International records / Internet Archive

Torture, tribunals and the death penalty

Well, it seems utterly opportunistic to me. Mohammed al-Khatani, our client, has been in Guantanamo six years. This could have happened before. They had commissions set up before. And it looks to me like in a broad way that the Republicans want to make the Democrats appear weak on issues of national security and themselves to appear strong. So they come out and say, "Look it, we've captured the 9/11 guys. We're going to put them on trial." And you have the Democrats saying, "Well, we don't think these trials are fair." And so the public perception, at least the ones the Republicans hope for, i…