Terrorists on Trial
A University of Chicago law professor and terrorism defense attorney talks about the trickiness of trying terror suspects.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of 9/11, and four of his alleged henchmen are headed for a federal civilian trial in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Recently, a debate has raged over the Obama administration’s decision to try accused terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely reported to have been a key organizer of the 9/11 attacks. The difficulty of charging suspects for allegedly planning terrorist attacks has led the federal government to use morally questionable tactics, according to Aziz Huq, a defense attorney specializing in human rights and national security issues. Huq was part of the legal team defending Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatar-born al-Qaeda operative who reportedly met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and who in April pled guilty in federal court in Illinois to aiding the Sept.11 highjackers. But unlike the Mohammed case, many upcoming terrorism trials involve plots that never came to fruition.
The case of Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-born taxi driver accused of planning terrorist attacks in New York City and traveling to al-Qaeda controlled regions of Pakistan for training, is one matter where Huq urges caution.
“I think that in the Zazi case there’s clearly evidence the government is relying upon, that, if true, would be very serious and would warrant criminal sanction,” against Zazi, Huq says, stressing that the evidence is uncertain before it is played out in court. “I’m quite resistant to the idea that one should pronounce early on the merits of a case when it really isn’t obvious what those merits are.”
There are reasons for Huq’s skepticism. The George W. Bush administration’s prosecutions against accused terrorists like Jose Padilla didn’t hold up over time. Padilla, who was accused of planning a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack using nuclear material, was found guilty on lesser charges. Another case against a terror cell in Miami, known as the Liberty City 7, accused members of conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. The case rested largely on an FBI agent posing as a member of al-Qaeda, leading juries to wonder if the defendants ever intended to carry through with the plot. Ultimately, the defendants’ cases resulted in two mistrials, though later five defendants were convicted (the leader convicted of conspiracy charges and the rest of lesser charges). The sixth defendant is scheduled to be deported to Haiti.
Huq, currently a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, says that, despite pledges from the Obama Administration that it would end objectionable Bush policies in fighting terror, changes from the Bush administration’s approach are hard to spot. “The way Guantanamo-related cases are being prosecuted is very similar to the way they were being prosecuted a year ago,” Huq claims.
Deporting former Guantanamo prisoners to their birth countries, where they could be tortured is an example. The Obama administration, Huq alleges has taken “a very expansive view” of anti-torture laws. He notes a case concerning “an Uzbek guy”—Bekhzod Yusupov—“who’s lived with a bunch of other Uzbek guys, where the evidence against him is stuff from a shared computer, hearsay evidence, really really, weak stuff.” The Department of Homeland Security is relying on this material, Huq says, and could wind up deporting the suspect to a country where dissidents are literally boiled alive.
Federal intelligence agencies are also continuing “transfers made from U.S. custody to the third country for a purpose of detention and interrogation,” a tactic that became common during the Bush administration, Huq says, blaming the Obama administration’s Detention Policy Task Force, which has been charged with releasing or relocating detainees.
“The problem is that he task force on detention, my understanding is, works from a unanimity rule so that no one can be released unless there’s unanimity on the team,” Huq says, which delays the release of those Guantanamo prisoners determined not to be a threat.
Ultimately, if an end to the Bush-era torture regime is to come, the policies described by Huq will have to come to an end.
Dylan Matthews is a staff writer for Campus Progress and a sophomore at Harvard University.
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