AG Holder says criminal justice system was invaluable weapon in New York terrorism case

AG: Civilian court valuable weapon in terror case

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the criminal justice system was invaluable in obtaining a guilty plea and intelligence from a terrorist who plotted to bomb New York’s subways and that the criticism of using civilian courts for terror cases is based on politics not facts.

At a Justice Department news conference, Holder used the case of a former Denver airport shuttle driver to rebut Republican critics who have said the Democratic administration should try such suspects before military tribunals rather than through civilian courts.

“To take this tool out of our hands, to denigrate this tool flies in the face of facts and is more about politics than it is about facts,” Holder said. Holder is opposing a bill introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., joined by about half the Senate’s Republicans and a few Democrats, that would prohibit any of the conspirators charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks from being tried in civilian courts.

Holder’s remarks followed the guilty plea in a Brooklyn courtroom by Najibullah Zazi to three federal terrorism charges stemming from a plot to attack New York City subways with homemade bombs. Zazi has agreed to cooperate with federal agents, and Holder said he had provided useful information.

The Obama administration has been on the defensive about its record on terrorism since a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab allegedly tried to blow up an airliner landing in Detroit on Christmas. That suspect faces charges in federal court.

Holder said the investigation of Zazi’s contacts and associates continues but the FBI and federal prosecutors have removed any danger to the American people from this plot.

“This demonstrates that our federal criminal justice system has the ability to incapacitate terrorism suspects, to gather intelligence from terrorism suspects,” Holder said. He added that it was not the only tool, and that military and all other means would also be used to counter terror threats but added that he was unwilling to renounce the use of the federal criminal justice system.

“We need not make more of these people than they are,” Holder added. “KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) and others at Guantanamo are thugs. They engaged in criminal, warlike activity against the United States but are not different from those we have handled in the past and will be able to handle in the future.”

He was referring to the professed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Holder’s plan to transfer Mohammed and four of his alleged henchmen from the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial in New York City has run into massive opposition and is under review.

Holder said all options remain open for the location of a 9/11 trial.