GOP Critics Blast Obama Administration Decision to Try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City

ABC News' Kristina Wong reports: The president is still in Asia, but his critics at home had plenty to sharpen their barbs over this weekend.

Critics including Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin ripped into the administration's decision to try alleged 9/11-mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in federal court in New York City, calling it insufficent, unsafe and insensitive.

Meanwhile, White House officials walked-back the president's promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by January 22, but said "progress" was being made.  And speaking from Singapore, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the president's highly-anticipated Afghanistan strategy decision, but offered that the U.S. threatened to withhold civilian aid from Afghan President Hamid Kharzai if he was unwilling to undertake government reform against corruption.

9/11 Trial in New York City: Ripping Open Wounds, or Part of Healing?

Giuliani, a possible contender for the 2010 New York gubernatorial race, criticized the administration's decision to try five 9/11 terror suspects in New York City federal court, saying that prosecuting war criminals in a civilian court was insufficient to preventing future attacks.

"[Mohammed] should be tried in a military tribunal.  He is a war criminal.  This was an act of war.  We made this mistake once before in 1993," Giuliani said on "Fox News Sunday", referring to the 1993 World Trade Center attack. "We didn't read the intentions correctly.  And then we ended up with three more attacks on American soldiers and the attack of September 11th."

Giuliani also argued it benefitted the suspects, and gave in to Mohammed's request to be tried in New York.

"This gives all the benefits to the terrorist and much less benefits to the public.  And finally, we are — we are doing what he wants us to do," Giuliani said. "His wish was to be brought to New York.  It really makes no sense to me to be granting him his wish," said Giuliani.

Giuliani also called the decision was unsafe.

"It's an unnecessary risk to the city of New York, which already has any number of risks," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." Giuliani said during the trials of the 1993 World Trade Center attackers, he had to close areas around the federal courthouse and city hall, on the advice of the FBI and the city police department. He added it would cost New York million of dollars for the additional security.

Giuliani said in 2006 he supported the civilian court trial of the "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui in Virginia because there was no other alternative.

"The reality is there is another alternative here.  And this administration has created tribunals.  At least five, possibly more, terrorists are going to be tried in those tribunals," he said.

Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra argued the trial would allow the suspects to spread their ideology.

"We're going to go back into New York City, the scene of the tragedy on 9/11. We're now going to rip that wound wide open and it's going to stay open for, what, two, three, four years as we go through the circus of a trial in New York City?" Hoekstra said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"They wanted center stage, and they're going to want to keep it for as long as they can," Hoekstra said. "They're going to do everything they can to disrupt it and make it a circus, and allow them to use it as a platform to push their ideology."

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin weighed in on the debate Friday afternoon on her Facebook page, calling the decision insensitive.

"Thousands of American families have suffered through the loss of loved ones because of the disgusting attacks launched against the United States, and now this trial venue adds insult to injury," she wrote.

"It will also be an insult to the victims of 9/11, as Mohammed will no doubt use the opportunity to spew his hateful rhetoric in the same neighborhood in which he ruthlessly cut down the lives of so many Americans," she added.

Yet, Democrats defended the decision.

"Particularly the sheikh, Mohammed, wants to be considered a holy warrior, a jihadist. If we try him before military officers, that image of a soldier will be portrayed by the Islamic community.  That's not the image we want.  These are heinous murderers," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., on FOX.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the administration was by no means going easy on the terror suspects.

"I don't think Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be in prison.  I think Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ought be put to death.  And that's clearly what the administration is saying, the attorney general of the United States is saying he will go for the death penalty against Sheikh Mohammed," Conrad said on CNN.

And Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said it was important to set an example for the rest of the world.

"We have systems that work.  We're not afraid of these people.  We're ready to stand up to them.  I don't think we should run and hide and cower.  Let's use our system.  And let's convict them," Leahy said on CBS.

Nevertheless, a senior White House adviser seemed to distance the president from the decision.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said the decision was "the appropriate thing to do," but emphasized that it was a decision made by Attorney General Holder "in concert with the Secretary of Defense."

"The president was informed of the attorney general's decision and his reasoning for the decision.  This was a decision for the attorney general to make, in concert with the Secretary of Defense," he said on CNN.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to state her personal view on the decision.

"This is a decision that the attorney general, the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense have made after extensive, exhaustive review," she said on ABC's "This Week."

"The attorney general determined, after consulting with veteran prosecutors, that this was a case that appropriately can be brought in our federal courts.  Other cases will be brought in the military commissions.  I'm not going to second-guess the attorney general," she said.

White House on GITMO: We're Making Progress

President Obama had promised to close the Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) detention facility by January 22, 2010, but Holder said meeting that deadline would be difficult.

"It's going to be difficult to close the facility by January the 22nd.  And one of the things that I think is most problematic in that regard is trying to relocate the people who are going to be approved for transfer," Holder said at a news conference on Friday.

On Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said he would not put a deadline on GITMO's actual closure.

"We believe we are going to substantially meet the deadline.  We may not hit it on the date, but we will close Guantanamo.  And we are making good progress toward doing that," Axelrod said on CNN.

"I'm not going to put a deadline on it," Axelrod reiterated. "But we are going to get it done.  We are moving toward getting it done in all the different dimensions that are necessary to get it done.  The president believes it is important to get it done and to end this chapter in our history.  And we are going to get it done."

Axelrod's statements came after the White House's chief counsel in charge of closing the detention facility, Greg Craig, announced his resignation on Friday after claims he was struggling with the closure. ABC News' Jake Tapper reported Friday that administration officials were considering purchasing a prison 150 miles outside of Chicago, to house GITMO detainees.

Clinton echoed Axelrod's comments on GITMO's closure.

"We are making progress," Clinton said on ABC. "We have a dedicated group led by Ambassador Dan Fried, who has literally traveled the world making arrangements for detainees to be transferred to countries willing to accept them."

Obama Doesn't 'Get' War on Terror

Closing GITMO has been a long-time objective of the Obama administration in its efforts to boost the U.S.'s reputation abroad. However, Giuliani said the president didn't "get" that he was fighting a war on terror.

"I think they think that somehow this is going to increase our reputation overseas.  I think it's part of a whole package of the president not seeing the war on terror," Giuliani said on FOX.

"This whole thing with Major Hasan is another indication that he doesn't get it.  He doesn't get the fact that there is an Islamic war against us," Giuliani said.

He also criticized the president's Afghanistan strategy decision-making process.

"He has delayed inordinately in making this decision about the war strategy in Afghanistan when, in fact, he criticized President Bush for not paying enough attention to Afghanistan.  The delay there is political strategy, not war strategy," he said.

Secretary Clinton defended the president's decision-making process.

"What he's been doing in the last weeks is testing every single assumption, asking for evidence, asking for dissenting opinions," Clinton said.

"I understand that there will be people who are maybe critical or unconvinced or not persuaded.  But I think the majority of Americans will know that this president has gone the extra mile, in fact, more than that, to make sure that whatever decision he makes is in the best interest of our country, that it is aimed at making our country more secure and supporting our men and women in uniform as they fulfill the mission."

While Secretary Clinton declined to comment on the president's pending strategy decision in Afghanistan, she discussed a caveat given to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"I have made it clear that we're not going to be providing any civilian aid to Afghanistan unless we have the certification that if it goes into the Afghan government in any form, that we're going to have ministries that we can hold accountable. 

"We are expecting there to be a major crimes tribunal, an anti-corruption commission established and functioning, because there does have to be actions by the government of Afghanistan against those who have taken advantage of the money that has poured into Afghanistan in the last eight years, so that we can better track it and we can have actions taken that demonstrate there's no impunity for those who are corrupt."

The Secretary also narrowly defined U.S. goals in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region, and had no interest in staying or "long-term stake" in Afghanistan.

"We want to do everything we can to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaida," she said. "Our goal is very clear.  We want to get the people who attacked us, and we want to prevent them and their syndicate of terrorism from posing a threat to us, our allies and our interests."

Palin Theoretically Invites Clinton for Coffee, Clinton Theoretically Accepts

On a different note, Clinton said she was fully committed to her job, rejecting rumors she was considering a run for New York Governor in 2010.

"That's another one of those stories that never will die, and I hope maybe we can put it to rest today.  No, I am committed to the job that I have.  It is an extraordinarily important time to be the secretary of state of my country and to work with President Obama in trying to pursue our interests and advance our values around the world, and that's what I am going to continue doing," Clinton said on ABC.

"That rumor is dead.  And if you can please, you know, put it in a little box and send it off somewhere, I'd appreciate it," she joked.

Clinton had a chance to apply her diplomatic skills when prompted to comment on Sarah Palin's new book "Going Rogue", where Palin writes she was wrong to criticize Clinton for "whining," and that the media was biased against her.
 
Palin reportedly writes in her book: "Should Secretary Clinton and I ever sit down over a cup of coffee, I know that we will fundamentally disagree on many issues.  But my hat is off to her hard work on the 2008 campaign trail.  A lot of her supporters think she proved what Margaret Thatcher proclaimed: If you want something said, ask a man.  If you want something done, ask a woman."

"Well, you know, I've never met her," Clinton said. "And look, I'd look forward to sit down and talk with her.  Obviously, we're going to hear a lot more from her in the upcoming weeks with her book coming out, and I would look forward to having a chance to actually get to meet her."

On the question of whether the media was fair to Palin, Clinton replied she would leave the answer for her own book, if she should write another one.