CNSNews.com Justice Cites Bush Administration as Source for Claim of 300 Terrorists in U.S. Prisons; Senate Still Seeking List of Names

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing a list for members of Congress of the 319 terrorists convicted under the Bush administration serving in U.S. prisons, a department spokesman told CNSNews.com, Wednesday.
 
GOP lawmakers have questioned the assertion from Attorney General Eric Holder that the previous administration sent more than 300 terrorists to U.S. prisons instead of military facilities.
 
Holder has been defending his controversial decision to try the alleged Christmas Day bomber in a civilian court, made after his November 2009 decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) in criminal court instead of a military court.

 
The DOJ referenced a Bush-era document from 2008 that boasts, “(T)hese efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001.”
 
As for the full list of individuals sought by Republican senators, “We’re working on providing it to the Hill with updated statistics,” DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd said in an interview.
 
But the key question is, how comparable are these 300 terror inmates with the detainees that the Obama administration wants to bring into the U.S. prisons, said Stephen Miller, spokesman for the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
 
“This administration supports its argument by repeatedly citing the figure 300 terrorists in civilian custody. Lawmakers, in turn, have repeatedly asked for an explanation of this figure. Who is on the list and what methodology was used to compose it? How many people on the list are foreign al-Qaeda operatives like KSM? How many possessed urgent, timely intelligence about future plots?” Miller told CNSNews.com in a written statement.
 
“But rather than provide answers to the reasonable questions, the administration points to the figures earlier used in a completely different context,” Miller added.
 
The terrorists convicted in civilian courts under the Bush administration were serious threats, said Boyd, who also worked for the Justice Department in the previous administration.
 
“The suggestion that none of the individuals convicted of terrorism or terrorism-related violations in federal court between 2001-2009 were dangerous terrorists, that none were serious al-Qaeda operatives, and that none were comparable to the Christmas bomber is sad distortion of history and the facts,” Boyd told CNSNews.com.
 
Boyd cited examples such as Mohammed Jabarah, sentenced in January 2008 to life by the Southern District of New York for his participation in a plot to bomb U.S. embassies in Singapore and the Philippines; and the November 2005 conviction in the Eastern District Court of Virginia of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali for plotting with al-Qaeda to kill President Bush and plotting to destroy civilian airliners. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
 
“Even a cursory examination of the public record reveals just the opposite,” Boyd said. “Some of the many convicted terrorists that the committee spokesman has apparently deemed inconsequential are an al-Qaeda operative convicted in federal court of plotting to assassinate the U.S. president, an al-Qaeda operative convicted of plotting to bomb two U.S. embassies in Asia, and an al-Qaeda member convicted of plotting to bomb targets in the United States and Europe.”
 
The matter has been a contentious sticking point between Senate Republicans and the Justice Department since Holder’s Feb. 3 letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) defending his decision to charge Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdumutallab in civilian court instead of giving him a military trial.
 
In that letter, Holder asserted the current administration was not departing from the policy of the Bush administration.
 
“In keeping with this policy, the Bush administration used the criminal justice system to convict more than 300 individuals on terrorism related charges,” Holder wrote.
 
Holder had mentioned the 300 number in prior testimony to Congress. Also, President Obama said last May that federal prisons “hold hundreds of convicted terrorists.”
 
Miller, the Senate Republican spokesman, finds this ironic.
 
“This is a remarkable claim given that the previous administration was handling KSM through the military commission process and routinely did the same for capture of al-Qaeda operatives — even detaining Jose Padilla, who was a U.S. citizen, as an unlawful enemy combatant,” Miller’s statement said.
 
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) first asked, in a May 2009 letter, for Holder to identify the names of terrorists held in federal prisons, the details of their crimes and their location. 
 
On Oct. 29, 2009, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich responded to Kyl’s request stating the department “cannot provide you with a list of Bureau of Prison inmates. However, the Department can provide you with briefings about terrorism suspects housed in Federal prisons.”
 
Responding to Kyl’s question about whether their crimes are comparable to the high value detainees in Gitmo, Weich answered, “A number of individuals with a history of, or nexus to, international or domestic terrorism are currently being held in federal prisons, each of whom was tried and convicted in an Article III court.”
 
At a Nov. 18, 2009 Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, asked Holder if he would answer a request made by Kyl. Holder responded, “I will supply you with those 300 names and what they were convicted of. I’ll be glad to do that.”
 
On Nov. 25, 2009, Sessions submitted a written question to Holder that stated: “In your opening testimony, you stated that ‘there are more than 300 convicted international and domestic terrorists currently in Bureau of Prisons custody.’ In response to my question, you stated without reservation that you would provide the details regarding these convictions. Please provide the details regarding each of these convictions, including: (a) the names and dates of the individuals convicted; (b) the offense(s) with which they were charged; (c) the offense(s) for which they were convicted; (d) the sentences imposed; and (e) the year the criminal case was instituted via indictment.’”
 
As of now, the senators do not have the list of names, details of the cases or locations of the prisoners.
 
The document cited by the Justice Department is the “2009 Summary of Request and Key Performance Measures by Strategic Goal.” The document is a report to Congress on the agency’s request for the Fiscal Year 2009 federal budget.
 
“Since 2001, the Department has increased its capacity to investigate terrorism and has identified, disrupted, and dismantled terrorist cells operating in the United States,” the report stated. “These efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after Sept. 11, 2001, and zero terrorist attacks on American soil by foreign nationals from 2003 through 2007. The Department has allocated new resources to the war on terror and in FY 2006 created the National Security Division to further improve our information sharing, coordination, and counterterrorism capacity.”
 
The report to Congress for the Fiscal Year 2009 budget request later says, “Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Department has charged 512 individuals with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes and convicted or obtained guilty pleas in 319 terrorism-related and anti-terrorism cases.”
 
Michael Mukasey was the U.S. attorney general at the time of the request. However, Mukasey could not be reached for comment on this story because he is “quite busy and has a hectic travel schedule,” said Nicole Summer, spokeswoman for the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where Mukasey currently works.