Likely Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. has come out in favor of military tribunals for Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the 9/11 terror suspects.
Ford, who on the day of President Obama’s State of the Union address said he didn’t think the trials should be held here, told reporters following him in Syracuse today that he believes the suspects should be tried at “a military base.”
Contacted later to clarify, a Ford spokesman said he favors military tribunals over a civilian trial held on a military site.
Ford first suggested the notion of military tribunals as “the way to go” in a column by The Post’s Michael Goodwin last week.
His arguments are that military bases are already equipped for the massive amounts of security required for trying the terrorist suspects.
But he also believes that the acts of terror against the nation, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives on US soil, justify trying them in military courts – a hard line position.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has said she favors civilian trials.
Obama’s administration, bowing to pressure from New York business leaders, officials and other. Democrats, finally moved to drop a plan to try the suspects at the federal court in lower Manhattan.