WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today condemned the announcement by the Obama Justice Department that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his 9/11 coconspirators will be tried in a civilian Federal court in New York.

 

“The Obama Justice Department has prioritized political correctness over protecting the citizens of this country,” said Bond.

 

Bond called it an insult to the memories of those who were brutally murdered on September 11th that the perpetrators of these cowardly acts of terrorism will sit in a courtroom blocks away from Ground Zero and reap the full benefits and protections of the U.S. Constitution.

 

Last week, Bond joined forty-four other Senators, from both sides of the aisle, in supporting an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill that would have prohibited the use of funds to prosecute in an Article III court of the United States any of the individuals involved in the September 11th attacks.  Unfortunately, the amendment did not pass.

 

In light of today’s news, Senator Bond said, “With today’s announcement, those who voted to support greater privacy and constitutional rights for terrorists are now getting just what they asked for.”

 

Today’s announcement, as well as the Obama Justice Department's recent decisions to dismantle and release information about the CIA’s interrogation program and support the erosion of the PATRIOT Act tools needed to keep us safe, calls into serious doubt their priorities -- defeating terrorism to protect Americans or politically correct prosecutions.

 

Bond pointed to warnings by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey about the dangers of relying on civilian courts in this war on terror, including Mukasey’s recent urging of the Administration to “consider whether the main purpose here is to protect the citizens of this country or to showcase the country’s criminal justice system, which has been done before and which failed to impress Khalid Sheik Mohammed” or any of his associates.

 

The Senator stressed that recent tragic events are a deadly reminder of the need to stay vigilant in the war on terror and the consequences that political correctness can have on the safety of Americans:  “Last week’s massacre at Fort Hood reminds us that the threat of terrorism to our safety and way of life has not abated and that we must not let political correctness interfere with our duty to keep Americans safe.” 

 

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