The father of 9/11 hero Todd Beamer tore into Attorney General Eric Holder for standing by his earlier decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York civilian courts even as he reversed course and announced Monday that KSM and his co-conspirators would be tried in military commissions.
Holder and the White House got a thorough drubbing by critics and supporters alike Monday for reversing course and breaking a campaign promise to close the detainee prison facility at Guantanamo Bay and try KSM and 9/11 co-conspirators in civilian courts. But one of the most searing critiques came Tuesday morning from David Beamer, the father of Todd Beamer, the renowned hero of United Airlines flight 93 who fought the terrorists before the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pa.
Testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Beamer upbraided Holder for saying Congress prevented him from trying KSM and other 9/11 suspects in civilian courts even though he stood by his assessment that civilian courts were a better venue.
“Of course, the implication was clear: military courts are inferior in his estimation…,” Beamer said.
The most “bitter pill” Holder served up, Beamer said, was that he was forced to make the 180-degree reversal because Congress and the families of the 9/11 victims demanded it. Beamer went on to accuse Holder and Obama of “ignoring, tolerating, overlooking and misleading” the families of 9/11 victims when it became clear they did not support civilian trials.
At long last, Beamer said, the families will get the long-awaited justice they sought as KSM and the other co-conspirators are tried by the military.
When the Obama administration issued an order halting the military trial of KSM, it “nullifed three years of case preparation of military commissions when they were just months away from a conclusion on the case.”
“It’s shameful, it’s disappointing…it hurts,” he said as the hearing broke into thunderous applause.
Republicans used the hearing, which was planned before Holder’s Monday reversal, to give themselves a collective pat on the back.
“I find it a strange coincidence that the Administration decided to announce this 180 degree turn in policy the day before this hearing, and on the very same day that the President announced his reelection campaign,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). “I, and many others, believe that the security of the United States should not depend on politics.”
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