News Article
Attorney General’s Testimony Raises More Questions Than It Answers, Hatch Says
Author: Cindy O'Neill
HOLDER’S REASONS FOR TRYING 9/11 CONSPIRATORS IN NEW YORK CITY UNCONVINCING
Attorney General’s Testimony Raises More Questions than it Answers, Hatch Says
WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, found U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony today on the rationale for prosecuting 9/11 conspirators in New York City to be unconvincing.
Hatch said Holder failed to make a convincing case to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on why the nation would be better served if the 9/11 terrorists were tried in the New York City instead of at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
“Today was the first opportunity that anybody was given to ask the Attorney General just how he arrived at the decision to prosecute the 9/11 conspirators in federal court in New York City,” Hatch said following Holder’s testimony. “Unfortunately, I was not sold by his reasons, and I left the hearing with more questions than answers.”
Hatch, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said he and Holder were in agreement on one thing: “that failure is not an option in these trials,” the senator stated. “That being said, I am concerned that in previous terror trials in federal court, there have been failures to protect sensitive national security information. I simply refuse to risk the disclosure of classified information when a preferable venue in military commissions is available to prosecute these terrorists in accordance with the values and guarantees that this nation was founded on.”