Republicans, Democrats Clash Over N.Y. Trial for Accused 9/11 Plotters

The partisan debate continued today over the Obama administration's decision to try the accused Sept. 11 conspirators in a civilian court in New York, with Republicans asserting they should face a military tribunal because the attacks were an act of war, while Democrats said the trial would demonstrate to the world the U.S. commitment to the rule of law.

"What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality, the war on terror, from their point of view, is over. We're no longer going to treat these people as if this was an act of war," said former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on Fox News Sunday.

Giuliani, who appeared on three different talk shows, was reminded by his interviewers that he had praised the use of civilian trials for those who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and of Zacarias Moussawi, the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attack, as examples of the strength of the American legal system.

"If there's no other alternative, I support civilian trials for terrorists," Giuliani responded. "The reality is there is another alternative here...He (President Obama) should bring them to justice in a military court. We spent six or seven years developing a constitutionally permissible military tribunal. He's satisfied with it. He's going to use it."

Giuliani was referring to the fact that while Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has claimed credit for conceiving the Sept. 11 attacks, and four accused co-conspirators would face a criminal trial in New York under the decision announced Friday by Attorney General Eric Holder, five other Guantanamo detainees charged in the 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen would face military tribunals.

Officials said that one of the factors in choosing a military tribunal for the second five was that their target was a military one.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called the administration decision "ideology run wild."

"You can bet that folks that are going to be tried and their lawyers are going to try to use this opportunity to extend it as long as they can, because this is what they wanted," he said on CBS' Face the Nation. "They wanted center stage, and they're going to want to keep it for as long as they can. They will bring every motion forward that they can that will drag this trial out."

But Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy strongly defended the administration decision, saying, "We have a judicial system that is the envy of the world. Let's show the world that we can use that power. We can use our judicial system, just as we did with Timothy McVeigh, and send the people -- and convict the people."

Leahy said he wasn't worried the sometimes theatric Mohammed would use the trial as a world stage. "I have a lot of faith in our judges, Leahy said, also on Face the Nation. "They know how to run a trial. They know how to keep decorum in their court. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed wants to stand up and say, as he did in Guantanamo, I committed all these murders, I did all these things, fine. If I was a prosecutor, I would just sit there and let that jury hear it, because he's going to be convicted."

Leahy also said he believed the prosecution would be able to get a conviction despite the fact that some information was obtained from Mohammed after he was waterboarded numerous times.

"They indicted him long before this waterboarding," Leahy said. "They had evidence enough to bring indictments against him long before that...I have no question that they have enough evidence untainted by the waterboarding that will be admissible in court."

Leahy's fellow Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed, echoed many of those views on Fox News Sunday. "If we try him before military officers, that image of a soldier will be portrayed by the Islamic community," Reed said. "That's not the image we want...When the foreman of that jury stands up and delivers the verdict, not empowered by religious fanaticism, by -- but the Constitution, he will know he's lost."