Op-Ed: News For The Ninth

Op-Ed

Op-Ed: News For The Ninth

As we approach the 68th remembrance of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, and having just observed the eighth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, Americans of all ages are very much aware of the potential threats against our homeland.

This awareness is part of the American condition, which is why I am concerned by the administration's recent decision to bring self-confessed 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees to New York City to face trial in civilian court.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his cohorts perpetrated an act of war and should be prosecuted in a war tribunal instead of being returned to the scene of his horrific crime to be tried by our citizens' federal court system. This dangerous decision proves once again that this administration incorrectly believes that the 9-11 attacks were simply a crime rather than an act of war against our nation. Simply put, these killers should not benefit from a legal system created to protect Americans; they are war criminals whose only recourse is through a war crimes tribunal. Allowing them access to our court system allows them access to our covert military operations and intelligence gathering.

The Obama administration is making very serious decisions about Guantanamo Bay without any sort of plan or realization that bringing these terrorists to our country poses serious security threats to the American people. We have to only remember the bombing of the USS Cole, attacks on our embassies in Africa and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to see that terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed have been ruthless in their desire to destroy innocent life and break the will and resolve of the United States.

As your representative in Congress, I am supporting the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act, which will ensure the terrorists held in the Guantanamo Bay prison are not imported into the United States and makes clear that governors and state legislators must pre-approve the transfer or release of any terrorist detainee into their respective states. It also requires the President to meet strict criteria and certification standards before any individual detained at the Guantanamo prison could be brought to the United States.

We must learn from history. And we dare not forget that today's terrorists, like the Imperial Japanese before them, declared war on our nation in the form of a secret and unprovoked attack against our homeland. Today's terrorists must be tried as enemy combatants because this remains a real War on Terror that we are continuing to fight in other lands.

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