AG defends civilian trial for 9/11 suspects

The nation’s chief law enforcement officer pivoted from the senators who had challenged him all morning and stood to face unexpected queries from a gathering of family members who lost loved ones in the Al Qaeda attacks eight years ago.

In quiet yet persistent tones, Alice Hoagland of Los Gatos, Calif., told Holder that she took “great exception to your decision to give short shrift to military commissions.’’

“I can’t help feeling that it does make New York City a much more dangerous place and a target,’’ said Hoagland, who pinned a white ribbon and a large button honoring her son Mark Bingham to her muted purple suit.

Bingham perished in a field near Shanksville, Pa., one of four passengers credited with helping rush the cockpit of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93. “We are heartsick and weary of the endless machinations,’’ his mother said.

Holder, who earlier had reacted with flashes of steely irritation and amusement throughout the debate with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ratcheted down his demeanor to a brief and respectful conversation with family members.

The attorney general sought to reassure Hoagland that there was evidence, not yet made public, that makes federal court the best place to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. “I guess what I’m saying is, ‘Trust me,’ ’’ he said quietly, as reporters and security staff crowded around the pair.

“I will trust you. I will defer judgment,’’ said Hoagland.

Overall, views among the families and the survivors of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks remain mixed. Several retired firefighters, widows, and parents took to the airwaves last week and pledged support for the civilian trials. They expressed satisfaction that they could finally watch the efforts to secure justice on American soil.

The encounter with grief-stricken relatives, however, punctuated an emotional debate that has only just begun and is likely to rage for years, through the eventual trials of Mohammed and other detainees held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, uniformly praised the Obama Justice Department for “bringing justice to the murderers and the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks’’ and for signaling that “we can rely on the American justice system.’’

But conservative opposition ran hot against the move. While senior GOP lawmakers acknowledge they lack the votes to prevent the administration from importing detainees for trial, they registered their concern in voices loud and impassioned.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, a former military lawyer whose national security views win respect in the Obama White House even though they do not always find agreement there, blasted the Justice Department for taking steps that he says will confuse military commanders and blur the lines between armed conflict and law enforcement.

“Can you give me a case where an enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court? We’re making history here and we’re making bad history,’’ Graham said. “The big problem I have is that you’re criminalizing the war.’’

Holder said he is certain the men will be convicted, but even if a suspect were acquitted, “that doesn’t mean that person would be released into our country.’’

“I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is,’’ he told the panel. “I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial - and no one else needs to be, either.’’

President Obama, in a series of TV interviews yesterday during his trip to Asia, also firmly rejected the criticism. He said experienced prosecutors who specialize in terrorism are confident that “we’ll convict this person with the evidence they’ve got, going through our system.’’

Material from the Associated Press was also used in this report.