WASHINGTON, March 17, (Agencies): Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers on Tuesday.
During a heated exchange with Republican congressmen, Holder predicted that “we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden” rather than to the US public enemy number one in captivity. “Let’s deal with reality,” the attorney general added. Bin Laden “will never appear in an American courtroom.” Holder reacted angrily to Republican critics who say the attorney general’s proposal to try terror suspects in US federal civilian courts would put Americans at risk.

“They have the same rights that a Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer,” he told a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “The notion that a defendant in an Article III (civilian) court is somehow being treated in an inappropriate, special way — that he’s being coddled, is anything but the truth... These defendants charged with murder are treated just like any other murder defendant would be.” Republican Representative John Culberson said Holder’s analogy to Manson, a convicted killer, showed President Barack Obama’s administration has a profound disconnect with an American public that wants the terror suspects to be tried as war criminals and not as criminal defendants.

“My constituents and I just have a deep-seeded and profound philosophical difference with the Obama administration, the Department of Justice, the leadership of this Congress,” the Texas Republican said.
“This is war, and in time of war, we as a nation have never given constitutional rights to foreign nationals, enemy soldiers, certainly captured overseas.” The hearing came as the Obama administration’s plans to try the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his alleged co-conspirators on trial in New York have been put on hold.

Mounting opposition from local politicians, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has led the White House to reconsider, and it is now looking at trying the men in a military tribunal.
Holder said a decision was weeks and not months away.
Democratic Representative Chaka Fattah, meanwhile, complained that politicians were too “cowardly” to hold a civilian trial in New York, just steps away from where the World Trade Center once stood.
“It doesn’t befit a great nation to hesitate or equivocate on the question of following our own laws and the impulse to justice,” he said.
The top US commander in Afghanistan also said Wednesday that it remains the goal of US troops to capture Osama bin Laden alive and “bring him to justice.”

The comment by Gen Stanley McChrystal to reporters was in contrast to remarks made a day earlier by Attorney General Eric Holder.
Bin Laden’s whereabouts have longed vexed US officials. But his elusive status has recently taken on new meaning as President Barack Obama pushes to try suspected terrorists in civilian courts instead of more secretive military tribunals.
Congressional Republicans are pushing back by saying that bin Laden and others like him should not be given the same rights as US citizens.
Holder said in House testimony that terrorists would not be given any more rights than serial killers like Charles Manson. He also dismissed the example of bin Laden being given access to US courts as a red herring in the debate.

“Let’s deal with reality,” Holder said. “The reality is that we will be reading (constitutional)rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.”
When McChrystal was asked whether the US had given up on capturing bin Laden alive, he said, “Wow, no.”
If bin Laden enters Afghanistan, “we would certainly go after trying to capture him alive and bring him to justice,” McChrystal told Pentagon reporters from Kabul.
“I think that is something that is understood by everyone,” he said.
The comparison to convicted killer Manson angered Rep. John Culberson, a Republican, who said it showed the Obama administration does not understand the American public’s desire to treat terrorists as wartime enemies, not criminal defendants.

“My constituents and I just have a deep-seated and profound philosophical difference with the Obama administration,” Culberson said.
Holder, his voice rising, charged that Culberson’s arguments ignored basic facts about the law and the fight against terrorists.
Pressed further on that point, Holder said: “The possibility of catching him alive is infinitesimal. He will be killed by us or he will be killed by his own people so he can’t be captured by us.”
Much of the hearing centered around the Obama administration’s stalled plan to put the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on trial. Last year, Holder announced the trial would take place in federal civilian court in New York City, not far from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.

In the face of resistance from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other local politicians, that plan was shelved and the White House is now considering putting KSM and four alleged co-conspirators into a military commission trial.
Rep Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat, bemoaned what he called a “cowardly” desire to avoid a civilian terror trial in a major city.
If a terrorist had killed thousands of Philadelphians, Fattah said, “we would expect him to come to Philadelphia” to face trial “if he would live long enough.”
“It doesn’t befit a great nation to hesitate or equivocate on the question of following our own laws,” he said.