White House press
secretary Jay Carney says Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev will not be charged as an enemy combatant but instead face
trial in a federal court.
QUESTION: Some Senate Republicans -- lastly, Jay -- are
saying that the Boston suspect should be treated like an enemy
combatant. Is that something that you guys have looked at or made a
determination on?
MR. CARNEY: He will not be treated as an enemy combatant. We will
prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice. Under
U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be tried in military
commissions. And it is important to remember that since 9/11, we have
used the federal court system to convict and incarcerate hundreds of
terrorists. The effective use of the criminal justice system has
resulted in the interrogation, conviction and detention of both U.S.
citizens and noncitizens for acts of terrorism committed inside the
United States and around the world.
The system has repeatedly proven that it can successfully handle the
threat that we continue to face. And there are a number of examples of
this -- high-profile: the Times Square Bomber, Faisal Shahzad, pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. Abdulmutallab, the
so-called Underwear Bomber, was sentenced to life in prison. Warsame, a
Somali national who was a member of Al Shabaab and has close
associations with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is now currently in
this system and we have acquired valuable intelligence from him through
the process that is allowed in the system.
So this is absolutely the right way to go and the appropriate way to go.
And when it comes to United States citizens, it is against the law to
try them in military commissions.
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