WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says the administration has not ruled out a military trial for the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks even if a civilian trial would be preferable.
Biden, in defending the Obama administration from critics of its approach to prosecuting accused terrorists, said in interviews aired today that it is not yet clear where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Sept. 11 suspects held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be tried.
However, Biden said he believes Mohammed will be found guilty regardless of the venue. His remarks echoed comments last month by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who said Mohammed “is going to meet justice and he’s going to meet his maker.”
President Barack Obama will make the final decision about the trial, Biden said.
Republicans and some Democrats argue that terrorists should be treated not as criminals but as enemy combatants and tried by military commission.
“These policies are ill-conceived and they need to stop and start over,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.
Graham said he favors closing the jail at Guantanamo Bay because its existence helps recruit terrorists to al-Qaida. But he said that treating terrorists as criminals to be tried in civilian courts “is a huge mistake that will come back to haunt us.”
Graham also said he thinks Obama should replace John Brennan, the president’s counterterrorism adviser. Brennan on Saturday said that the rate of former Guantanamo inmates engaging in extremist or militant behavior — roughly one in five — “isn’t that bad” compared to recidivism rates for U.S. prisoners of around 50 percent.
“Do you want someone in charge of counterterrorism who finds a 20 percent return-to-the-fight rate is acceptable? He has lost my confidence, and it’s the best evidence yet how disconnected this administration has come from the fact that we’re at war,” Graham said.
Obama national security adviser James Jones, while not defending Brennan’s statement, said Sunday the counterterrorism adviser does his job well and that the White House National Security Council is fortunate to have him.
Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Mohammed’s trial would take place in federal court in New York City. City officials later opposed the idea because of security and logistical concerns, and some senators are trying to stop any Guantanamo detainees from being brought to the United States for a civilian trial.
Jones said Holder is heading a review into the matter and will advise Obama on the course to take.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a chief critic of the Obama administration, said Sunday that Obama erred in initially pronouncing the accused Christmas Day bomber a lone extremist rather than an extension of the wider al-Qaida network bent on attacking the United States. He also criticized the decision to try the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a civilian court.
Cheney, however, acknowledged that the Bush administration handled shoe bomber Richard Reid the same way, when he could have been declared an enemy combatant and held in military custody. The former vice president said he disagreed with that decision at the time. Reid was convicted of trying to bring down an airliner in December 2001.
“We could have put him into military custody,” Cheney said.
Cheney reiterated his support for the now-abandoned harsh interrogation program run by the CIA, which included waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning that Obama and Holder have pronounced torture— and said he thought those methods should have been an option in the interrogation of Abdulmutallab.
Biden appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Cheney appeared on ABC’s “This Week.” Jones appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” Graham appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”