EKB News

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced this week that the U.S. government would prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, along with four others, in a civilian federal courthouse in New York, just blocks from the scene of the alleged crimes. Holder says Americans, especially victims and family members, deserve the opportunity to see the alleged plotters held accountable in court. Holder's decision raised legal, political and ethical questions. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) swiftly condemned the decision to bring the terror suspects to the U.S. for trial, saying these people orchestrated a mass murder, an act of war, not a criminal matter. McConnell called the decision to bring the suspects to the U.S. a "step backward for our national security." He says Congress created a system to have terror suspects tried at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and bringing them to the U.S. would give them protections of the Bill of Rights. U.S. Representative Harold "Hal" Rogers (R-Ky.) also denounced moving the terror suspects to American soil, agreeing they should be tried in Cuba.