FORMER AG MICHAEL MUKASEY FEARS ATTACKS IN NYC DURING TRIALS OF TERRORISTS
Mukasey Fears Attacks on New York During Trial of 9/11 Defendants
By JESS BRAVIN
WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the decision to try the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in criminal court represented a turn from the Bush administration’s war footing to a “Sept. 10, 2001” mentality.
“The plan seems to abandon the view that we are involved in a war,” Mr. Mukasey said in remarks to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.
By bringing the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators to New York, the Obama administration risks making the city “the focus of mischief in the form of murder by adherents of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” Mr. Mukasey said.
In addition, he said that trying the defendants in federal court risks disclosure of intelligence secrets.
“I can’t see anything good coming out” of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision, Mr. Mukasey said.
As a federal district judge, Mr. Mukasey presided over the criminal trial stemming from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Although the defendants were convicted, Mr. Mukasey has said the experience persuaded him that federal courts were not equipped to handle sensitive terrorism trials.
Other judges disagree. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who presided over the trial of “millennium bomber” Ahmed Ressam, has said that the federal courts could handle the security requirements of such cases.
Responding to an audience question, Mr. Mukasey said that if the defendants were to be tried anywhere in the U.S., the Southern District of New York, where he once served as chief judge, was the best venue.
“I’m a partisan of the Southern District of New York,” he said. “I know of no jurisdiction” where the prosecutors and judges were better prepared to deal with hardened terror suspects.
Mr. Mukasey, President George W. Bush’s third attorney general, also said he had confidence in the federal lockup in Manhattan, the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
“The MCC is a very secure place,” he said. “They’re not going to escape.”
Write to Jess Bravin at jess.bravin@wsj.com
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