NYT Editorial: Justice Delayed
Eight years have now passed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the victims, their families and the rest of America are still denied justice. The United States has tried and convicted one person for those horrifying crimes.
The Bush administration captured about a dozen high-ranking Al Qaeda members, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of 9/11. But President Bush refused to subject them to real trials under American law.
Mr. Bush claimed that the attacks had changed the world so much that both civilian and military courts were no longer adequate to try and punish terrorists. That was wrong then, and still is. The nation has always had the tools it needs to do that job — legally and without jeopardizing secrets or shredding the Constitution.
But Mr. Bush created his own detention camps and, later, military tribunals where guilty verdicts were guaranteed. This rogue system has done enormous damage to the country’s reputation and made the world even more dangerous for American citizens.
It took years for American courts to reject the camps and the tribunals, which have never held a successful trial. The only 9/11-related conviction was that of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty — in a civilian court — to six charges of conspiring with the hijackers.
The blame for justice delayed, and the continuing damage to America’s standing, no longer rests solely with Mr. Bush. Lawmakers from both parties are thwarting President Obama’s efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. They posture and prey on American anxieties, talking about turning terrorists loose in the United States, as if the prison system were not already holding dangerous men, including convicted terrorists.
It now seems certain the administration will not be able to meet President Obama’s January 2010 deadline to close Guantánamo, and it is not clear how long it will take to hold legitimate trials even after it is closed.
Some, mostly on the right, argue that trials are not needed. They say that following rules of evidence hamstrings intelligence agents pursuing terrorists, and that the president should have the power to lock up some prisoners indefinitely. Mr. Obama has resisted that idea, and should continue to do so. He also has fixed some of the worst flaws of Mr. Bush’s tribunals, including their use of evidence obtained through abuse and torture. But Mr. Obama needs to finally reject the idea that nonmilitary prisoners may be tried in military courts...
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The Bush administration captured about a dozen high-ranking Al Qaeda members, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of 9/11. But President Bush refused to subject them to real trials under American law.
Mr. Bush claimed that the attacks had changed the world so much that both civilian and military courts were no longer adequate to try and punish terrorists. That was wrong then, and still is. The nation has always had the tools it needs to do that job — legally and without jeopardizing secrets or shredding the Constitution.
But Mr. Bush created his own detention camps and, later, military tribunals where guilty verdicts were guaranteed. This rogue system has done enormous damage to the country’s reputation and made the world even more dangerous for American citizens.
It took years for American courts to reject the camps and the tribunals, which have never held a successful trial. The only 9/11-related conviction was that of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty — in a civilian court — to six charges of conspiring with the hijackers.
The blame for justice delayed, and the continuing damage to America’s standing, no longer rests solely with Mr. Bush. Lawmakers from both parties are thwarting President Obama’s efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. They posture and prey on American anxieties, talking about turning terrorists loose in the United States, as if the prison system were not already holding dangerous men, including convicted terrorists.
It now seems certain the administration will not be able to meet President Obama’s January 2010 deadline to close Guantánamo, and it is not clear how long it will take to hold legitimate trials even after it is closed.
Some, mostly on the right, argue that trials are not needed. They say that following rules of evidence hamstrings intelligence agents pursuing terrorists, and that the president should have the power to lock up some prisoners indefinitely. Mr. Obama has resisted that idea, and should continue to do so. He also has fixed some of the worst flaws of Mr. Bush’s tribunals, including their use of evidence obtained through abuse and torture. But Mr. Obama needs to finally reject the idea that nonmilitary prisoners may be tried in military courts...