That’s Debatable

On Nov. 13., U.S. Atty. General Eric Holder announced that five men being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would go on trial in federal court in New York City for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind. He and the four defendants will be tried in the Southern District of New York federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, just blocks from the site where the Twin Towers stood. Do you agree with Holder’s decision to try those men in New York? Or do you agree with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s public criticism that those men instead should face a military tribunal, and that trying them in New York exposes that city to the threat of another terrorist attack?

It makes no sense to have a trial in a U.S. civilian court for enemy combatants captured overseas in a time of war.

This is not shoplifting, this is war.

Military tribunals were created for just this sort of thing. They have been used for enemy combatants captured overseas in many circumstances and have operated as they should.

Furthermore, these terrorists should not be tried in the same venue and under the same rules as a U.S. citizen accused of a domestic crime.

It is worth noting that Rudy Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and Democratic Gov. David Patterson have come together to oppose this decision by the Obama Administration.

This is just the latest among the terrible decisions and policies emanating from the Obama White House.

U.S. Rep. John Campbell

(R-Newport Beach)

Treating foreign terrorism as a domestic law enforcement matter puts the United States at great risk.

The 9/11 terrorist case should underscore why foreign terrorists who commit an act of war against America, like the attacks on 9/11, do not deserve the same legal protections as do American citizens accused of domestic crimes. It makes no sense at all to make it more difficult to convict and thwart foreign terrorists when our goal is to protect the national security of our country.

The idea that terrorists should be given these kinds of legal protections seems to have been based on left-wing campaign promises rather than America’s national security needs.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

(R-Huntington Beach)