Last Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder stated in a news conference that he and the Obama Administration would stop their push to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad and four alleged henchman in a civilian federal court in New York. Instead, a military commission will try the men, much to the approval of the Republicans in Congress.
Much of this controversy started when Holder announced, in November 2009, that the trial would take place in New York, just blocks away from where the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center occurred. Most Republicans and some Democrats disagreed with the administration’s choice on how and where to have the trial; they felt that it was inappropriate. Congress passed legislation that prohibits bringing any detainees from the military prison of Guantanamo Bay to the United States, an action which Holder called both unwise and unwarranted, believing that a legislative body had no means to be making prosecutorial decisions. As for the fate of Guantanamo Bay, Holder mentioned that the closing down of said prison would not occur in the immediate future, a significant promise which Barak Obama campaigned upon during the 2008 election.
While the Justice Department creates an all new case for the military tribunals, it has been revealed that the original trial would have charged Khalid Sheik Mohammad and the four others on 10 counts relating to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
It has been nearly a decade since the attacks, and the time to bring justice to the victims of this event is long overdue.
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