks would be convicted and put to death, but later said he was not trying to prejudge the trial.
Speaking in television interviews while travelling in Asia, Mr Obama acknowledged he would miss his January 22nd deadline to close the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now held, but said he believed it would be shut next year.
Separately, attorney general Eric Holder told lawmakers that Mr Mohammed and his accused four co-conspirators could be safely tried in New York despite Republican security concerns.
In testimony before Congress, Mr Holder also said the federal government was open to paying for some of the added security costs, which a New York senator said could be upwards of $75 million a year.
Mr Obama defended Mr Holder’s decision last week to move the five men from Guantánamo for a trial in a US federal court in New York.
“[What] I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our justice system can’t handle these guys,” Mr Obama told NBC News.
Asked if he understood why some people were offended by trying the men in US courts, he replied: “I don’t think it will be offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.” He then backtracked, saying, “What I said was people will not be offended if that’s the outcome. I’m not prejudging”.
At a Senate judiciary committee hearing, Mr Holder also defended his decision and predicted Mr Mohammed and the others would be convicted. “Failure is not an option. I don’t expect that we will have a contrary result.”
Many Republicans have argued the terrorism suspects should be tried in military tribunals at Guantánamo because they believe criminal courts are not suited for such trials and they worry that the US trial sites could become targets.
New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said initial cost estimates he had seen to secure the trials in lower Manhattan would be $75 million a year plus costs for added security around the city and additional police personnel.
The top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, Jeff Sessions, said the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington were acts of war and therefore the accused should be prosecuted in military courts.
Mr Sessions also questioned whether the Obama administration was returning to a pre-September 11th mind-set which he argued was focused on law enforcement rather than preventing attacks. But Mr Holder defended the Obama administration’s efforts, saying: “I know that we are at war.”
“We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantánamo will be closed next year,” Mr Obama told Fox News yesterday.
The Obama administration has had difficulty in closing the prison because many US lawmakers are deeply reluctant to transfer the prisoners to the United States.
“It’s hard not only because of the politics. People I think understandably are fearful after a lot of years where they were told that Guantánamo was critical to keeping terrorists out. So I understood that that had to be processed, but it’s also just technically hard – I just think as usual in Washington things move slower than I anticipated,” Mr Obama said. – (Reuters)