Our Justice System

Had this case proceeded in Manhattan or in an alternative venue in the United States, as I seriously explored in the last year, I am confident that our justice system could have performed with the same distinction that has been its hallmark for over 200 years. Now, unfortunately, since I made that decision, members of Congress have intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to trial in the United States, regardless of the venue. As the President has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counter-terrorism efforts and could harm our national security.

-- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on his decision to go forward with military tribunals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others accused in the attacks of 11 September 2001, 4 April 2011