Washington: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin
Laden will never face trial in the United States because he
will not be captured alive, Attorney General Eric Holder told
lawmakers.
During a heated exchange with Republican congressmen,
Holder predicted that "we will be reading Miranda rights to
the corpse of Osama bin Laden" rather than to the US public
enemy number one in captivity.
"Let's deal with reality," the attorney general added.
Bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom."
Holder reacted angrily to Republican critics who say
the attorney general's proposal to try terror suspects in US
federal civilian courts would put Americans at risk.
"They have the same rights that a Charles Manson would
have, any other kind of mass murderer," he told a House
Appropriations subcommittee hearing yesterday.
"The notion that a defendant in an Article III
(civilian) court is somehow being treated in an inappropriate,
special way -- that he's being coddled, is anything but the
truth... These defendants charged with murder are treated just
like any other murder defendant would be."
Republican Representative John Culberson said Holder's
analogy to Manson, a convicted killer, showed President Barack
Obama's administration has a profound disconnect with an
American public that wants the terror suspects to be tried
as war criminals and not as criminal defendants.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 10:11