WASHINGTON — Bringing those accused in the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial would increase the security threat to the city and give radical Islamists a platform to propagate their ideology, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Sunday.
Giuliani’s view that the Obama administration is erring in trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others near the site of the World Trade Center was echoed by other Republicans on the Sunday news programs. Giuliani appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Democrats defended the decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to try the five in New York, where more than 2,000 civilians were killed Sept. 11, 2001. If someone murders Americans in this country, they should be tried in the U.S., said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I don’t think we should run and hide and cower. Let’s use our system,” Leahy said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Republicans argued that the five are war criminals and should be tried in the military tribunals where other Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees will be judged. They disputed administration arguments that these five were conspirators in a crime committed on American soil. The Associated Press
