US & World News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Attorney General Eric Holder is telling senators "failure is not an option" when it comes to the prosecution of professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder has been explaining his decision to bring Mohammed and four other terror suspects from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay to federal court in Manhattan for a civilian trial.

Asked about the possibility of an acquittal, Holder stated: "These are cases that have to be won." But he added if any of the five are acquitted, they will not be released in the United States.

Sen. Jon Kyl challenged the wisdom of Holder's decision to bring the case to civilian courts. Noting that Mohammed had sought to plead guilty before a military commission, the Arizona Republican drew applause when he asked: "How could he be more likely to get a conviction than that?"

Holder responded that the decision on how to prosecute the case would not be based "on the whims or the desires of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."

Critics of Holder's decision - mostly Republicans - have argued the trial will give Mohammed a world stage to spout hateful rhetoric.

In remarks prepared before Wednesday's hearing, Holder says such concerns are misplaced, because judges can control unruly defendants and any pronouncements by Mohammed would only make him look worse.

"I have every confidence the nation and the world will see him for the coward he is," Holder says in written testimony obtained by The Associated Press. "I'm not scared of what (Mohammed) will have to say at trial - and no one else needs to be either."

Addressing other concerns about the case, the attorney general says the public and the nation's intelligence secrets can be protected during a public trial in civilian court.

"We need not cower in the face of this enemy," Holder says. "Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready."

Holder announced Friday that five accused Sept. 11 conspirators currently held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be transferred to federal court in Manhattan to face trial - just blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center.

Five other suspects, Holder said, will be sent to face justice before military commissions in the United States, though a location for those commissions has not yet been determined.

The actual transfer of the suspects to New York is still many weeks away. The transfers are a key step in President Barack Obama's pledge to close the detention center at Guantanamo, which currently houses some 215 detainees. The administration is not expected to meet its January deadline to shutter the facility.

The president, traveling in China Wednesday, echoed Holder's comments about the New York trial.

"I think this notion that we have to be fearful that these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake," Obama said in an interview with CNN.

In addition to the ten detainees named Friday, Holder is expected to send others to trials and commissions in the United States.

Another, larger group of detainees is expected to be released to other countries. Some, the president has said, are too dangerous to be released and cannot be put on trial, and those detainees will continue to be imprisoned.

The attorney general says his decisions between trials and commissions were based strictly on which venues he thought would bring the strongest prosecution.

Opponents of the plan, including Holder's predecessor Michael Mukasey, have accused him of adopting a "pre-9/11" approach to terrorism.

Holder emphatically denies that.

"We are at war, and we will use every instrument of national power - civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic and others - to win," Holder says.

Meanwhile, comments made by an Arizona congressman towards New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has received a lot of attention, so much so, he's apologizing to the billionaire mayor.

Congressman John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) on the House floor criticized the decision to hold Mohammed's terror trial in Manhattan federal court.

"I saw the mayor of New York City today. He said, 'we're tough, we can do it.' Well mayor, how are you going to feel when it's your daughter that's kidnapped at school by a terrorist? How are you going to feel when it's some clerk, some innocent clerk of the court whose daughter or son is kidnapped?"

Mayor Bloomberg supports the trial decision. Local Queens Congressman Anthony Weiner ripped into Shadegg.

"For any member of this House to suggest that somehow to support the decision to have a trial would jeopardize family members of the mayor of the city of New York is outrageous. That member knows who he is. That member should apologize. That member should then be quiet," said Weiner on the floor of the House on Tuesday.

On the heels of that tongue lashing and other criticism, Shadegg is now saying he's sorry, sort of. In an emailed statement, he wrote:
"I apologize for the insensitivity of my remarks with respect to the mayor or his family, however, I think it's important to note that this decision involves risk to innocent people."

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