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President Obama Discusses NYC Terror Trial


President Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday that local opposition is likely to nix the administration’s plan to hold the trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City.

“I have not ruled it out,” Obama told Katie Couric of CBS News in a live interview at the White House during the Super Bowl pregame show. “But I think it’s important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved. I mean, if you’ve got a city that is saying ‘no,’ and a police department that’s saying ‘no,’ and a mayor that’s saying ‘no,’ that makes it difficult.”

Obama told Couric: “I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is: We’re not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11 … They prosecuted 190 folks in these Article III courts [under the U.S. Constitution], got convictions, and those folks are in maximum-security prisons right now. And there have been no escapes. And it is a virtue of our system that we should be proud of.

“Now, what I’ve also said is that it’s important for us to recognize that when we’re dealing with al Qaeda operatives, that they may have national-security intelligence that we need,” Obama continued. “And it’s important to make sure that the processes and procedures we approach with respect to these folks are not identical to the ones that we would use if we’re apprehending the local drug dealer. And that’s why we put in some place some very particular ways of dealing with these issues that ensure our security but also still uphold our due process.”

Asked about the reading of Miranda rights to the suspect in the attempted X-Mas Day bombing, Obama said: “He clammed up and after we had obtained actionable intelligence from him, that’s when the FBI … folks on the ground then read him his Miranda. But keep in mind Richard Reid was read his Miranda rights five minutes after he was arrested, under the previous administration. Some of the same critics of our approach have been employing this policy for years.”

 Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32648.html#ixzz0eu6vy3N4



3 Responses

  1. Mr. President, sir, I doubt that Richard Reid was read his Miranda rights. Sir, masterminds of 9/11 were first in Guatanamo Bay that You closed, sir. You are creating historical revision and twisting your facts as you have done many time before.

    I wonder what hanavon or Not Bubby will have to say. Or for that matter, akuperma.

  2. Another reason why this president should also be impeached as unqualified and making a mess out of things: His excuse is “We’re not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11..” How lame and contradictory to what he says he tries to stand for, and what a poor example to follow, to boot.

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