[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 17 (Thursday, February 4, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CASH FOR COURTROOMS

  (Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Remember September 11, 2001? Two 
planes hit the World Trade Center. One plane crashed into the Pentagon 
and another was stopped from hitting its targets in Washington by the 
brave action of its passengers. All together, thousands died--civilians 
and soldiers--in that terrorist attack of war.
  Now, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of this 
act, and his four co-conspirators are to be tried for this act. But the 
administration wants to take them out of the detention facility at the 
Navy base Guantanamo and try them in a civilian court, not a military 
court. To sweeten the deal, the administration is offering $200 million 
in a cash for courtrooms deal.
  No amount of Federal funds can compensate for the risk this trial 
would place on the people of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or any 
other State that would seem to have jurisdiction. This unnecessarily 
jeopardizes the safety of the citizens, the jurors, and the judges in 
those communities.
  Mohammed and his coconspirators should be tried not in a civilian 
court for the terrorist acts of war. The American people get it. They 
want them to be judged by a military court. Why doesn't Washington get 
it, too?

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