[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5026]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             GUANTANAMO BAY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, amidst all the other business we will 
be facing this week, I wish to note a welcome development in the war on 
terror. For the last 2 years, the Obama administration has actively 
sought to bring the 9/11 plotters into our communities for civilian 
trials, a completely horrible idea that rightly drew overwhelming 
bipartisan opposition from the American people and from their elected 
Representatives here in Congress. Today, the administration is 
announcing it has changed course. The administration, incredibly 
enough, today is announcing it has changed course and that Khalid 
Shaikh Mohammed and the others who plotted these horrible attacks will 
be tried in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay rather than in a 
civilian trial in New York or some other U.S. city.
  I remember all of our discussions on this issue over the last 2 
years. The President issued an Executive order on day 1 to close 
Guantanamo. He indicated they were going to mainstream these terrorists 
into the U.S. court system, so this change today is truly a welcome 
development, the administration announcing that KSM and the others who 
plotted these crimes will be tried in a proper jurisdiction, these 
military commissions, at the proper place for these commission trials, 
Guantanamo Bay. This is the right outcome to the long and spirited 
debate that preceded this decision. Military commissions at Guantanamo, 
far from the U.S. mainland, were always the right idea for a variety of 
compelling reasons which I and others have enumerated repeatedly over 
the last years. For the sake of the safety and the security of the 
American people, I am glad the President reconsidered his position on 
how and where to try these detailees. Going forward, this model should 
be the rule rather than the exception. I am sure this decision will 
draw widespread approval and it is very welcome news.

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