Trial of 9/11 suspects in federal court helps improve U.S. image in Muslim world, says CFR expert

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. expert said on Wednesday that trying accused mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks in federal court would help improve U.S. image in the Muslim world.

Steven Simon, adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), said at a media conference titled "Trial of Accused 9/11 Terrorists" that the trial is "a chance to show the world the evil, for lack of a better word, of the people" who masterminded the terror attacks on the New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's important with a view toward influencing a Muslim audience that seems slowly and haltingly to be coming round to theview that killing civilians is the wrong way to protect and defend the interests that they see as besieged by the West," said Simon.

The Obama administration said on Friday that it would prosecute Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks, and other four detainees in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay of Cuba, in a Manhattan federal courtroom, a decision that ignited a sharp political and public debate.

Simon and another CFR adjunct senior fellow John B. Bellinger both support the Obama administration's decision, arguing that it gives the United States the opportunity to demonstrate globally the administration's commitment to fair trials for detainees.

The election of Obama has been viewed as a break from the past, said Simon, adding that "a public trial ... will draw a similar bright line underneath this change in administration."

Bellinger noted two ideological arguments over where Guantanamo detainees should be tried. One is that all detainees should be tried by military commissions according to the laws of war. The other is that from a human rights perspective they should be tried in federal courts regardless of where they are captured.

Bellinger supported a "hybrid model," saying that Mohammed's case is similar to that of other high-profile terrorists who were tried in federal courts for "violating federal and criminal law."

Bellinger also stressed that federal courts are better prepared to handle Mohammed's trial because the prosecutors are more familiar with cases involving murder on a mass scale. "Federal prosecutors who actually do have a lot of experience in this area will be in the lead," he added.

Both men strongly disagreed with the arguments that the trial in New York could allow intelligence breaches, emphasizing that federal courts were prepared to deal with classified information.