During the first months of this year, the embers of a long running legal controversy have reignited in the United States. 'Of all the issues,' Rahm Emanuel was told by the senior Republican senator for South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, 'this is the one that could bring the presidency down.' The 'issue' is whether and where to try several dozen Guantánamo prisoners, in particular Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused of the 9/11 conspiracy. Should they be tried in a military commission or in a federal court? Bush administration lawyers say the obvious solution is not bothering to try them at all, while Senator Graham's view is that it is inappropriate to hold civilian criminal trials for persons suspected of involvement in terrorism.

LRB 13 May 2010 | PDF Download