Republicans in
Congress, aided by
Democrats worried
about re-election,
revealed plans
yesterday to block
funding for civilian
trials for accused
terrorists such as
confessed 9/11
plotter Khalid Sheik
Mohammed.
"We need to deny
these people a show
trial," Senate
Republican Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
said yesterday on
CNN's "State of the
Union."
"I think any
community in America
is going to object
in the same way that
New York finally did
to these people
being put on trial
in the United States
in civilian courts."
In the face of
growing opposition
from New York
lawmakers and Mayor
Bloomberg, the Obama
administration began
last week to look at
alternatives to
holding a terror
trial in lower
Manhattan.
Obama press
secretary Robert
Gibbs insisted on
CNN's "State of the
Union" that a trial
would be anything
but a show.
"Khalid Sheik
Mohammed is going to
meet justice, and
he's going to meet
his maker," Gibbs
said. "He will be
brought to justice .
. . That you can be
sure of."
But McConnell
insisted that terror
suspects be tried by
military tribunals.
"Three years ago, we
passed a military
commissions
legislation for the
specific purpose of
trying foreigners
captured on the
battlefield,"
McConnell said.
"They ought to be
tried in these
military
commissions. They
also ought to be
detained at
Guantanamo."
He warned that
opposition to
holding trials in
federal courts is
bipartisan and that
"soon the
administration will
figure out whatever
domestic support
they had for this is
totally collapsing."
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.),
who faces
re-election later
this year, indicated
he does not support
the administration's
request for $200
million to pay for
civilian trials.
"If there's
somewhere we can try
them without
spending that money,
why spend the
money?" he said on
"Fox News Sunday."
McConnell said
granting terror
leaders from other
countries access to
American civil
justice awards them
the same protections
Americans get at
trial, which isn't a
wise way to carry
out a war.
"I mean, Larry King
would have a more
thorough
interrogation of one
of his [guests] than
the Christmas bomber
had by the Justice
Department,"
McConnell said on
CNN.
churt@nypost.com
