How to Try Terrorists

http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes...ry-terrorists/

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
4/25/2012

Adis Medunjanin is shown in this courtroom sketch on day one of his trial in Brooklyn federal court in New York, April 16, 2012.Jane Rosenberg/ReutersAdis Medunjanin is shown in this courtroom sketch on day one of his trial in Brooklyn federal court in New York, April 16, 2012.

Next month, more than nine years after he was captured, then thrown into a secret prison, tortured, and finally moved to Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will finally go on trial under the military commission system.

No matter how hard the judges and prosecutors try to make this trial legitimate, and I’m sure they will, I doubt the world will ever see it that way. The trial should be taking place in New York City, as Attorney General Eric Holder proposed. But Congress, in its politicized version of wisdom, refused to let that happen; they passed a law forbidding a federal court trial for any Guantanamo inmate, insisting that military tribunals are tougher, and that it’s simply too dangerous to try terrorists in New York City.

The problem with Congress’s argument is that it’s entirely unsubstantiated. There is no evidence suggesting that civilian courts can’t handle terrorist trials. On the contrary, there’s ample and mounting evidence proving that they can.

Last month, Mr. Holder pointed out that “since 9/11 hundreds of individuals have been convicted of terrorism or terrorism-related offenses in Article 3 courts and are now serving long sentences in federal prison. Not one has ever escaped custody. No judicial district has suffered any kind of retaliatory attack.”

In fact, as National Public Radio reported yesterday, there is a terrorism trial going on right now—in Brooklyn, of all places. One of the three men charged with plotting to blow up the subway system in 2009 is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. (The other two pleaded guilty already.) Amazingly enough, there is no hue and cry.

There is no good reason to believe that the criminal justice system can handle an alleged terrorist who plotted to destroy the subway, but not an alleged terrorist who plotted to destroy the World Trade System. No good reason. The obvious bad reason is politics. Opposing the Mohammed trial was a publicity bonanza for tough-on-terrorism Republicans and a bipartisan group of cowardly members of the New York Congressional delegation.

The secondary bad reason is torture. If the Mohammed trial had taken place in federal court, details about his treatment might have become public, embarrassing lawmakers who either supported or turned a blind eye to prisoner abuse under President George W. Bush, and shaming President Obama, who has done nothing to bring his predecessor to account.