Holder Says Bin Laden Won’t Be Captured Alive
Attorney General Eric Holder told a House subcommittee on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden would have the same rights as any accused murderer if he were tried in an American courtroom—but in reality a trial will never occur.
Holder said Bin Laden won’t be tried because he won’t be captured alive, according to stories in the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post and the National Law Journal.
“Let’s deal with the reality here,” Holder said. “The reality is we will be reading Miranda rights to a corpse.”
Bin Laden “will be killed by us or he will be killed by his own people so that he is not captured alive,” he said.
Holder is facing increasing criticism from Republicans who accuse him of being weak on national security. He told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science that he still hasn’t decided where to try accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but he still has the authority to make the decision.
Holder said he would decide the venue in consultation with President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the NLJ says.
