Buchanan, Rooney call for military tribunals

SARASOTA – Two Florida congressmen said Monday that suspected terrorists should be tried in military tribunals, not civilian courts.

U.S. Reps. Thomas Rooney, left, and Vern Buchanan are trying to raise support for their bill to require terror suspects to be tried in military courts and not civilian courts.

Speaking in the terminal at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Republican U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan and Thomas Rooney said it's a legal and financial mistake to try terror suspects in civilians courts because classified information might have to be revealed in a civilian trial that could compromise U.S. secrets.

Buchanan represents District 13, while Rooney is the representative for the 16th District, which ranges from south of Port Charlotte and east of Fort Myers to the east coast of the state north of Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter.

It's not a partisan issue, Buchanan said, adding that he hopes to see Democrats vote for his bill, the "Military Tribunals for Terrorists Act" (H.R. 4463). At present, though, the bill has 37 cosponsors, all Republicans.

The trial of Khalid Sheif Mohammed and the other terror suspects in New York City would have cost $1 billion, the city estimated, but the Obama administration is still resisting a call from Republicans and some Democrats to hold the trials in military tribunals, not civilian courts.

"They want to give them their rights, Miranda rights, and then what happens is they get a lawyer, and that can run on for a long period of time, a couple of years," Buchanan said. It makes no sense to spend that kind of money, he added.

He and Rooney are introducing the bill, Buchana said, because of talk of having the trial somewhere else in the U.S. "That's why we introduced this bill, because we think it needs to be done quickly, much more cost-effective, and I think that's what the American people want," he said. "We need to know what they know now," he said of the suspects. "They have contacts and sensitive information that we need."

Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to set his underwear on fire aboard a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, is tied in with al-Qaida, Buchanan said.

"They shouldn't have the same rights as civilians do," he said. "My bill would require terrorists with ties to known terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaida, to be tried by this military court."

Also, the military tribunals will enable the government to keep classified information safe, Buchanan said.

Rooney served more than four years in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps, taught constitutional and criminal law at the U.S. Military Academy and worked as an assistant attorney general.

"I'm honored to be a co-sponsor of this legislation that was proposed at a very timely moment in our history," he said. "For what is showing to be a more and more dangerous world every day."

It was disappointing that President Barack Obama said so little about what's going on overseas, Rooney said.

"We have terrorists that I visited down at Gitmo in Cuba not too long ago that are considered to be tried in the United States," he said. "We don't know where it is now since it's been moved out of New York."

It was Attorney General Eric Holder's call, Rooney said, not the president's, so now "we don't know where we're going."

"This bill provides I think the guidance that we need to get that straight," he said. "Exposing these people to our federal court system and giving them our constitutional rights is a mistake and I think it's a slap in the face of every citizen that calls themselves American."

A military commission can serve due process and bring people to justice, Rooney said, while protecting military sources.

For the first time in their lives, federal judges will be facing situations where evidence was obtained through torture, he said. What would it say about our system, Rooney asked, if someone was acquitted but still thrown in jail.

"We've heard time and time again from the president and the attorney general that we're closing Gitmo because of perception," he said. "So what kind of perceptions does it show when our federal court system intentionally acquits someone but re-imprisons them anyway?"

Civilian courts used

Buchanan said there was a distinction between the "shoe-bomber," Richard Reid, and the more recent suspects.

"It is different," Buchanan said of Reid, "in a sense that he wasn't tied to any terrorist organization. He was crazy, but he wasn't part of al-Qaida and other groups."

Those others who are tied to al-Qaida need to be tried in military courts, he said.

Rooney said, though, that it was a mistake to try Reid in a civilian court because they could have learned of other possible plots.

"It's almost like we're ignoring it," he said of the recent state of the union address. "And that's not going to make the problem go away. Being nice to our enemies or being nice to people doesn't work. You have to show them that we are not going to tolerate the kind of terrorism of our people that they have been consistent about."

Americans would get due process under the bill, Rooney said, but the bill is aimed at foreign nationals affiliated or known to be affiliated with a terrorist organization.

Guantanamo facilities 'state-of-the-art'

Buchanan said that he can't see bringing the Guantanamo inmates to the U.S. for trial because it would cost nearly $100 million up front and $43 million a year to bring them to the country.

The president's new budget has about $200 million in it for the trials, he added.

Rooney said the government has spent $250 million for a "state-of-the-art penitentiary" that's almost equivalent to a state penitentiary.

"We've also spent millions of dollars on a state-of-the-art courtroom that's never been used," he said. "It will never see one trial taking place there. It's capable of holding numerous trials, of being able to accommodate the witnesses that will testify potentially at sentencing, the people that lost loved ones at the World Trade Center."

The facility you see on TV, Rooney said, is not the one he's seen on his latest trips to Guantanamo. The trials can be held there.

"It's not because we can't do it in Gitmo, it's because we're decided not to," he said.

The goal of the president should be to keep Americans safe, Rooney said. "Our main goal as a government is to provide for the general defense of our citizenry," he said.

"These terrorists are not common criminals," Buchanan said. "They are enemies who have declared war on America."